By Thomas Chambers
Why are these things oh so predictable? Like Crash Davis telling the hitter it’s a fastball down the pipe.
The Daily Racing Form was founded in 1894 by Frank Brunell of Chicago. Horse racing was vastly popular in America, and Iinformation is everything in playing the horses. At first, it was somewhat of a local endeavor.
But Moe Annenberg – a circulation genius/muscle man who made his bones on our very own Chicago Tribune before joining the Hearst empire – and the Mob saw the benefit of providing pre-race information and race results on a nationwide basis, using the developing telephone and telegraph system.
In 1922, Annenberg bought the Racing Form and began playing all ends against each other, doing race wire business both inside and outside the law. His son, Walter, was there much of the way. Both had to answer to the feds in 1939 for all those taxes they for some reason did not pay.
So it’s not difficult to understand DRF’s entrenchment and image as “The Bible of Racing.” We’re the bible ‘cuz we said so. See?
Now, we expect to to see The Form toe the institutional line. Don’t make waves, see? These days, other publications like The BloodHorse, The HorsePlayer magazine and a plethora of websites are a welcome source of fresh air and information in the game. But The Form’s Jay Hovdey did not disappoint when commenting on two issues covered in Track Notes last week: shenanigans by trainer Jeff Mullins in the Aqueduct detention barn and alleged animal cruelty of Thoroughbreds on the Center Brook Farm of Ernie Paragallo. There’s a lot of “Mullins: OK, Paragallo: not OK” going around.
In “One Crime Far Worse Than Other,” Hovdey leads peculiarly: “It’s a great week for righteous indignation, what with Easter, Passover, and the birthday of Buddha all arriving in an ecumenical cluster. The congregation, though, has been stirred by recent events, and the Jeremiah Wrights of Thoroughbred racing have been holding forth. No sooner had trainer Jeff Mullins blatantly transgressed the detention facility rules of the New York Racing Association than did another outrage spill into the mainstream media, upon the discovery that the well-known owner Ernie Paragallo was allowing horses to be neglected to the point of starvation and abuse on his upstate New York farm.Taken as separate events, the two stories have very few intersecting lines.”
Not true, for both have one huge line connecting them – misconduct at some of the highest levels of Thoroughbred racing, for cryin’ out loud. While horse abuse is almost always about penurious, uncaring and incapable oafs, Mullins’ hijinks are symptomatic of a cultural element of unscrupulousness and deceit all too prevalent in racing. Hell, Mullins has said it himself.
Moonlighting Racing Form columnist Jay Privman also glossed it over when he reported on ESPN Saturday that Mullins’ horse was scratched the previous week for “being treated in the reception barn.” It’s a detention barn, not a reception barn.
We cynics cry spin, but the National Thoroughbred Racing Association issued a statement that might also be labeled concerned and appropriate: “Two recent incidents in New York are very troubling to the hundreds of thousands of responsible individuals who derive their livelihood from Thoroughbred breeding and racing and the millions of customers who participate in our game. In both instances, should the charges prove true, authorities should move swiftly to impose the most severe penalties applicable under the circumstances.” Sounds good to me.
Hovdey said the statement “managed to conflate the Paragallo and Mullins stories into a single huge, ill-timed bruise on the integrity of the game.” OK, I get it. Sweep the stories under the rug. After all, the Derby’s coming up.
Hovdey then passes sentence: ” . . . any penalties suffered by Mullins should, in the proper scheme of things, pale by comparison to the public flogging that Paragallo deserves. Perhaps the NTRA wanted to maximize impact, or save paper, but lumping them together serves no constructive purpose.” He furthers the argument that the system worked, the horse was scratched, bettors were protected. And that Mullins should take his punishment like a man.
He’ll take it like a man, alright, like Mr. Red Skelton, because penalties in these situations are a joke, laughable on every level. I believe Mullins had good reason to think he could get away with it. After all, he got to the horse with the substance to shoot down his throat. Many in the racing media tout the idea that “the system worked.” Sure, in this case, but how many times has it not worked? Especially at some of the smaller tracks across the country. This is a cultural problem, too, folks. A problem that needs solving. In no other country are trainers as dependent on medication as in the United States.
And the bettors were not protected as information that Quality Road had a quarter (hoof) crack was suppressed all during the four days of the third Kentucky Derby Futures Pool. It absolutely killed me last year when Big Brown had the same problem. I didn’t want to bet him at all, but he seemed to always outrun his physical infirmities like the freak that he was, so you had to include him in an exotic bet lest he burn you. And we still have not received an explanation for his Belmont debacle. How about the bettors who plunked down who knows how much on Quality Road on a non-refundable bet when now they might have legitimate reservations about his chances in the Derby?
Maybe the general media should get involved in these stories, and maybe Jay should be as indignant over these stories as he is with mass media sticking its toes on his turf. Maybe horse racing in this country should start cracking down on medication abuses, starting with dishing out real penalties to these trainers/chemists. Maybe I Want Revenge’s owners should fire Mullins for a sneaky and unbelievably stupid “mistake.” Maybe tote companies should upgrade their damn computer systems so that I don’t see the odds on my horse drop from 6-1 to 5-2 during the race. And maybe the Daily Racing Form should be a leader and take up these issues and pound some common sense into the lords of racing.
Paragallo P.S.
On the Ernie Paragallo horse abuse allegations, trainer John Campo Jr. is sticking by Paragallo, apparently because Paragallo gave him horses to train when he was struggling. The Paragallo camp is spinning, first by “taking responsibility” for everything and also saying they didn’t know about the problems. Reports are that Paragallo hadn’t visited the farm for nine months. You got a farm and you got horses, you gotta feed them, right? Or make sure your people are doing it.
The Derby Trail
* In the Arkansas Derby on Saturday, Papa Clem laid low as Old Fashioned set a hot pace and then ran past the favorite to win by nearly a length. Clem looked like he may appreciate the extra Derby distance as he ran out past the wire. The bad and sad news is that Old Fashioned underwent surgery for a non-displaced slab fracture of a knee and has been retired. It’s a serious injury, but there was no indication of it during the Arkansas Derby.
* In the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, General Quarters, under Eibar Coa, jumped right back into the Derby picture with an emphatic 2+ length victory over Hold Me Back. He took advantage of a nothing-special pace and pulled away off the turn. Mafaaz, the British import who won the gimmick race in England to get an automatic Derby berth will not be in the starting gate May 2. Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, who took over the horse from Tom McCarthy after a disappointing eight-place finish in the Blue Grass, announced the horse will take a break and then travel to New York. Connections say he’ll likely run on turf.
* Many of the Derby contenders are arriving in Louisville. Quality Road won’t check in until a few days before the race, so he will not get an official workout on the Churchill Downs dirt, so we won’t have much if any indication of his affinity for the surface after coming off the synthetic stuff.
* Square Eddie will be the favorite as 12 entrants stop off at the last chance cafe that is the Coolmore Lexington Stakes (ESPN, 4 p.m.) at Keeneland on Saturday. El Crespo, Parade Clown, Masala and Omniscient also contend.
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Thomas Chambers is the Beachwood’s man on the rail. He brings you TrackNotes every Friday. He welcomes your comments.
Posted on April 17, 2009