Friday, August 16, 2013

A Flabbergasting Horse Racing Court Ruling

A trainer has been found not guilty of fraud and cheating at play by an Ontario judge. This is believed to be the first trial of this nature in Canada. That headline might not sound too thrilling, but how he was found not guilty will certainly rankle you if you are a bettor.
  •  Though he [the judge] accepted the prosecution’s claim that Riesberry attempted to gain advantage by injecting a horse Sept. 28, 2010 with performance-enhancing drugs and intended to do so again Nov. 7, 2010 when he arrived at Windsor Raceway with two fully-loaded syringes and a horse in tow, Rogin couldn’t find that the public was either cheated or defrauded by the action. Drawing on numerous precedents on either side of the border, Rogin essentially ruled bettors are observers not participants in horse races.
The bolded part is mine.

I know I am an observer of football games, I like to look at the stars sometimes, I also observe TV shows. When I was younger I observed pictures the articles in Maxim magazine.

But when I bet $400 on a horse race, I sure as hell ain't any observer.

Pari-mutuel horse racing is betting 'amongst ourselves'. It's very similar to the stock market. I wonder if this judge would find a publicly traded company not guilty of fudging the books because investors are simply "observers'?

The next person I meet who isn't dumbfounded by this decision will be the first.

4 comments:

That Blog Guy said...

I trust the case is being appealed?

Steve Zorn said...

Can't appeal a not guilty finding (in US at least; don't know about Canada).

Would love to see the actual opinion, since all the US cases I've read make a big point about betting and the integrity of he game.

Pull the Pocket said...

Steve,

Didn't the A One Rocket dudes get convicted for milkshaking "fixing a contest"?

I read this horse came sixth the night in question. Could it be (not sure how, but wondering) that because the horse did not hit the board, somehow in the logic it wasn't fixing a contest?

PTP

Anonymous said...

Ignorance is no excuse under the law Judge Rogin.
Do the terms "betting coup", "race fixing", "pulling a horse", "juicing" or "milkshaking" mean anything to you? No?
The Ontario Jockey Club and every parimutual horse racing establishment in Canada has "rules" against cheating and defrauding the public. Syringes full of "juice" on racetrack grounds constitutes intent to cheat the public by stimulating a horse to run faster than it would normally. This defrauds the "observers" by potentially cheating them out of their money. Without "observers" wagering on a fair contest there would be no racing. No racing industry. No thousands of jobs.

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