so.cal.fan
05-31-2001, 01:56 PM
My friend Warren Eves, sent me this from Florida:
This was passed along to me by a good friend of mine who happens to be a
jockey agent. So what's new?
May 29, 2001
BY JIM O'DONNELL STAFF REPORTER
<!--SVR ufi-->T<!--SVR ufiend-->HE LATEST SCANDAL INVOLVING THE ILLINOIS
RACING BOARD has taken another ugly turn. Dot Sibille, one of three veteran
clockers who protested the falsifying of workout information to at least one
state steward at Hawthorne Race Course last week, has been informed that she
cannot work at Arlington Park this summer.
The reason given by Arlington management, according to multiple sources,
was that the IRB had cited a "conflict of interest" involving Sibille. She
has been married to jockey Ray Sibille for more than 25 years, including her
full multiyear tenure as a clocker at Chicago tracks. She also is the
sister-in-law of jockey Pat Day.
SIBILLE'S NON-REHIRING AT ARLINGTON is another odd entry in the expanding
wake of a bizarre steward's decision at Hawthorne last week that led to a
gimp-legged class-dropper going off as the favorite in a cheap claiming
sprint. The horse--Ron Andersen's Tender Hearted--was the 6-5 favorite in the
fourth race May 20 and never contended.
Tender Hearted limped home eighth out of nine starters. Andersen has been
fined $500 by Hawthorne stewards for overmedicating the horse with
painkillers before the race.
BEFORE THE RACE, Hawthorne's three official clockers--Sibille, Bobby
Belpidio and Barbara Poprawski--had beseeched stewards not to let the horse
start because of a notably slow workout the day before. Instead, at least one
state steward ordered that the horse would start and allowed a fictitious
faster workout time to be announced to the public.
AN INTERNAL INVESTIGATION AT HAWTHORNE is continuing. The Racing Board
told the Daily Racing Form that it was conducting its own investigation into
the affair. The Board has been lambasted in recent days after botching an
investigation into an alleged mutuel theft at Arlington.
In their conclusion to that probe, Board staffers Jack Kubik, Marc Laino,
Daniel Fitzgerald, Robert Lang and Keith Peterson went out of their way to
identify a senior mutuel clerk as a "likely IRS informant." The clerk, never
a suspect in the theft, was fired by Arlington last Monday.
WHAT IS PARTICULARLY STRANGE about Sibille's sudden non-rehiring at
Arlington is that the practice of members of the same family filling
concurrent seasonal positions at Illinois tracks is quite common. Seasoned
observers are saying the only plausible reason for the selective Sibille
poleaxing is that someone around the Board was seeking retribution for the
clockers' courageous stand at Hawthorne.
Rene Riera Jr., the chief state steward at Hawthorne, declined to comment
Monday through the track's media department.
This was passed along to me by a good friend of mine who happens to be a
jockey agent. So what's new?
May 29, 2001
BY JIM O'DONNELL STAFF REPORTER
<!--SVR ufi-->T<!--SVR ufiend-->HE LATEST SCANDAL INVOLVING THE ILLINOIS
RACING BOARD has taken another ugly turn. Dot Sibille, one of three veteran
clockers who protested the falsifying of workout information to at least one
state steward at Hawthorne Race Course last week, has been informed that she
cannot work at Arlington Park this summer.
The reason given by Arlington management, according to multiple sources,
was that the IRB had cited a "conflict of interest" involving Sibille. She
has been married to jockey Ray Sibille for more than 25 years, including her
full multiyear tenure as a clocker at Chicago tracks. She also is the
sister-in-law of jockey Pat Day.
SIBILLE'S NON-REHIRING AT ARLINGTON is another odd entry in the expanding
wake of a bizarre steward's decision at Hawthorne last week that led to a
gimp-legged class-dropper going off as the favorite in a cheap claiming
sprint. The horse--Ron Andersen's Tender Hearted--was the 6-5 favorite in the
fourth race May 20 and never contended.
Tender Hearted limped home eighth out of nine starters. Andersen has been
fined $500 by Hawthorne stewards for overmedicating the horse with
painkillers before the race.
BEFORE THE RACE, Hawthorne's three official clockers--Sibille, Bobby
Belpidio and Barbara Poprawski--had beseeched stewards not to let the horse
start because of a notably slow workout the day before. Instead, at least one
state steward ordered that the horse would start and allowed a fictitious
faster workout time to be announced to the public.
AN INTERNAL INVESTIGATION AT HAWTHORNE is continuing. The Racing Board
told the Daily Racing Form that it was conducting its own investigation into
the affair. The Board has been lambasted in recent days after botching an
investigation into an alleged mutuel theft at Arlington.
In their conclusion to that probe, Board staffers Jack Kubik, Marc Laino,
Daniel Fitzgerald, Robert Lang and Keith Peterson went out of their way to
identify a senior mutuel clerk as a "likely IRS informant." The clerk, never
a suspect in the theft, was fired by Arlington last Monday.
WHAT IS PARTICULARLY STRANGE about Sibille's sudden non-rehiring at
Arlington is that the practice of members of the same family filling
concurrent seasonal positions at Illinois tracks is quite common. Seasoned
observers are saying the only plausible reason for the selective Sibille
poleaxing is that someone around the Board was seeking retribution for the
clockers' courageous stand at Hawthorne.
Rene Riera Jr., the chief state steward at Hawthorne, declined to comment
Monday through the track's media department.