Monday, March 9, 2020

Racing's Coronavirus

No doubt you've heard the big news.

We'll leave aside much of the smaller picture of this development for people above my pay grade, but for the big picture, I'll take a cut at the ball.

What Buck describes is the most under-reported part of this, in my view.

Trainers who cheat cause ripples throughout the entire business.

They take horses from these small time trainers - in it for the love of the horse, to scrape by a make a buck; to try and get that one home run horse - and they improve them rapidly and almost overnight.

This acts just like slander does - it tells everyone that the previous trainer was a dummy, that he or she didn't know what they were doing. It's a big red flag, signalling anyone with investment capital that they should not give horses to that man or woman's business.

It's like the public being told a restaurant owner serves arsenic in his meatballs; this certain builder cuts corners... when in fact the meatballs are made with the finest ingredients and the builder builds to code. 

What happens is these men and women - those doing it the right way - lose owners and leave. And the ones doing it the wrong way get more horses. It's completely perverse.

Cheating as alleged in the story linked above is like a virus. It starts as someone cashing a bet with "the juice" and spreads throughout the entire business - chasing away good people, investment capital, and endangering horses and the overall business.

Enjoy your day everyone.


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