"The Sport of Kings Is Full of Scum"

[Milkshaker]

I enjoy reading Vice magazine, but notice they tilt far off kilter (oversensationalized) when it comes to covering scandal in sports.

I am all for reading well-researched pieces about cheating, but this is quite a piss-poor job of slapping together generalized headlines from decades ago and weaving it into a sort-of-recent "story" that allegedly reveals skullduggery.

The writer at several times in the story refers to himself as "a horse-racing journalist for nearly 40 years...I’ve become an expert in analyzing suspicious races," yet I've never heard of the author. Anyone familiar with John Swenson?

http://www.vice.com/read/the-sport-of-kings-is-full-of-scum-0000168-v20n12

Pieces like this only drag down all the better-thought-out racing exposes that occasionally get written.

[notoutofpounds]

:ThmbDown: :ThmbDown: :ThmbDown:

Quite an underwhelming story as the title implies Horse Racing is currently and always full of skulduggery yet with two oddball exceptions his dusty examples are all set in the :1: :9: :7: 0's :bang: :bang: :bang:

[the little guy]

John Swenson is very well known, just not as much in racing, though he has worked as a racing writer for many years. I would guess he is much better know for writing about rock n' roll.

[horses4courses]

he is much better known for writing about rock n' roll.

...and we all know there's no scum in that business :rolleyes:

[HUSKER55]

you mean...there is? :confused: :)

[Greyfox]

The author overgeneralizes and paints a black picture of the racing game.
Having said that there are still plenty of cheaters (chemists) in racing, who seem to stay ahead of the curve of being able to catch them.
Then of course when some are caught red handed with snake venom or whatever, they are given a short suspension and return. Or worse yet, they appear at another circuit and continue their shennanigans.

[Dave Schwartz]

As much as I hate to say it, compared to other sports and gambling alternatives, racing really is pretty black.

[wiffleball whizz]

Scum of the earth on all fronts.....between the filth owners trainers degenerate gamblers and general condition of racetracks it averages out to bottom of the barrel....

[Relwob Owner]

Scum of the earth on all fronts.....between the filth owners trainers degenerate gamblers and general condition of racetracks it averages out to bottom of the barrel....


Filth owners and trainers????? There are bad apples in every business but the majority of owners and trainers I know in the game are pretty good people.

[Rex Phinney]

Anybody paying attention to the chemists in baseball?

I bet the locker rooms in the NFL are clean as a whistle. LOL

Another clueless guy writing an article no one will read.

I'm the first to admit horse racing has its demons, but the path to fixing it doesn't start with doom and gloom

[wiffleball whizz]

Filth owners and trainers????? There are bad apples in every business but the majority of owners and trainers I know in the game are pretty good people.

Not people like you who I'm sure are good people....

The owners I have a problem with are the ones that hand off a bunch of horses and will call and ask there friends "I can't get in trouble if the trainer gets busted" it's totally "**** the horse as long as I get rich"

When I say filth owners I mean that 80 percent...the other 20 is the owners who look down at the bettors like there 9th class citizens...

[Relwob Owner]

Not people like you who I'm sure are good people....

The owners I have a problem with are the ones that hand off a bunch of horses and will call and ask there friends "I can't get in trouble if the trainer gets busted" it's totally "**** the horse as long as I get rich"

When I say filth owners I mean that 80 percent...the other 20 is the owners who look down at the bettors like there 9th class citizens...


OK-so 80 percent are filth and the other 20 percent look down at bettors? It is clear you don't know many owners or trainers.

[nijinski]

This is all old news that has been reported before .

Times have changed ,videos are available , betting patterns or
unusual payouts would be under scrutiny . I can't see this happening
now at major circuits , RD , I wouldn't touch .

It sounds like the guy won't let go of some bad mistakes of the past
he lost of his shirt on .
I personally believe there are plenty of good folks in the business..
The bad ones eventually get exposed .

[thaskalos]

This is all old news that has been reported before .

Times have changed ,videos are available , betting patterns or
unusual payouts would be under scrutiny . I can't see this happening
now at major circuits , RD , I wouldn't touch .

It sounds like the guy won't let go of some bad mistakes of the past
he lost of his shirt on .
I personally believe there are plenty of good folks in the business..
The bad ones eventually get exposed .

I think the truth lies somewhere between what you say here and what Swenson states in his article.

While Swenson is clearly overstating the problems within the game...you are erring to the other extreme, in my opinion.

"Bad mistakes"?

[nijinski]

I think the truth lies somewhere between what you say here and what Swenson states in his article.

While Swenson is clearly overstating the problems within the game...you are erring to the other extreme, in my opinion.

"Bad mistakes"?

You are right , I should exclude some from that statement including
Dr Gerard . I think some of the jocks got mixed up with the wrong people .
Some certainly didn't need an extra pay off . How intimidating was the mob?

[thaskalos]

You are right , I should exclude some from that statement including
Dr Gerard . I think some of the jocks got mixed up with the wrong people .
Some certainly didn't need an extra pay off . How intimidating was the mob?

I have never messed with mobsters...so I don't know how intimidating they can get in their "business dealings". But I do know that it's not a reassuring thing to see some of the brightest names in our game implicated in mob-orchestrated cheating scandals.

You also said in your post that "the bad people in this business eventually get exposed".

Sadly...I haven't found that to be the case.

[dkithore]

Money, prestige and power.
small operators opt for the first.
Top operators (like Dubai sheikhs) look for prestige and
Those in the middle look for a combination of all three, imo.

If either the racing industry or government does not police itself and let's big owners get off the hook we are screwed.

Owners get off with some bad publicity whereas the trainer pays small fines for drugs and like (examples, Snowden in Australia fined 10,000) and Zarooni in England lost his license there, a fitting punishment IMO, both employees of Dubai Sheikhs who promotes racing all over the world.

Perhaps, one cheater (offender) is caught for every nine that run free. That is a reality.

[Robert Goren]

He is actually understating the problem. We as bettors like to fool ourselves into believing that most of the product is clean while at same time looking diligently for ways to smell out the shenanigans. The hypocrisy of the average horse player is second only to that of a "reform" politician.

[1st time lasix]

As a player---I see it this way:.. Nearly every day handicappers who play multi-race exotics must decide what to do with an entry from a trainer's barn that we know has a record of drug infractions. I am sure you can fill in the blank_____ of the names from coast to coast. Four or five roll off my tongue without even thinking. Some cheaters are known and many go undetected. Far too often the handicapping isn't about the actual horse and rider...it is determining if the trainer/vet has provided "the juice" or not. So until the testing and enforcement gets much stonger---the "scum" he refers to exists. I wish it wasn't so....but i am not naive.

[aaron]

Interesting side bar to the switching of the horses identity is that the" Sheets' had the horse on a positive pattern and if memory serves me correct,they had the triple and made a big hit on this race. I believe they were called into the investigation and had to explain how they came up with this horse.

[dilanesp]

I don't think anyone should be surprised by the fact that bad people are attracted to vocations that involve gambling. It's a reality, it's a reason our sport requires serious regulation, and it coexists with the great beauty and fun of horse racing.

[dilanesp]

Interesting side bar to the switching of the horses identity is that the" Sheets' had the horse on a positive pattern and if memory serves me correct,they had the triple and made a big hit on this race. I believe they were called into the investigation and had to explain how they came up with this horse.

Yep. It's Len Ragozin's favorite story.

[nijinski]

I have never messed with mobsters...so I don't know how intimidating they can get in their "business dealings". But I do know that it's not a reassuring thing to see some of the brightest names in our game implicated in mob-orchestrated cheating scandals.

You also said in your post that "the bad people in this business eventually get exposed".

Sadly...I haven't found that to be the case.

I want to look into this , I don't recall implications on some of the jocks named .

[nijinski]

Out-of-work turf writer (there's a lot of those) desperate to write something that people will read. Pathetic.

He pretty much got his story from Sports Illustrated , the trials were
written about and are in SI vault .

Jose Amy and Con Errico were done , Errico went to prison and Amy was
banned . All the success he had here was over . Vasquez was banned for
a year . Other top riders from NY were not convicted . During that same era
in the 70's several Md jocks went to prison too . I think the message got
out there that you will get caught and there is a price to pay .

[devilsbag]

http://articles.latimes.com/1985-04-20/sports/sp-21849_1_jacinto-vasquez

What isn't mentioned in the article is the Lousiana Derby in which Vasquez and Maple wound up in a photo. The footnotes are missing from the chart, but they didn't exchange pleasantries during the stretch run.

http://www.fairgroundsracecourse.com/sites/fairgroundsracecourse.com/files/u2122/1985.jpg

[proximity]

Scum of the earth on all fronts.....between the filth owners trainers degenerate gamblers and general condition of racetracks it averages out to bottom of the barrel....

degenerate gamblers????? there are bad apples in every business but the majority of the gamblers I know in the game are pretty good people. :)

[chadk66]

I don't understand why gamblers that throw such a fit over what they call bad owners or trainers bother to continue to be gamblers. doesn't make any sense. They must continue because they're either addicted or think they are going to pull one over on the bad owners or trainers. It would be like continuing to buy cars from the crappy car dealer that continually sells you crappy cars.

[magwell]

I don't understand why gamblers that throw such a fit over what they call bad owners or trainers bother to continue to be gamblers. doesn't make any sense. They must continue because they're either addicted or think they are going to pull one over on the bad owners or trainers. It would be like continuing to buy cars from the crappy car dealer that continually sells you crappy cars. Not for nothing, but do you ever bet horses or do you just come in here to knock the game ?

[proximity]

I don't understand why gamblers that throw such a fit over what they call bad owners or trainers bother to continue to be gamblers. doesn't make any sense..

competitive racing generally yields more overlays and connections winning at ridiculous percentages further help destroy such competitive racing environments that are also hampered by factors such as small fields (a horseman favorite).

however, most players, and all good players are certainly capable of accounting for "supertrainers" in their assessment of a race. the main problem I have with these "bad owners and trainers" is the purse money they take from the majority of (honest) owners and trainers out there. purse money that these legitimate connections could use to further invest in the growth of the sport. a rising tide lifts all boats.

[Dave Schwartz]

I do not think that the issue is "Does racing have a few bad apples?"

The issue is what racing does to those "few bad apples" when they act badly.

The answer is that (relatively speaking), they do very little, thereby condoning the actions.

Just my opinion.