Letter To The Editor: ‘What Has Happened To My Most loved Activity?’ – Horse Racing Information
“We experienced faces then.”
That immortal line Gloria Swanson, as growing old Norma Desmond, states to William Holden in Sunset Boulevard about the heyday of her early movie career. What has transpired to my favored sport? The faces of horse racing’s magnificent heritage have been overshadowed by those of unscrupulous so-named horsemen who have dragged the activity I enjoy by a steaming pile of drug-riddled muck.
The names have been coming at this sort of a typical clip. Rick Dutrow, suspended for a 10 years Jason Servis, indicted together with 27 other men and women by federal authorities on rates connected to production, procuring, distributing and administering illegal substances to racehorses. Then there is Jorge Navarro, sentenced by a federal choose to 5 years in jail for his function in a functionality-improving drug scandal, a guy so happy of his drug-induced dishonest, that he stored a pair of sneakers in his barn emblazoned with his nickname–Juice Gentleman. The wonderful XY Jet died even though underneath Navarro’s tutelage and the outstanding Shancelot’s reputation tarnished beneath the suspicion his wins came with the assistance of chemical aid.
In the past 7 days, we have seen Chip Woolley, trainer of 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Hen, suspended for 6 months for having unlawful possession of a needle and syringe in his Arizona barn Juan Carlos Vazquez suspended for two beneficial exams of a drug that metabolizes into central nervous system stimulants. Of study course he is pleasing.
We saw Marcus Vitali, handed a twelve thirty day period suspension for a meth positive in a person of his horses, only the newest in a a long time-lengthy series of drug infractions from Florida to Pennsylvania.
Then there is the disgrace of Bob Baffert. Virtually 30 drug positives in the course of the system of his vocation, numerous unexpected deaths that have by no means been fully explained and a record of denials, shirking responsibility, blame online games, and outlandish excuses — poppy seed bagels, chilly drugs, ache patches, contaminated hay, pores and skin product. I operate as a teacher’s aide at an elementary college, and I am utilised to listening to wild excuses for unfinished or lacking assignments, but Baffert takes the cake.
And what can I say about very poor Medina Spirit. He was, for a week, the feel great story racing essential — a modestly-bred colt born to a tiny breeder in Florida and offered for a pittance who ran his coronary heart out pretty much. With his drug optimistic, his Derby get may perhaps be taken absent, and even if it is allowed to stand soon after all of Baffert’s authorized maneuvering, the brave minor colt’s victory, and his reputation, will endlessly be tarnished.
It would make me so offended when tv commentators and print journalists simply call Baffert the “Face of Racing.” NO!! He and these other gentlemen have hijacked the deal with of racing. To me, they signify greed, egotism, and a cheater’s mentality to get at all expenditures without having a care for the horses in their cost.
The face of racing is and often has been, the horses — Person o’ War, Quotation, Secretariat, Dr. Fager, Buckpasser, Seattle Slew, Ruffian, Affirmed, John Henry, Forego. Private Ensign, Zenyatta, American Pharoah, and my most loved of new years, Elate. These are magical names and there are so a lot of extra. These are the faces of racing.
If they could talk, these horses, now overshadowed by the issues faced by racing in current yrs, can look again to a time when they ended up the names on everybody’s lips and say, “We experienced faces then.”
—Elizabeth Martiniak
Turfwriter/fan
Janesville, Wisc.
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