The Cup and the Hammer(s)

The hammer came down in Jersey today, for shadow training. Allegedly, a trainer who was suspended, used another trainer to train his horses. Commonly known as shadow training, I sincerely think it is the first time that I have seen it be a chargeable offence.

Bernard Grignola has been suspended by the New Jersey Racing Commission for two and a half years and fined $7,500 for fraudulent acts against racing.

The penalty came after Grignola was found to have been acting as a front for suspended Freehold Raceway trainer Robert Greenwood who had been found in possession of needles, syringes and injectable drugs.

That is sizeable is it not? This is from the same jurisdiction where Eric Ledford was quickly reinstated. I wonder if this one will stick?

Secondly, the hammer is down in California, too. Man oh man, are they getting tough on rule-breakers. Bettors everywhere like this story:

The penalty guidelines call for stewards, hearing officers, or administrative law judges to issue a minimum one-year suspension to any trainer found responsible for a Category A violation, a category that includes drugs with the highest potential to affect performance and that have no generally accepted medical use in the racing horse. Repeated offenses call for even longer suspensions or permanent license revocation, and fines up to $100,000 to the owner and trainer.

"I believe we are making a huge stride forward," said CHRB Chairman Richard B. Shapiro during the course of the discussion. He said the substantial fines and/or penalties called for by the guidelines should make enough of an impact to "make a positive difference and help the game."

I very much like this Shapiro fellow. In many of the stories I read about him, or with quotes from him, he mentions the customer almost without fail.

Bill Finley makes some good points in a recent article about banning lasix. Our pal Cangamble covered that, so pop on over to read his take. He also has the Shane Sellers buzzer story up. What a game we are involved in folks!

Lastly, 78 colts made the last stakes payment to be North America Cup eligible. The $1.5M race goes in June, and is sure to be a good tilt. We have been following the rankings and have been updating them on the right side of the page below. The first horse on the alphabetical list is one some of the blog readers will be familiar with, and I personally will be pulling for him to make it to the race.

That’s it for Thursday. I am taking my first vacation in a couple of years this weekend. Of course, I have to slide in some racing, so I will take some pics and place em up on the blog, perhaps. No doubt I will pop by to see if there is any action in racing though, and have a post or two.

Have a good weekend everyone.