Archive for the ‘Horse Welfare’ Category

By Ray Paulick
Dr. Patricia Hogan has resigned as chief surgeon at the Ruffian Equine Medical Center adjacent to Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. The 26,000-square-foot veterinary hospital, built at a cost of $18 million by International Equine Acquisitions Holdings, opened last May after numerous delays related to the difficult lending market.
 
Hogan confirmed that she resigned in mid-February but would not comment on the reason for her departure.

“I spent the past five years assisting in the designing, building, and start-up of the REMC,” she told the Paulick Report. “It is a first-class facility and I hired an excellent staff to run it.  I firmly believe in the concept of having a hospital of this magnitude in close proximity to the horsemen of New York.

“I hope that people can look past the controversies that seem to surround the IEAH group and see the greater good as far as this hospital is concerned–it is a very valuable asset to the equine population of the greater New York area and provides critical medical and surgical care, as well as advanced diagnostic capabilities a mere stone’s throw from the backstretch of Belmont Park.”

A 1992 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania school of veterinary medicine, Hogan had a three-year surgical residency at Texas A&M University, then spent 11 years as a surgeon at the New Jersey Equine Clinic. She opened her own practice—Hogan Equine at Fair Winds Farm. in Cream Ridge, N.J.–in 2007.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
It was no dream team that Michael Gill assembled to run his racing operation in Pennsylvania over the past year, at both his farm in Oxford, Pa., and at Penn National race course near the state capital of Harrisburg. In fact, the cast of felons and rule breakers working for Gill has proven to be a regulatory nightmare for the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission charged with policing the sport in the Keystone State.

In the wake of the highly publicized decision Jan. 23 by Penn National jockeys to boycott races with Gill-owned runners, track management has asked the moribund racing commission to investigate allegations by the jockeys that horses prepared by Gill’s two principal trainers present a safety risk and have suffered a high number of catastrophic racing injuries. But, by law, there’s only so much the racing commission can do, even if the commissioners and top executives took their jobs seriously.

The commission can conduct post-mortem examinations on the horses that died while racing at Penn National. It can search the barn and interview employees at the track where Gill’s horses were, until the Jan. 23 incident, trained by Darrel Delahoussaye. But it cannot conduct any kind of investigation at Gill’s Elk Creek Ranch, where as many as 140 racehorses have been stabled and trained since Gill, a New Hampshire-based mortgage executive, reemerged as a racehorse owner in the second half of 2008 after a two-year hiatus. The commission, a division of the state’s Department of Agriculture, has no jurisdiction over “private property.”

Elk Creek Ranch is centrally located in Chester County’s horse country in southeast Pennsylvania, roughly 90 minutes from Philadelphia Park, Penn National, Laurel and Charles Town racetracks. It was purchased by Gill out of necessity earlier this decade when an increasing number of tracks opted not to give stalls to Gill or his trainers because of his aggressive claiming tactics. Gill unsuccessfully tried selling the property when he got out of racing in 2006, the year he received an Eclipse Award as the outstanding North American owner. The award recognized the 2005 racing year, the third consecutive year Gill led all North American owners by races and money won. He added a fourth title in 2009, when his stable piled up $6,670,490 in earnings after his horses won 370 of 2,247 starts.

But the 54-year-old Gill has done more than accumulate wins and money from horse racing purses. To go along with his own checkered past in the sport, Gill has assembled a team of trainers, veterinarians and affiliated bloodstock agents that have shown an almost habitual disregard for the rules of racing.

Here are some examples, based on law enforcement records and rulings from the Association of Racing Commissioners International:

-Gill, in the 1980s, was suspended or ineligible for licensing in Massachusetts and New Hampshire on different occasions for financial obligations. He decided to train his own horses in 1995 and was nailed for having injectable drugs, syringes and needles during a barn raid at Rockingham Park. The New Hampshire Racing Commission suspended Gill for three years. When he returned, he left the training to others. Gill’s RCI rulings.

-Anthony (Tony) Adamo, Gill’s 38-year-old racing manager and one of his trainers, compiled 11 separate violations in 2009, with fines of $3,300—mostly for entering ineligible horses in various races. Adamo, however, has no suspensions or major medication violations on his record during or prior to his association with Gill. Adamo’s RCI rulings.

-Trainer Darrel Delahoussaye, a 47-year-old trainer fired by Gill after Laughing Moon’s breakdown on Jan. 23 became the catalyst for the jockeys’ revolt at Penn National, paid at least $1,500 in fines following eight separate rulings in 2009 against him by the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission.

Delahoussaye had his license revoked by the Louisiana Racing Commission in 1984 following a felony conviction and did not become eligible for reinstatement until 1993. Since then, he has been suspended twice for possession of needles, syringes and injectable drugs—once in Ohio in 1998 and once in Michigan in 2000.

The Ohio Racing Commission also suspended Delahoussaye for one year in 1998 after he was ruled to have “mistreated, abused or engaged in an act of cruelty to a horse; used appliance other than whip for the purpose of stimulating speed.” The appliance was described in court documents as a “wooden stick with stripped electrical cords stuck to it.” A veterinarian and two assistants testified seeing a horse at Beulah Park “jump two or three feet in the air” and then witnessed Delahoussaye unplugging an electrical cord from the wall. Delahoussaye appealed the case but ultimately lost. Delahoussaye’s RCI rulings.

-Cole Norman, 41, hired by Gill to train horses stabled at Elk Creek Ranch last summer, served nine months in jail for negligent homicide, a felony, and was released in January 2009. On Feb. 5, 2007, near Hot Springs, Ark., Norman drove head-on into a car driven by 86-year-old Virginia Heath,killing the woman who was a cousin of former President Bill Clinton. Norman, six-time leading trainer at Oaklawn Park, was found to be under the influence of prescription drugs, to which his attorney said he was battling addiction. Prosecutors said seven different drugs were found in Norman’s system at the time of the crash. Later that year while out on bail, Norman was again arrested for DUI and drug possession after reportedly sideswiping a row of mailboxes in Louisiana.

But Norman has also compiled a prodigious number of medication violations as a horse trainer. Since 1996, the son of the late trainer Gene Norman, has been assessed fines or suspensions in at least 30 cases involving medication violations in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. In a rare foray to California in 2005, Cole was accused of milkshaking the horse Top Commander in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Handicap at Del Mar. According to the California Horse Racing Board’s equine medical director, Dr. Rick Arthur, the total carbon dioxide level (39 millimoles per liter) found in Top Commander was the highest recorded of any horse in the 10 months milkshake testing had been conducted. “At 37, there can be some question (of how the TCO2 reached that level),” said Arthur, “but at 39 no one will argue with you that the horse was milkshaked.” Norman also had two TCO2/milkshake violations in Louisiana in 2006. Other rulings on his RCI rapsheet include possession of unlabeled medication in his tackroom and providing Oaklawn Park’s official clocker with incorrect names of horses working out. Norman’s RCI rulings.

-Veterinarian Kevin L. Brophy, 55, bases his practice at Penn National, but according to Tony Adamo is also Elk Creek Ranch’s principal vet. Brophy has 13 rulings in the RCI database, most recently a $500 fine from the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission for submitting “an inaccurate vet treatment report” for a Gill horse named Monsoor on Oct. 23, the night the son of Mt. Livermore won a $4,000 claiming race at Penn National. After his next race, a Nov. 11 victory carrying a $5,000 tag, Monsoor pulled up lame and has since been sold by Gill to trainer/bloodstock agent Mark Wedig for $1.

Brophy has been fined a number of times during his career for failure to file complete or accurate veterinarian treatment sheets, and on one occasion in 2004 for “submitting a fraudulent treatment slip.” Brophy’s RCI rulings.

-Veterinarian Louis A. Grasso, who recently started working on horses from Elk Creek Ranch, was the central figure in two criminal cases involving banned medication and has had to surrender his racing license or had it denied in New York and New Jersey. In 1991, the 53-year-old Grasso, primarily a Standardbred practitioner, was convicted of the federal crime of selling anabolic steroids to an undercover agent. Nine years later, on April 11, 2000, the New York-based Grasso was under surveillance in Delaware while visiting a private racing stable and agents with the office of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs attempted to stop him. A high-speed chase ensued on Delaware’s Highway 13, with Newcastle County police eventually pulling him over. According to a source, a “treasure trove” of prohibited drugs, including blood-doping agents, was found. Grasso pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest and put on probation with the threat that any violations may result in charges involving confiscated drugs.

On the matter of Grasso’s license being reinstated by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board in 2005, a hearing officer ruled against him, saying “undisputed evidence in the case discloses that Dr. Louis A. Grasso has been convicted of serious felony grade crimes and that he has violated the conditions upon which his license was based.” The refusal was based on Grasso’s “experience, character and general fitness” being “inconsistent with the public interest.” Grasso’s RCI rulings.

-Finally, Mark Wedig, a trainer from West Des Moines, Iowa, is listed on bills of sale as the purchaser of a number of Gill horses in December and January—at a cost of $1 each–that were described to the Paulick Report by a one-time Elk Creek Ranch employee as too lame or too slow to compete. Wedig, 54, had his license suspended for five years by the Iowa Racing Commission, from 2002-07, for “conduct detrimental to racing” for forging signatures on claiming slips and lying to stewards investigating the case. The commission said Wedig acted in a “premeditated, corrupt, deceitful and fraudulent” manner that reflected “negatively on the integrity or best interests” of racing. Wedig’s RCI rulings.

DRILLING HORSES INTO THE GROUND
According to an individual at one time employed at Elk Creek Ranch who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Gill’s horses have been “drilled into the ground” since the arrival of Cole Norman as the farm’s trainer last summer. “Cole is set in his ways,” this person said. “He trains the crap out of them. They breeze every seven days (track condition permitting). They tap the joints of the horses, sometimes right after a race, and they tap ‘em every week, again and again and again if they don’t get sound. They are going to the well too many times. You are not supposed to tap a lame horse.”

The Paulick Report checked the references of this Elk Creek Ranch whistleblower, confirming as many of the details provided as possible. We feel confident the information provided is accurate.

Adamo, this individual said, is often the one who does the injections of hyaluronic acid and/or cortisone—a contention Adamo disputes. “Tony only does the upper and lower knee joints and the ankle,” the whistleblower said. “He doesn’t do anything behind. He probably would if he had more experience.”

“That’s why we have vets there,” Adamo said in response to questions about whether he injects horses on the farm. “We’ve given pre-race shots, or if a horse is sick we’ve given Banamine, but that’s as far as I’m going to go.

“I’m at Penn National one day at Philly Park one day,” he continued. “Between me and Cole we’ll go over the horses and give a list to the doc. Hopefully he does everything on that list. But it’s tough to get him there ( to Oxford) every day.”

Adamo defended his record as a trainer as it relates to breakdowns. "I had five breakdowns on all my starts there," Adamo said of Penn National. "I run just as many horses at Philly Park and had one there. I’m not blaming the racetrack, and I’m not justifying it. One is too many."

‘I’M NOT DISCUSSING ANYTHING’
According to the Practice Act of Pennsylvania governing veterinary medicine, animal owners or their employees are exempted from the rules requiring that only licensed veterinarians treat an animal, at least on private property. However, racing regulations strictly prohibit a trainer from injecting a horse or to simply be in possession of needles and syringes on racetrack property.

Norman isn’t currently licensed as a trainer because of his felony conviction and it isn’t clear when he can be reinstated. For the time being, while he is on parole, he is able to train on the farm and send the horses to the track, where they race under Tony Adamo’s name as the trainer listed in the program. The racing commission, because it does not have jurisdiction over the farm, isn’t able to determine whether or not Norman is the one actually training the horses.

The veterinary supplies are said to have been purchased through Kevin Brophy, who declined to comment to the Paulick Report on any aspect of his relationship to Gill’s operation. “I’m not discussing anything,” Brophy said.

Grasso, reached in New York, said he only recently started working on Gill’s horses, adding that it doesn’t bother him that he can’t take his veterinary practice to the racetrack. “I don’t even go for it (his license),” Grasso said. “I’ve got my farm, got a clinic (in Orange County, New York). That’s all I need.”

The horses at Gill’s farm are well-cared for, the Paulick Report informant said. “If you walk in the barns, you wouldn’t say the horses are underfed or neglected. It’s more the medical treatments, the tapping or the training of sore horses. It’s a shame, because it’s a really good group of grooms that take care of the horses.”

That observation was backed up by Gail Emerson, a humane police officer sent in by the Large Animal Protection Society Jan. 29 for a surprise inspection of the Elk Creek Ranch horses after the organization received an anonymous complaint last week. “Everything was perfect,” she told the Paulick Report. “The horses were well fed, with plenty of water. Every horse I went by came to the front of the stall with their ears pricked.”

Yet there have been dozens of horses vanned off the farm to parts unknown in recent months, some of them described by the Elk Creek Ranch whistleblower as “three-legged lame” or with terrible skin or joint infections. “They joke about how these horses are going to the Girl Scouts in Nebraska or to the zoo,” the individual said, the latter a possible reference to the nearby Bravo Packing company in Carney’s Point, N.J., a company that makes food for zoo animals out of horse meat. When another employee complained about the jokes, the employee was told, “At least we’re not selling them at the (killer) sales; they’re going right to the factory.” The Paulick Report has not been presented with any evidence that a large number of Gill’s horses have ended up at a Canadian slaughterhouse or at Bravo Packing.

Mark Wedig, the Iowa trainer who described himself as a “small fry,” was listed as the buyer of a number of horses Gill sold for $1 each in December and January, including Monsoor, Shes a Cure, Cotton King, Sir Ray, Devil’s Squeeze, My Dance Partner, Phantom Regiment, Taxability, Hector the Connector and Rushing Stag.

Wedig told the Paulick Report he sold Cotton King, said to have a badly infected leg, along with “two mares” to a breeder he knew only as “Charles,” a man Wedig said plans to send the horses to Belize in Central America. Someone whose name he couldn’t remember said he wanted to breed Sir Ray to some mares in Iowa. A barrel racer in southwest Iowa got two of the Gill horses from Wedig, who said he didn’t have a name or phone number for her. Wedig said he plans to rehab the rest at the In Front training center near Mountaineer Park in West Virginia, then bring them back to the races.

When asked if he ever drove horses to slaughter plants in Canada, Wedig said: “Never.”

In an interview with the Paulick Report last week, Gill said “all of the horses go to retirement programs” when their racing careers end, though he didn’t specify which programs or where they are located.

“I don’t know if he is naïve, just doesn’t care, or thinks the horses are going to retirement and turns a blind eye,” the Elk Creek Ranch whistleblower said of Gill. “He may be a good businessman with mortgages, but he’s not with horses.”

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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It wasn’t exactly Katie Couric interrogating Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign when Southern California horseman and radio host Roger Stein invited embattled owner Michael Gill on his show Sunday morning. “Michael Gill has a heart,” Stein said during his introductory remarks, adding that it “bothered me to no end when it looked like they are trying to get rid of him.”

Gill, the center of controversy because of a high number of breakdowns at Penn National and a boycott by jockeys there, defended his stable’s safety record, criticized Penn National jockeys and their agents along with the track’s management and racing surface. He said he will file lawsuits against “jockeys and trainers and racetracks.” He also said there is widespread jealousy over his success which he said is attributable to the fact his horses are given throat surgeries and treated with EPM medication. “It’s like Kentucky Fried Chicken giving out their recipe to the competition,” he told Stein.

Despite that success, Gill said he is getting out of racing again—but this time for good. “Right now,” he said in response to a question from Stein about whether there comes a time when enough is enough. “You’re going to walk away?” Stein said. “Yeah,” said Gill, saying that his family has “slept in a hotel for two nights” out of fear that his critics are “going to send hit squads to my house. … I’ve got five children and two stepchildren and I’m not going to have them fear about being home,” he said. “Maybe I can replace (racing)  with some peace and quiet and deal with that.”

“You might be a tough guy, but you’re a good-hearted tough guy,” Stein said to Gill. “When you leave, they’ll never replace you, Michael…after looking at everything I feel for you.”

Said Gill: “Sometimes in this game you’ve got to fold to win.”

Click here for the full audio of the Roger Stein Show

If you are having trouble hearing the audio, click here for a free download of iTunes 7

Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think

- Ray Paulick

Below is a letter from Christopher McErlean, VP of Racing at Penn National Gaming, requesting an investigation into the recent Michael Gill controversy. Citing their concern for the well-being of the jockeys and horses, we believe Penn National should be commended for their stance on this matter.

Click here for a PDF of the letter

Then let us know what you think

- Bradford Cummings

Maggi Moss knows the claiming game and has shown a strong competitive desire to succeed in the Thoroughbred business. Those are two traits she shares with Michael Gill. Moss won 211 races in 2006, more than any other owner that year, the first woman to do so in more than half a century. She’s won no Eclipse Awards (Gill was voted an Eclipse Award as outstanding owner in 2005), but the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders’ Association named her National Owner of the Year at the organization’s annual awards dinner in 2007.

After reading about the controversy involving Gill’s fatally injured horses at Penn National, Moss submitted to the Paulick Report the following open letter to the controversial owner, pointedly telling him: “Please get out of racing.” – Ray Paulick

By Maggi Moss

An open Letter to Michael Gill
 
Horse racing is already suffering in every regard. Among the public and handicappers, perception is at an all-time low. Owners are increasingly looking to get out.

I have followed Michael Gill horses for almost two years now. I follow patterns and read charts and I have also read Mr. Gill’s comments. He sought out to break a record in 2009 and did not achieve it. Horses were the means to that goal. In that process, how many horses died?

I know about trying to reach goals, break records, and stay on top of the National Standings. I realized after obtaining my own personal goal in 2006, that I too was guilty of using horses to achieve my own personal accomplishments. I, however, did not lose one horse that year.

I opted to change my program and immediately knew that I had to give back to a sport that I am passionate about. It was my job to keep track of my horses and protect them in every way I could. In thoughts of getting out, I realized that I could save more horses in racing then merely turning my back on the sport. Most of all, even if I chose to compete at a lesser level, I could still treat my horses like they are all worth a million dollars, by picking the right individuals, giving them time off, and protecting them in every way I could. Most of all, I could try and give back in every way I was able to financially.

Mr. Gill states that “he takes care of his horses and sends them to retirement homes.” I think it’s important for him to tell us: What homes? I also think he owes it to this sport to tell us what monies he has contributed to the welfare of his horses or what charities has he ever contributed to for the retirement of racehorses.

One only needs to watch his horses run at Penn National and see that his horses do not react as other horses that are injured. When horses hurt themselves, the jockey comes off, and the horse stops–in most cases. Mr. Gill’s horses continue to run around the track even with broken legs, as if they feel no pain. It is gruesome, grotesque and unnatural and would lead one to wonder if these horses are blocked. Has Penn National performed full autopsies and blood tests to find this out ?  Way too many horses owned by Mr. Gill have died a painful death, and it’s not due to mere numbers.

Horses getting hurt is the worst part of the business, incredibly sad. It’s enough to make many get out and, worse, the public to look upon us as barbaric. The industry continues to study the problem, the outcries keep us in the hunt to find the answers. One can blame the veterinarians, the trainers, the owners, or the surfaces, but it is the one sad and tragic part of the business. Mr. Gill’s rates of horses vanned off, hurt, and worse—“breakdowns”–is not due to his numbers but due to the fact that he wants horses he can run through their conditions at all costs. It’s not about claiming horses, it’s about what one does with the horse afterwards.

I have had horses break down, and I have claimed horses that have broken down and it is the most heart-wrenching, sickening feeling I have ever experienced. It only can drive you to protect your own horses and try to save others. The responsibility for these horses lies squarely with the owners.

The difference Mr. Gill, is that your history and your cavalier attitude about losing a horse is what makes you public enemy Number One. You are always more concerned about “being picked on” or suing someone rather than doing something about it. You do not show compassion for your animals, nor do you contribute back to this industry; it’s all about you.
 
You want to stop being picked on? Then do something about it. Hire an outside vet to come to your farm and go through all your horses and tell you which ones are racing sound and healthy. Quit running some horses three and sometimes four times a month.

Quit trying to break records and take care of the horses you have. Publicly tell us where all your horses go when you are through with them or no longer have their conditions. Donate some of your winnings to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation or other worthy cause. Do something for the industry and save some horses in lieu of destroying them. Stop the perception that horses are a piece of property for you for your personal gain.

If you can’t do any of this, please just get out: you continue to hurt the industry, not help it.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
“I’ve been doing this since 1979, and I just can’t get a fair shake.” So says Michael Gill, North America’s leading owner by money and races won on four different occasions who finds himself in a familiar position–at the center of controversy, after Penn National jockeys voted Saturday night not to ride in races if Gill’s horses are entered.

The jockeys took the initiative following the fifth race at Penn National, when a Gill-trained horse, Laughing Moon, blew a suspensory and fell after the finish, causing another horse to go down. Gill had a runner entered in the sixth race, but that horse was scratched. Gill-owned horses entered later this week also have been scratched, and Penn National officials said Monday they temporarily have banned his horses from the entry box, according to bloodhorse.com. Jockeys complained that an unusually high number of horses owned by Gill have either broken down or suffered injuries in Penn National races in the last few months, putting riders at risk. One of Gill’s horses broke down on Thursday night, and Laughing Moon became the 15th runner since October to break down, pull up during the race, be eased, or return lame following the finish.

Penn National officials said seven of Gill’s horses broke down in 2009, a figure that Gill disputes. But even if that number is correct, he said, he believes his percentage of breakdowns is in line or lower than that of other stables that compete at the Pennsylvania track.

I was unable to reach Gill over the weekend prior to publication of Monday’s Paulick Report article on the Penn National incident, but I contacted him Monday at his Mortgage Specialists office in New Hampshire. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy with the actions of the jockeys or with the unwelcome publicity, and in a 30-minute, emotional interview touched on a wide range of subjects. Among the revelations from the 54-year-old Gill were:

- He has fired Darrel Delahoussaye, the trainer of Laughing Moon. “They (Penn National) put a gun to my head, and someone had to take the bullet,” he said. “I feel bad about this. But if I lose the (49) stalls at Penn National, I’m out of business.”

- Some time last year, Gill hired former Oaklawn Park and Louisiana Downs leading trainer Cole Norman. Norman was released from prison in January 2009 after serving time for negligent homicide, for his role in a fatal car crash in which he was under the influence of prescription pain killers. Norman works at Gill’s Elk Creek Ranch in Oxford, Pa., which is used as a training center for horses that race at Penn National, Philadelphia Park, Laurel, Mountaineer Park and Charles Town. “He’s a good trainer,” said Gill.

- Though he said he has lost tens of millions of dollars over the years, Gill claims he didn’t “put one penny of my money into the business last year. I can go to the IRS and say this is a business, it isn’t a hobby.” Gill said he is in a five-year audit with the Internal Revenue Service over whether or not his racing stable is a legitimate business.

- Apart from the horses that broke down at Penn National in 2009, Gill claims he had only one other horse break down in a race. “I ran 2,247 horses last year,” he said. “If a guy had 100 starts and one horse breaks down, is that unacceptable? We’re running in the middle of winter on muddy tracks.

- Gill denies “running sore horses,” and said he didn’t have a single bad test in 2009. “And was anything found in any of my horses after they broke down? Nothing.” I asked Gill about widespread rumors that shock-wave therapy is used at Elk Creek Ranch on horses close to a race. “I never use shock-wave therapy. Never have had a machine. Never, ever used it once, and believe me, plenty of guys have tried to sell me the machines. I don’t believe in them.” He also said he would “open the farm to anyone to inspect it. They can go over every horse I have.”

- He attributes much of the stable’s success to the fact he gives all of his horses medication for Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis, or EPM, a neurological disease. “A good 80% of horses have EPM,” he said. He also has throat surgeries, or myectomies, performed on many of the horses he claims because “with EPM, one side of the flap (in the epiglottis) is gone, and the other half doubles in size. Then it closes up. The surgery helps them breathe.”

- His stable, at one time consisting of 450 horses in 2009, was reduced to 220 and he is in the process of reducing it to 120. “I’m still downsizing,” he said. Furthermore, Gill claims that “all of the horses go to retirement programs.” He wasn’t specific as to where they go. “I give good homes to them,” he said. “I’ve given away 20 horses in the last 30 days for $1.”

- Gill didn’t say he planned to take legal action against Penn National, the jockey colony or the Jockeys’ Guild, but said “Do you know when people organize against one person, that’s a significant lawsuit. Does anybody understand that? I’m tired of suing racetracks—and winning, by the way, every effing time.” He said the jockeys took the action–reported to be a unanimous vote—because “it’s a very closed community at Penn National; a lot of good old boys. I went in there and won all these races, and I’m winning with only two jockeys.”

- Though he lives and works far away in New Hampshire, Gill said he keeps tabs on the stable both at the training farm and the track. “There’s not a race that goes off that I don’t see,” he said. “I have cameras in the barn that go right to my office. I turn around and see every race. I do what I can to be able to run both businesses.”

Why, I asked Gill, is he still in the business, if he thinks he is so mistreated and so misunderstood? “I love the competition. I love the animal. I am a competitor. I am that $5,000 broke down racehorse. I’m a raw competitor with bad knees and sore neck. What better place to compete than in horse racing, and I don’t even gamble on these horses.”

Gill continues to be denied stalls at many tracks, and doesn’t understand why he isn’t appreciated for his involvement in the game and for “showing the industry that you can make money doing this. Of course, if people find out they don’t have to buy a $1-million yearling to make money, do you think they’ll spend money at those sales?”

I suggested to him that people spending that kind of money are looking to win big races during the Triple Crown or at the Breeders’ Cup, not $5,000 claiming races in the dead of winter. “That’s the lottery mentality,” he said.

He turned the tables and asked me a question: “Why don’t you like me?” I said I thought he was arrogant and used his horses as a means to an end.  “You’re mistaking arrogance with competitiveness,” he said. It was clearly an argument I wasn’t going to win.

“Look,” he said. “I came from a seminary, had no money, didn’t go to college. I worked harder than everybody else to get what I have. I started my mortgage company in a one-bedroom apartment, and my living room was my office. I loved horse racing and turned around and invested my money. I go to work every day and haven’t had a vacation for as long as I remember.

“I just don’t understand: What have I done that’s so wrong?”

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By Ray Paulick
If only Michael Gill had kept his word in 2006 when he said he was getting out of horse racing after being leading owner in North America by money and races won for three consecutive years. A lot of people would be happier and a number of horses might still be alive.

Gill did get out of racing in 2006, the year after he was inexplicably voted an Eclipse Award as outstanding owner. Unfortunately, he got back in the game late in 2008, and he was back on top again as leading owner by both races and money won in 2009.

But wait, doesn’t horse racing need more owners, not fewer of them? Not if they’re like Mike Gill. Not in my book, at least. Gill claims relentlessly and runs an absurd number of horses: he had 2,235 starts in 2003, 2,885 in 2004, 1,870 in 2005, and 2,247 in 2009. His best year earnings-wise was $10,811,631, an average of $3,748 per start. Many people feel he is using the animals as nothing more than a commodity to get what he wants. His critics, and there are many, say the horses too often pay the ultimate price.

Nothing outstanding about that. For the life of me, I don’t see how anyone ever could have voted to give him an Eclipse Award.

Jockeys at Penn National Race Course apparently took a vote of a different type on Saturday night, allegedly telling track management they would refuse to ride in any more races in which Mike Gill-owned horses were entered. The vote was taken following the fifth race, after third-place finisher Laughing Moon broke down past the wire, causing another horse to also go down. Laughing Moon’s jockey Rickey Frazier escaped injury.

It was the second breakdown of a Gill-owned horse at Penn National in three nights, Melodeeman having suffered a similar catastrophic injury on Thursday night. Melodeeman was trained by Anthony Adamo and Laughing Moon by Darrel Delahoussaye—Gill’s two trainers at Penn National.

There was a lengthy delay between Saturday night’s fifth and sixth races as the jockeys stated their case. Eventually, a Gill horse, Justin M, was scratched from the sixth race, and the remainder of the card was completed without incident. Gill had no other horses entered following the sixth.

“Gill’s horses are breaking down at a race that’s just not normal,” said a Penn National horseman who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “and it’s not the racetrack. The track is safe. The riders did a very honorable thing, finally saying ‘enough is enough,’ and did so at the risk of a backlash from management. The guys said we are not putting our lives in danger, or the horses in danger.”

According to Equibase charts, in just over three months, 14 other horses owned by Gill have either broken down, were pulled up, returned lame, or eased at Penn National. There were nine in October, three in November, one in December and two in January. (The count includes Saturday night’s incident involving Laughing Moon, even though the Equibase chartcaller did not report the horse broke down past the wire.) Most of the horses are running in bottom level claiming races. At Penn National, however, thanks to slot machine revenue, $5,000 claimers can run for as much as $20,000, with $12,000 going to the winner. An owner can make money squeezing a win out of a horse he claimed for $5,000, even if that horse never runs another race.

Chris McErlean, vice president of racing for Penn National Gaming, said he was not at the track on Saturday but got a report on the incident. McErlean said it is his understanding that horses entered by Gill to race later in the week already have been scratched voluntarily by their trainers. “That wasn’t necessarily at our direction,” McErlean said. “No formal actions have been taken.”

McErlean also said the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission is investigating. “They could be looking into Mr. Gill’s horses in particular, but breakdowns in general,” he said. “They also could be looking at certain veterinarians.”

At the beginning of 2010, Penn National has started reviewing all breakdowns, McErlean said, conducting meetings that involve “the trainer and any other interested parties, the track, the racing commission, and our vet. Every horse that breaks down gets a necropsy done, starting at the beginning of this year. This was initiated by Penn National with the cooperation of the racing commission. Every horse that does break down or is involved in a death does get a necropsy done. We are doing this more for information gathering, to see if there is any connecting of the dots. People are concerned about this and we want some answers.”

Many of Gill’s starters are not stabled at Penn National but ship in from his Elk Creek Ranch in Oxford, Pa. While those horses are on private property, neither the racing commission nor Penn National has access to them. When any horses ship in to race and go to the receiving barn, a state or association veterinarian conducts a pre-race inspection. Horses stabled at the track (and Gill is believed to have 40-50 stalls at Penn National) are not routinely given pre-race exams.

Controversy has followed Gill everywhere he’s gone in racing. He’s been denied stalls at some tracks, banned from the entry box at another, and has not been shy about filing lawsuits.

When he failed to win an Eclipse Award in 2003, Gill put out a statement comparing himself to Seabiscuit’s owner, Charles Howard, in an underdog role against the establishment.

“I can’t help but think that the vote was a vote against me, rather than a vote against the accomplishments,” Gill wrote. “And I don’t understand that. We all cheered ‘Seabiscuit’ last year, a movie about hope and the underdog rising from obscurity to challenge racing’s establishment and emerge victorious.”

Unfortunately, for Laughing Moon and numerous other horses that took their last breath while racing for Gill, there is no hope. The best hope is that he leaves the sport again—this time for good.

Efforts to reach Gill were unsuccessful.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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"Can you imagine the fuss if there was systematic whipping of dogs?" That is the premise of this column by Paul Carpenter in The Morning Call this morning. Where do you stand on the issue of whipping? Do you support the new padded whip and do you believe it’s as effective as hoped?

Click here for The Morning Call article

Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think

- Bradford Cummings

By Ray Paulick
When the committee that doles out Eclipse Awards of Merit or Special Eclipse Awards announced the other day that Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation founder and longtime chairman Monique Koehler would be a recipient of a Special Eclipse Award next month, my first thought was, “What took so long?”

But then I remembered this is an industry predicated on past performances, and the past performances suggest that recognition of people and organizations dedicated to the health and welfare of retired racehorses comes reluctantly and over time.

I first became aware of the TRF more than 20 years ago, some five years after Koehler started the organization in 1982. I was working for a Thoroughbred publication and was asked to come up with a list of potential story ideas to be used for upcoming features. I called some friends in different parts of the country looking for ideas and one of them told me about this fascinating operation based at an upstate New York prison that took in retired racehorses and stabled them at the prison, where inmates would care for them. It was a proverbial win-win situation: good for the horses, good for the rehabilitation of the inmates.

When I suggested to the editor that a feature on the TRF be considered, I thought for sure I’d get two thumbs up. I was stunned when he told me, “Oh, we can’t do that. We don’t want people to find out what really happens to all those horses when they’re done racing.”

It was my first exposure to one of the sport’s dirty little secrets, that ex-racehorses often wind up in a slaughterhouse somewhere, destined for a dinner plate overseas, or perhaps as food for a dog or other animal. Turns out the glue factory was more than a cliché.

Monique and the TRF’s longtime executive director, Diana Pikulski, have fought hard for the organization’s mission to be recognized, much less accepted, in the Thoroughbred media and by the industry they have done so much to help. As the TRF grew, admitting more horses into a prison program that expanded to other states and to satellite farms, the struggle became an economic one of how to feed and care for the thousands of Thoroughbreds retired from the racetrack each year.

Gradually, they picked up important advocates, like the late John Hettinger, whose money, influence and outspoken passion for the cause advanced the TRF and its mission. Many similar organizations popped up around the country, but the TRF to this day remains the largest national charity devoted to helping retired Thoroughbred racehorses.

Critics, including, ironically, the American Association of Equine Practitioners, an organization also devoted to the health and welfare of horses, have pooh-poohed the TRF and similar organizations, saying their efforts to save horses represent a drop in the bucket when compared to the total number of unwanted Thoroughbreds. But should the fact that not all Thoroughbreds can be saved from slaughter or neglect prevent rescue and retirement organizations from saving those they can, and often placing them in second careers as performance or pleasure horses?

I don’t think so, and I believe the AAEP has been on the wrong side of this issue for many years. (Disclosure: I served on the AAEP board of directors in a non-veterinary “industry seat” for three years where I tried to be an advocate for rescue/retirement groups. I currently am a member of the TRF board.)

The efforts of Koehler, Pikulski, Hettinger, web publisher and horseman Alex Brown and many others have raised awareness to this issue, and some of racing’s largest institutions now recognize that supporting racehorse retirement is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do for the industry’s tarnished image among the general public.

Along the way, trainers like Nick Zito, Todd Pletcher, Gary Contessa and the late John Russell stepped forward as advocates, along with owners and breeders like Gary Biszantz, Madeline Auerbach and the late Trudy McCaffery (there are many more who have stepped up). Numerous breeders and stallion farms have supported fundraisers through the donation of stallion seasons.

Richard Fields, the majority owner of Suffolk Downs, showed tremendous leadership when instituting a policy at the New England racetrack banning trainers who dump horses into auctions where the animals usually are destined for slaughter. Churchill Downs and Magna Entertainment developed policies and positions of support for racehorse retirement, and most recently the New York Racing Association adopted a policy and pledged funds to assist the retirement of horses. The Jockey Club has taken a strong position of support, and that was a most significant development.

There are holdouts, including the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, whose silence and lack of leadership on the issue is a sore spot with many people. But as Monique Koehler knows more than anyone else, these things take time.

So rather than criticizing the committee that took more than a quarter of a century to recognize Monique Koehler for starting a national movement that represents so much that is good about the people in this industry, I say “thank you” to the organizations that voted her this award: the Daily Racing Form, National Turf Writers Association and even the NTRA.

More importantly, if they could talk, the thousands of horses that have been or will be saved as a result of Monique’s tireless dedication and advocacy would say thank you as well.

The best way you can thank Monique is by supporting the TRF through a donation. Click here to learn more about the organization and here to make a donation.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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Liberation Farm celebrates the many horsemen and horsewomen who strive each day to make things better for horses and those who work with them.  To learn more about Liberation Farm, click here.