Blasi returns to Asmussen barn

[Grits]

https://twitter.com/Txfleming/status/494081021345013760/photo/1

Life's short. No dress rehearsals. We usually have to get it right the first time.. as second chances are rare. This horseman, hopefully, has been humbled, improving his attitude and his vocabulary.

Edit to add: This is via social media...which one should be careful to rely on. If found untrue, moderators, please, remove. Either way, I wish this man well. -- Thanks.

[DeltaLover]

https://twitter.com/Txfleming/status/494081021345013760/photo/1

Life's short. No dress rehearsals. We usually have to get it right the first time.. as second chances are rare. This horseman, hopefully, has been humbled, improving his attitude and his vocabulary.

Edit to add: This is via social media...which one should be careful to rely on. If found untrue, moderators, please, remove. Either way, I wish this man well. -- Thanks.

I guess it was expected to happen and frankly I see nothing wrong with it

[Fingal]

I see a couple DRF guys like McGee & Grenning have tweeted it too so I guess it's legit. I wouldn't think they're going to risk their reputations without confirmation.

[Rex Phinney]

And we wonder why 90% of the general public think the sport is full of liars and cheats.

What a joke. I can't believe they would bring him back.

[Lono]

What exactly was he accused, and convicted of, that he shouldn't be able to work on the track? Just bad mouthing an owner isn't a crime. If that was the case the game would have been over a long time ago.

[Fager Fan]

What exactly was he accused, and convicted of, that he shouldn't be able to work on the track? Just bad mouthing an owner isn't a crime. If that was the case the game would have been over a long time ago.

The blatant disrespect he had for the horses in his care was why he shouldn't be in the sport.

I wouldn't allow him to take care of any of my horses so it'll be interesting to see which owners will allow it.

[Grits]

http://www.drf.com/news/blasi-rejoins-asmussens-stable

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/horses/2014/07/29/trainer-steve-asmussen-re-hires-assistant-scott-blasi-peta-video/13320533/

[Mineshaft]

was there any doubt that he would return?



yall act surprised that this happened?

[Grits]

If my original post conveys surprise, it wasn't my intent. Many of us are never given a second chance. The world might be a better place if we were.

[PhantomOnTour]

was there any doubt that he would return?



yall act surprised that this happened?
I say he never really left in the first place ;)

[Stillriledup]

I say he never really left in the first place ;)

Exactly.

[Rex Phinney]

To say the things he did in front of someone who had worked at the barn for just weeks or months, he should be blacklisted just for being a total moron.

WTF is wrong with racing. As a business owner who depends on clients and their opinion this is puzzling.

If an employee of mine was on camera saying this type of stuff about a client or the business we are in charge of, we would be toast. PERIOD. Even if you found a way to carry on, hiring the guy back would lose what business you have left.

I hope Asmussen loses all his business and ends up eating dog food out of can under a bridge with this idiot.

Just how clueless are the owners that keep their horses with him.

[Stillriledup]

To say the things he did in front of someone who had worked at the barn for just weeks or months, he should be blacklisted just for being a total moron.

WTF is wrong with racing. As a business owner who depends on clients and their opinion this is puzzling.

If an employee of mine was on camera saying this type of stuff about a client or the business we are in charge of, we would be toast. PERIOD. Even if you found a way to carry on, hiring the guy back would lose what business you have left.

I hope Asmussen loses all his business and ends up eating dog food out of can under a bridge with this idiot.

Just how clueless are the owners that keep their horses with him.

In order for owners to stay in the game, they have to win. If you have a trainer who wins, you're not going to move your horses to a trainer who's not as good just because that trainer happens to employ a person who's maybe not the nicest guy in the world.

What if you fired Asmussen and gave the horses to Joe Blow and then found out that Joe Blow's top assistant was picked up for drunk driving....and since you're extremely against drunk driving, you move the horses to someone else. What ends up happening is that you're moving horses from Trainer A to Trainer B to Trainer C looking for an operation with tremendous moral character only to find that most people don't live up to the extremely high standards that you have set for yourself.

If we all boycotted or decided to NOT do business with people or companies that engaged in reprehensible behavor and or employed a person who was something less than Mother Teresa in the morals department, we might have a lot of problems finding ANY company who we can feel good about using for any reason.

[Mineshaft]

I say he never really left in the first place ;)





you probably right

[Hambletonian]

when racing is finally dead an buried, this incident won't even be a blip.

the guy told the truth, which is to say that the welfare of the horse, or the guy on his back for that matter, is of little consequence to the movers and shakers.

just vet them up and get them to go and worry about the rest later.

and asmussen could not give a crap one way or the other either. the only thing the guy did wrong was be honest in the wrong crowd. he got a slap on the wrist and now it is business as usual.

[nijinski]

If my original post conveys surprise, it wasn't my intent. Many of us are never given a second chance. The world might be a better place if we were.

That is so true Grits !

[proximity]

second chances aren't that hard to come by when you know where the bodies are buried. ;)

[PhantomOnTour]

second chances aren't that hard to come by when you know where the bodies are buried. ;)
Nice :ThmbUp:

[Mystic]

To say the things he did in front of someone who had worked at the barn for just weeks or months, he should be blacklisted just for being a total moron.

WTF is wrong with racing. As a business owner who depends on clients and their opinion this is puzzling.

If an employee of mine was on camera saying this type of stuff about a client or the business we are in charge of, we would be toast. PERIOD. Even if you found a way to carry on, hiring the guy back would lose what business you have left.

I hope Asmussen loses all his business and ends up eating dog food out of can under a bridge with this idiot.

Just how clueless are the owners that keep their horses with him.

Not to mention it cost him the Hall of Fame ballet forever.

[PaceAdvantage]

The blatant disrespect he had for the horses in his care was why he shouldn't be in the sport.

I wouldn't allow him to take care of any of my horses so it'll be interesting to see which owners will allow it.You are basing this on a video? A video designed to show these people in the WORST POSSIBLE LIGHT?

I think I've met him at least once, and I know people who know him and the job that he does (Blasi)...I can assure you that you're doing yourself a disservice if you use the video to base your entire opinion on his skills as a profession racehorse caregiver....

[ILovetheInner]

I am on the fence on what the video indicates. As regards the way he talks about the horses, a lot of it can amount to a stressful job and "shop talk" of sorts. I still recall when apprenticing for stallion management, there was a stallion (this was an Arabian farm) who had many nicknames that were some version of "the loser." He was dwarfed by the main stallion there, who was stunning, a gentleman and very popular, but this hapless individual was just hysterical. He would have been pointless as a teaser for he would be aroused by a gelding. He was a pain in the rear to handle, and made the aisle very disruptive to lead a horse down, have on crossties, etc. Everything with him was drama and he was a total spazz. We all had affection and heart for him...it had nothing to do with any hatred for the horse. But to hear he was a pain in the ass and hopeless was a rather common occurrence.

Blasi showed an incredible lack of scruples to be rambling on so in front of a new employee, his expletives made him seem utterly crude, and trashing an owner is something that would require a lot more discretion. However, in and amongst his Nero rant was his frustration for the horse, far more than at him. Zayat was being called those things for not doing right by the horse. Blasi's rant was that it was unconscionable that this horse be persevered with as a racehorse. So that's one thing. I highly doubt that for that rant he was not incensed when the horse died shortly thereafter.

It's an edited video and a small fraction of all the film they had. And I do agree, a second chance and hopefully a wakeup call. In that it seems the majority of Asmussen's owners did not withdraw and Blasi's daily work is well known to them, the full picture of that needs to be considered if done fairly.

[Fager Fan]

You are basing this on a video? A video designed to show these people in the WORST POSSIBLE LIGHT?

I think I've met him at least once, and I know people who know him and the job that he does (Blasi)...I can assure you that you're doing yourself a disservice if you use the video to base your entire opinion on his skills as a profession racehorse caregiver....

I can assure you that I know plenty more than what was on the video, but I'm not going there as I don't need to.

There are a few things that are unforgivable in my book. Being happy about sending out an injured horse that got claimed is one of them. Being filthy-mouthed I can forgive. Knowingly putting a horse and rider in jeopardy I can't. Thinking there is anything at all amusing or enjoyable about an injured horse being sent out that returns injured, that too is unforgivable.

[SandyLoam]

Might it not have been a matter of Asmussen saying "Gee Scotty, is that the way you really feel?" and canning his a-s? He "fired" Blasi as damage control at the time. Why on earth wouldn't Asmussen bring him back? It's not like he or any other trainer has really been punished to any extent for the crap they pull.

[ILovetheInner]

I can assure you that I know plenty more than what was on the video, but I'm not going there as I don't need to.

There are a few things that are unforgivable in my book. Being happy about sending out an injured horse that got claimed is one of them. Being filthy-mouthed I can forgive. Knowingly putting a horse and rider in jeopardy I can't. Thinking there is anything at all amusing or enjoyable about an injured horse being sent out that returns injured, that too is unforgivable.

I agree with that in a black-and-white world. But part of this is needing owners to stay in business. You know a horse should be retired, you know you are having to pick up the phone and tell an owner more bad news they don't want to hear, and you don't own that horse. It's somewhere in an article somewhere, a quote from Chad Brown, but the long and short of it is that he knew Saginaw could not weather campaigning. I loathe paraphrasing something that serious and since have tried to re-find, but I can assure it was a quote from Chad Brown about Saginaw, that led you to feel the connections were not crying when he got haltered.

I see no evidence of this out of McGaughey's barn. How often a Phipps horse runs for a tag or a low earner turns up racing in someone else's barn off a private sale, not all that common. Then there are the rest. I don't endorse it, but it is equally why although I have wanted to since a teen, I will never work on the backside.

The video showed a lot, but save for the buzzer and illegal immigrants, nothing we don't all know goes on every day. We all handicap races where clearly the connections are begging a horse be claimed away. I don't think any of us can't imagine that Pletcher is not a fan of expensive sales youngsters not panning out. See them entered for a tag the first start of their lives, or rapidly plunged in off their debut for a cheap price. Cutting their losses that way, rather than owners removing the horse off the track and donating to an OTTB program.

[Fager Fan]

ILIT, I don't mind horses going into claiming races, nor do I mind the connections hoping the horse is claimed. That's not the same thing as knowingly running an injured horse and risking that horse's and jockey's life along with the lives of the horses and jockeys around him.

The horse I'm referring to is the one in the video named Valediction. Supposedly the horse was getting knee injections to keep him going, and that's in line with the vet report after retirement (he was rescued by some bigwig in Hollywood) of the horse having severe arthritis. Even if the horse wasn't getting knee injections (since we've yet to see definite proof of this to my knowledge), Blasi was on the video saying he could do **** cartwheels he was so happy the "rat" was claimed, even though he knew at the time that the horse came out of the race injured.

That shows a blatant disrespect and uncaring attitude about the horse who was in his care, for which he should've had some kind of bonding that wouldn't have seen him happy in any circumstance that saw the horse injured. At worst, they kept injecting that horse's joints, knowing that pushing him on was doing irreparable damage, and risked the lives of this horse and rider and those around him.

Joint injections while continuing to train/race are perhaps the biggest evil in racing and hardly gets any press.

[chadk66]

I'm sure Blasi has so much crap on Steve that there was no way they were parting company, especially on bad terms. I'm sure this was an arranged/paid deal to lay low until it blows over.

[NY BRED]

regardless of the questions raised about Blasi/Asmussen , the
defining moment will be if any of the owners who departed will return
their horses to this trainer.