EPO in New Jersey - Ernest Adam

Well I was stoked to place up a post on Somebeachsomewhere today. I will get to it. But first, let's get this bad news nonsense out of the way.

As mentioned William Elliott and Evzen Pindur were nabbed with EPO. Evzen was mostly toiling on the smaller tracks, but Elliott had some wicked stock, including Tigerama and Michelle's Power. In this day and age, when everyone knows EPO/DPO is being looked at hard, I can not believe people would be doing it. It is just so damn stupid.

Then this week, boom. Here we go again. Super-trainer Ernest Adam is nabbed. Six of his horses, including a world record holder test positive. One of the horses, Art Maker is as tough as nails and works as hard as the day is long. He is one of my favourite raceway horses of all time. He did not deserve this.

About a year ago, Ernest was rolling. No one I knew had heard of him. He was winning with shippers like a house on fire. Handicappers commented how his horses never seemed to get tired. It appears handicappers are many things, dumb isn't one of them.

When racing wonders why handicappers, when the next 30% super-trainer comes out of the wood-work are skeptical, this is why. And fellow owners reactions? Well they should be vitriolic. If a guy comes into my home and steals my bank card, takes $5000 out, he is a thief and should be in jail. In racing if a trainer loads a horse up illegally and steals $5000 of purse money, it is the same thing. Be upset and ask for harsh punishments and even criminal charges. It is the only way to stop this nonsense.

All of the above trainers have positive tests. In racing a positive is considered guilt, unless proven otherwise. It is a club, not a court of law. If, at the end of the day and after the appeals process is exhausted they are proven guilty, they should never be allowed to participate in this sport again.

I implore the Standardbred press to limit the press on these "out of the woodwork", miracle working trainers when they are winning at obscene clips. Every time I read a story on one of them I find it painful. It does a disservice to bettors everywhere. A rule of thumb? If a trainer with no experience takes a horse off a capable 30 year horseman with a 0.250 average, and drops 5 seconds in two weeks, don't run the story. In a year you will probably be running another story saying it is all a mirage. It is not worth the ink.