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View Full Version : Wrong Horse Harry, or "Doc Horse for Mare"


falconridge
02-02-2006, 02:42 PM
Just read a story on the Thoroughbred Times web site (http://thoroughbredtimes.com/todaysnews/newsview.asp?recno=60224&subsec=1) about a mare that's made all 27 of her career starts under the wrong name--and with the wrong pedigree listing. I know there have been several such cases--usually the result of negligence on the part of the horse identifier, or because of some other kind of clerical slovenliness or oversight. (Many of us remember the Cinzano/Le Bon switcheroo that resulted in a boxcar win mutuel and bulb-blowing trifecta payoff in Gotham some years back, but that's a different issue.)

Toetoe, do you recall a similar incident at Golden Gate Fields (perhaps BM, but I believe it was GGF) about 20-25 years ago? I think one of the horses involved was a mare named Nogotta the Mama's, or something like that. I'm not sure if that was the mare that was supposed to have raced, or the one that raced in another's stead. I seem to recall also--though I may just have dreamt it--that one or another of the misidentified mares was in foal when she raced.

Anyone else aware of other such incidents? Damn! This game is hard enough as it is.

toetoe
02-02-2006, 02:50 PM
Sorry, it doesn't ring a bell. I know there are many more cases, but we forget them too soon. There was at least one other big-time ringer case in NY, I think. Ah, those were the days. They really knew how to orchestrate something greater than an injection through a syringe. That's good that the guy in charge made the call and fully disclosed. If anybody cared about racing, Billy Patin and Ricky Frazier would be e-mailing their outrage to Jim Rome. :D

Valuist
02-02-2006, 04:18 PM
Legend has it that Hawthorne burned to the ground back around 1979 when a ringer came w/in a few ticks of a track record in a bottom level claimer, and they wanted to burn the foal papers. They burned the foal papers all right, as well as the racing secretaries office and part of the grandstand..........allegedly.

toetoe
02-02-2006, 06:15 PM
God, it's on the tip of my tongue. I think another South American horse, or at least Spanish-named, was in a ringer case. God, I wonder whether I can Google the annals of ringerdom.

toetoe
02-02-2006, 06:33 PM
I found two stinking in-passing mentions of the case. I know it was in Time Magazine, etc. Your honor, we want to revisit the case.

JulieKrone
02-03-2006, 09:22 PM
God, it's on the tip of my tongue. I think another South American horse, or at least Spanish-named, was in a ringer case. God, I wonder whether I can Google the annals of ringerdom.
Martini & Rossi on the rocks, say yeeaaaaahhhh!!!!!!!!
Ooooppps, errrrr----Cinzano.

toetoe
02-03-2006, 10:10 PM
NICE Burt Bacharach/Angie Dickinson reference. :ThmbUp:

Figman
02-03-2006, 10:20 PM
Toetoe
Can you find Dr. Mark Gerard?

Figman
02-03-2006, 10:27 PM
http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1977-10/1977-10-25-CBS-22.html

toetoe
02-03-2006, 10:58 PM
I swear someone wrote "Le Bon," which was far enough from Labon to absolve me of any wrongdoing. Mr. Steward, I'm beggin' ya. :(

Such an intriguing crime. Baseball phenoms lying about their age, birthplace, etc. are just not so riveting. Where was Tio Felipe to warn them, anyway? :confused: :D