60 minutes to do big story on horse doping Sunday

[dilanesp]

Folks here may be interested.

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[Bullet Plane]

Yes, I will probably watch it. But, I do wonder why mainstream media coverage always seems to focus on the negative aspects of the game.

[Tom]

Yeah, would have nice to do a piece on Cody, his story and sad ending, and the fact the same mare is now in foal with a full sister who will be named after Cody's sister.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by Bullet Plane

Yes, I will probably watch it. But, I do wonder why mainstream media coverage always seems to focus on the negative aspects of the game.

Do you really have to ask that? It has to do with what we are not supposed to discuss in this section.

[dilanesp]

FWIW, I remember 60 Minutes did a big splashy piece about Zenyatta before the Breeders' Cup one year.

But they're, in general, an investigative reporting show. They criticize EVERYONE- it's not that they have it out for horse racing.

[dogkatcher]

I remember 60 Minutes doing a hack job on my corporation,

[JustRalph]

Originally Posted by Tom

Yeah, would have nice to do a piece on Cody, his story and sad ending, and the fact the same mare is now in foal with a full sister who will be named after Cody's sister.

Be careful what you wish for……

[thaskalos]

Originally Posted by Bullet Plane

Yes, I will probably watch it. But, I do wonder why mainstream media coverage always seems to focus on the negative aspects of the game.

Perhaps because the negative stories concerning this game outnumber the positive ones by a ratio of about 20/1...?

[dilanesp]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/horse-r...es-transcript/

[Inner Dirt]

First time I watched a complete 60 minutes hour in ages, I still can't believe I cannot find any info on who what and when the Los Alamitos smack trainer was busted. I know I did not dream it up. He was the master of the 870 yard QH races I think at the time the minimum claiming price was $2K and the max $20K, the guy would claim horses that were $2K also rans and get them winning for $20K unless he lost them, then they would quickly turn back into $2K also rans. This went on for quite awhile till they found out he was injecting them with heroin. This could have been 40 or so years ago, every time a trainer's name from that era pops in my head I Google without success. He only had success with the 870 types, so he was a flash in the pan.

[Bustin Stones]

Can anyone continue to question the value of having a HISA there to pledge doing better? "er um every state has their own job of policing..." uh, no that response doesn't fly anymore. Even if HISA solves nothing and is completely worthless, the image problem is addressed. In gaming, image is crucial.

[Dave Schwartz]

Originally Posted by Bullet Plane

Yes, I will probably watch it. But, I do wonder why mainstream media coverage always seems to focus on the negative aspects of the game.

Because "We only have good things to report" does not draw viewers.

[classhandicapper]

It was what I expected from a mainstream news show.

75% of it was old news.

It inaccurately called some of the drug positives “illegal drugs” when they were trace amounts of legal therapeutics.

There was no reason to show clips of breakdowns like they did, especially because there’s no evidence they were drug related.

This industry is a mess on every possible level.

The economics suck for tracks, owners, and most people involved in the sport.

The gambling is getting more difficult.

Handle is declining again.

I think there are bigger economic storm clouds ahead.

I see no one in the industry doing anything that makes me think it can be fixed, at least in the US.

I love this sport so much, but after 50 years, it’s getting harder and harder to justify all the time I put into it when ownership at a higher level makes little economic sense, anything I win gambling has zero impact on my life, and I see a slow moving doom ahead.

[JustRalph]

Baffert is seething I bet

[rastajenk]

Originally Posted by Bustin Stones

Can anyone continue to question the value of having a HISA there to pledge doing better? "er um every state has their own job of policing..." uh, no that response doesn't fly anymore. Even if HISA solves nothing and is completely worthless, the image problem is addressed. In gaming, image is crucial.

I can. It was a 15-minute puff piece in support of a bloated bureaucracy that "solves nothing and is completely worthless." It's a huge price for the participants to pay for addressing an image problem that will not go away after any small degree of success in reducing injuries and identifying experimental drugs.

Typical one-sided hit piece on the status quo that probably succeeded in convincing viewers that Medina Spirit's butt-cream is the same as red-acid. And most of the trainers caught up in the Big Bust were harness folks, but all that got was "a niche betting sport where horses pull drivers in carts." HISA doesn't affect them yet, so who cares? So was the piece about "doping" horses, or was it about high-profile breakdowns? Let's ask the person who is paid more than twice as much as the President:

"Lisa Lazarus: You know, it's a great question. Now that we have oversight over-- over all of it, I feel a lot more confident that we're gonna be able to do our job."

Good answer, good answer!!

And yeah, to single out Baffert was just cheap.