Is it all just a racket?

[PoloUK6108]

Perhaps it's the recent news and such, but I've suddenly become fascinated with the crooked factor of our beloved game. Buzzers, drugs, bribes..I've read a ton of stories online, and I'm wondering what knowledge and tales PA has to offer. In your opinion, just how dirty is it? How tight of circles are these sort of things kept in? If there's another thread like this let me know. Share/Discuss away!

[lamboguy]

try the futures and equity markets, they are even more crooked

[PoloUK6108]

LG. You're a great handicapper, and from what I've seen usually have a lot to contribute in discussions.

[highnote]

Perhaps it's the recent news and such, but I've suddenly become fascinated with the crooked factor of our beloved game. Buzzers, drugs, bribes..I've read a ton of stories online, and I'm wondering what knowledge and tales PA has to offer. In your opinion, just how dirty is it? How tight of circles are these sort of things kept in? If there's another thread like this let me know. Share/Discuss away!

My friend and colleague, Nick Mordin, was a racing journalist from England. He wrote several handicapping books, one of which is the all-time best selling handicap book in England, "Betting For A Living".

Nick moved the United States back in 1990s. We became quick friends and attended the races in New York every Saturday and most Sundays for an entire year. He taught me a ton of things about racing.

Races for amateur riders are pretty common in England. He had an angle for betting amateur rider races. He said look for the jockey who sits on the horse in the most professional looking manner. He used Jerry Bailey as an example. If you were ever lucky enough to see Bailey sit on his horse while in the paddock or when his horse did the post parade you know what I mean. He sat up straight as a board. He looked great.

So one day at Aqueduct in the middle of winter there was a race for amateur riders. I had never heard of an amateur rider race in NY. And I don't remember seeing one since that one back in the 1990s.

I was very excited to use Nick's tip and observe the jockeys. Nick and I stood in the paddock and he commented on each jockey. One jockey stood out. He had great posture and confidence. He was from Panama, I believe. The odds on his horse were 3-1. That seemed like a good bet.

We bet. Watched the race. And our good postured jockey won easily.

We where standing in line to cash our tickets when the inquiry sign went up. HOLD ALL TICKETS!

So we waited. And we waited. And we waited. Finally, a no-contest was declared because the Panamanian jockey had been racing professionally in Panama! We won our bet, but all bets were voided. DAMN!

Was there cheating involved or was he or his agent ignorant of the rules?

[highnote]

Here's another one from the inner-track winter meeting at Aqueduct, of course. You probably don't see as much cheating at Belmont or Saratoga. We never saw anything out of the ordinary at BEL or SAR.

As I said in the previous post, Nick Mordin and I attended the NYRA races every Saturday and most Sundays for an entire year. We stood in the paddock and observed nearly every horse in every race -- especially the good maiden races, allowance races, high priced claimers, and every stakes race.

Nick knew the top stakes horses by sight. He didn't need to see their saddle cloth numbers to know the top 50 or 100 horses' names.

One day, back in the 1990s, we were standing in the paddock for a $10,000 claiming race and a pitch black colt enters the ring. Now, we have seen thousands of horses at NYRA races and had never seen a horse this color. Nor had we ever seen a horse of this caliber in a $10k claiming race. He looked like a champion. Just stunningly beautiful with an athletic confirmation.

Horses are usually brownish or red and sometimes grey maybe even a little tan. The bottom of their legs might be black, but they turn to reddish brown-- especially turf runners. Many horses have some sort of blaze on their foreheads, even if it is only a small white dot. But this shiny, pitch black horse had no markings. It was the same color from head to toe and front to back.

It shipped up from Delaware, I seem to recall, and hadn't won in it's last 10 starts. However, in it's 11th start back, it had won at Aqueduct. Back then, you wouldn't have known it won 11 races back because only the last 10 showed up in the racing form. However, I had written code to that would store BRIS past performances in a database and I could see this horse's lifetime history. So I knew it had won at this track before as a shipper.

So here we have a horse that looks like a champion and was super fit and was entered in a $10k claiming race and the odds were 3-1. This was no low class claimer.

Based on its last 10 past performances we bet lightly in case we were wrong.

The horse won for fun.

To this day, we still think it was a ringer.

We have often joked about what would have happened if we would have claimed it! We might have gotten an offer from the trainer or owner to buy the horse back -- an offer that we couldn't refuse. LOL

[highnote]

This story is not about fixing, but is kind of sad.

I can't remember the exact details, but NYRA was one of the last tracks to not allow the use of Lasix.

They finally gave in because some trainers and owners refused to race at NYRA tracks because their horses needed Lasix. NYRA needs horses. The bottom line is that money talks and trumps the well-being of the horse.

I can't remember the exact rules or the exact circumstances, but a new rule had gone into effect liberalizing the use of Lasix, but it didn't not go into effect until a certain date -- which was something like the day after that day's racing.

So there was a big stakes race on the card and there was a really nice horse entered who Nick and I knew would be the favorite and would win easily.

We arrive at the paddock to see the horses and our horse looked great. We were very confident in our bet.

As the horses were getting ready to leave the paddock we notice a slight delay. The horse's handler, a young woman, takes our great looking horse off to the side while the rest of the horses leave for the track. Then we see her walking past us leading her horse back to the stables and she has tears streaming down her face. Her horse was disqualified. We knew immediately what happened. Her horse was in violation of the Lasix rules.

It was so sad. We knew this young woman had helped to get this horse in top shape and was set to run the race of its life, but she made an honest mistake. She didn't know the about the rule change. It was a subtle change. Nick and I knew about, so she should have, but if she was coming from out of town, it was an easy rule to misinterpret or be ignorant of.

I wish I could remember exactly what the rule was and the name of the horse. We felt really bad for her and her connections. It was a devastating thing to happen for such a minor detail that in a day or two she would have been in complete compliance.