FIRST-TIME OFFENDER?
The wise guys are out in force: “Knock me over with a feather,” they are saying in response to the latest news about Rick “No Show” Dutrow, who will be handed a 15-day suspension from the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority, which also will redistribute the $20,000 second-place purse won by Salute the Count in the Aegon Turf Sprint Stakes at Churchill Downs May 2. The former claiming horse owned by Michael Dubb and Robert Joscelyn tested positive for an extremely high level of clenbuterol, a bronchial dilator that has come into vogue as a training aid among many horsemen over the last 10 years but is not permitted on raceday.
The violation came one day before Dutrow-trained Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby.
Why just 15 days for Dutrow, who according to the Association of Racing Commissioners International has at least 72 previous rulings against him for a variety of violations since 1976? The New York Times, which broke the story, quotes former trainer John Veitch, the chief state steward for the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority , as saying 15 days and forfeiture of the purse would be Dutrow’s penalty for a first offense, according to Kentucky rules. Veitch told the paper the level detected (and confirmed by an independent lab of Dutrow’s choosing) was two times that of the legal threshold and the highest he had seen in four years as Kentucky’s top racing official.
First offense?
If I get speeding tickets in 25 states and am then caught in Kentucky going 10 miles over the limit, I hope I can get the same kid-glove treatment and am looked upon as a first-time offender. Somehow, I doubt that will happen. Why, then, is Dutrow’s track record of rules violations in multiple states being ignored in Kentucky?
Larry Jones, the trainer of star-crossed Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles, recently had a positive test for clenbuterol in Delaware on a horse owned by Jim Squires. By all accounts, if confirmed in a split sample, this would be Jones’ first medication violation in 25 years of training. According to Delaware Park stewards, the standard penalty for a first offense would be a $500 fine, forfeiture of purse and a seven-day suspension of the trainer. Not much different than the sanctions that will be imposed on Dutrow.
Considering the number of violations Dutrow has had during his career (including a 2004 case involving clenbuterol in New York), the Kentucky penalty given him would be the proverbial slap on the wrist.
This is the kind of problem that federal lawmakers looked into last week, when Dutrow was among a group of owners, trainers, veterinarians, regulators and racing officials asked to testify before a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on Thoroughbred racing and breeding. The trainer was the only no show, however, claiming to be ill. During the hearing, House members zeroed in on racing’s inability to enforce national standardized rules and penalties due to the structure that has 38 different state racing commissions regulating the sport and the absence of a league office that other major league sports have.
If the Congressional inquiry made racing industry leaders look impotent then, how do they look now, in the wake of the wrist slap against Dutrow?
This case is only going to further motivate Congress to take action, unless someone in the Thoroughbred industry moves beyond forming committees, making recommendations and pontificating about “consensus building” and the “power of persuasion.”
It is clear the Thoroughbred industry, as presently structured, is incapable of policing itself adequately.
By Ray Paulick
Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report
Tags: association of racing commissioners international, Big Brown, clenbuterol, Congressional Hearing, john veitch, kentucky derby, kentucky horse racing authority, larry jones, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, RCI, rick dutrow, salute the count
June 25th, 2008 at 9:50 am
These kind of wrist slap “penalties” are what drive the honest guys nuts. Unless and until racing starts imposing serious, harsh, penalties for repeat violators, there is absolutely no incentive for the bad guys to stop cheating. Worse yet, it puts pressure on the trainers who would otherwise do the right thing to push the envelope just to be competitive.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:08 am
So poor Rickie has to train his horses by cell phone from the beach on Long Island for a couple of weeks…what a joke.
What will it take for racing to change?
This is beyond pathetic. He has made a complete mockery of the game.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am
This man’s rap sheet is longer than Snoop Dogg’s. How he keeps getting off with slaps on the wrist just goes to show that this sport needs to keep itself in check. Otherwise, Big Brother on Capitol Hill will take care of it for them.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Stupified hit the nail on the head: Rick Dutrow makes a mockery of the game. I’m totally disgusted with the sport.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Ray - Great article on brother Dutrow. It never ceases to amaze me what a week bunch the KY Racing Commission is.
What a joke the industry is and KY seems to be the worst what with the infamous “buy-bid” statute it’s why the novice horse owner gets concerned about his investment in a business that seems NOT to look out for the real new customers.
As you know, I run into this junk in virtually all the breeds, its just that racing has millions of people examining it.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:31 am
This fat faced Dutrow needs to be removed from the horse racing industry permanetly. He as arogant as they come and does not seem to care.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I’d love to see Dutrow try to get a license in Hong Kong; I wondered if the reason he didn’t go along to Dubai this year was that his rap sheet doesn’t make him particularly welcome there (although having Big Brown in the Florida Derby was a convenient sideshow).
June 25th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
(from your article…) “Why, then, is Dutrow’s track record of rules violations in multiple states being ignored in Kentucky?”
In my opinion, this just adds to the ever-growing list of reasons why racing MUST have a national board of oversight - complete with teeth, fangs, and indisputable authority - so that uniform standards and laws apply in EVERY state in which has a racing venue. Then, and perhaps only then, what happens in NY or CA or FL will ALSO matter in KY and TX and IL.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
The stark contrast between the action taken by Kentucky authorities for what appears to be Mr. Dutrow’s 73rd violation (15 days) versus action taken by Delaware authorities for “extreme misuse” of. the whip by Jeremy Rose (180 days) is startling. Delaware appears to be sending a message that they’re taking public and Congressional strutiny seriously. Kentucky, the epicenter of the horse industry, is suggesting that either they don’t want to be the reform pacesetter or don’t. care. This is no way to run a railroad.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
The responsibility falls squarely in the lap of the Kentucky Racing Commission, who seems to lead the country in lax rules and even more lax enforcement.
Isn’t Whitfield’s wife on that Board, and if so isn’t she a huge part of the problem?
How ironic.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Many honest trainers have had to put up with the dishonesty of certain trainers for many many years now at every track across America. You couldnt really say much about them cheating or rat on them because the rest of the community would turn your back on you. Its like the police departments when it comes to one of their guys crossing the line, nobody says anything.
I personally grew tired of having to compete with these cheats and instead of joining them(has as so many others have sunk too), I walked away. Gave up training horses. The busines that I loved so dearly. Winner of nearly 20% lifetime wins.
Owners rather hire the guy with the needle than the guy with the leg medication and bandages.
I just could never understand how these guys could cheat, look themselves in the mirror and feel good about it knowing they know no other way to being successful. And they call themselves horseman. HA!
June 25th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Why aren’t the owners - Dubb and Jocelyn - being taken to task? Refunding the purse may hurt, but switching barns is akin to having assisstants fill-in for suspended trainers. Current penalties do nothing to clean up the game.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Never again. Again.
That’s how it always is in horse racing.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
“The sport of kings” certainly isn’t very regal these days!! What a shameful, profligate industry filled with arrogant, self serving individuals. I was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky and have attended many Derbys. I live in California now but I have always spoken with pride about the Kentucky Derby. No more. I am ashamed of it.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
While I agree with the anti-Dutrow and anti-Kentucky Horse Racing Authority sentiments, “72 previous rulings against him” isn’t remotely the truth. Steve Crist spells it out in his blog
http://cristblog.drf.com/crist/2008/06/bad-rap-sheet.html
Cheers
June 25th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
It is Dutrow’s 13th drug positive. It’s not 72 violations. There are 72 entries on his rap sheet, some duplicates, and 12 are for drug positives.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Wow, it’s only 13 drug positives on the race track and 8 drug positives for personal drug use. That makes me feel SO much better about the Kentucky slap on the wrist! NOT. So now we have the trainers for both potential horses of the year cited for drug violations within 24 hours. You can’t make this stuff up.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:42 am
…..Actually, (most) of you people are “Right On” with these comments. As for Larry Jones, …”See what happens, Larry, when you cross That line,just to be competitive with all those “crooks”?To me, there isn’t really any difference between 25 years of training and “getting caught”, or 770 something violations (oops!) or only 13 out of HOWEVER many ?OTHER? violations????? Hhhmmmm….and WHAT in hell WERE ALL those OTHER violations,anyway??I’ve been Breeding, Training, and Riding Thoroughbreds for over 45 years ~~~~~Holistically~~~~~~and WINNING!! One Violation, when it ends up a Dead Horse is TOO MANY!
June 26th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
[...] repeat offenders more harshly than first-timers or infrequent violators. Ray Paulick wondered (here) why Dutrow — a habitual recidivist — is being treated as “a first-time [...]
June 28th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Once again, on June 27th, 2008, Rich Dutrow has attempted to defend himself. Again - hopefully, for the final time -, he succeeded in only making things worse.
Dave Grening’s DRF story is the source. His reputation’s solid & I’m confident that he accurately reported statements made by Dutrow during Friday’s “press conference.”
Dutrow’s one defensible statement was that the list generated by the Asso. of Racing Commissioners - detailing Dutrow’s “72″ fines, suspensions, & reinstatements - is grossly misleading. True. Who are these illiterate idiots?
But their inexplicable ineptitude cannot exonerate the exasperated - “This [the report] is what they’re talking about?”- trainer.
Steve’s most recent posting stated that the “correct number of medication rulings” was “13, not 72…
“Six Bute…four Lasix…& two Clenbuterol overages, & one Mepivicaine positive…” [&] “the ARCI document… appears to omit the $25K fine… assessed for Dutrow’s violating the terms of his 2005 suspension…”
None of these infractions, today, concerned Dutrow in the slightest.
It was as if he had been trying to get it through our thick skulls that these are parking tickets paid by corporations that consider them nothing more than a routine cost of doing business - as if Dutrow were some sort of a truck driver.
Rich had only begun to fight. His next defense was to place the blame on the vets hired by the owners. They’re incompetent.
What came next will floor you, if you haven’t heard about it already. And it’s a lock that the following people specifically named in his finger-pointing - this evening, hours after the event - are still stunned (& furious) by his accusations.
He specifically accused his former & present fellow trainers - Barrera, Moschera, Ferriola, Serey, & Contessa (a “jerk-off”) - of having used illegal drugs (or legal drugs, illegally) - & that such practices have been the sole reason for their respective success.
The defense of one trainer will suffice. Gasper Moshera was NEVER - NOT ONCE - cited, suspended, or fined for illegal drug usage.
I believe it was Jerry Bossert - when he reported the news that Moschera decided to retire - who stated that Moschera’s unimpeachable record in this respect was more far important than the number of races the trainer had won in his career.
This leads to the next logical step - that by implication, Dutrow had indirectly accused NYRA & other racing officials of having aided & abetted the illegal usage of drugs administered to Moschera’s horses; that having “post-race tested” his horses, they then ignored the findings of the testers that had stated that Moschera’s horses had tested positive.
Failing that, the implication insinuates that the testers themselves had had no idea what they were looking at; Moschera was never “caught” because the testers were incompetent.
Regardless of the alternatives, it had to be some sort of a team effort; otherwise, how could any one trainer be so untouchable?
He continued. His revolting “we’re ALL corrupt” defense deployed a new angle: “Like I’m a drug kind of guy…”
This means that every single trainer in the country must also have a rap sheet with a minimum of “six Bute overages, four Lasix overages, two Clenbuterol overages, & one Mepivicaine positive.”
In other words, Dutrow - given the opportunity to define himself - stated that he’s an unexceptional example of the entire racing industry - someone who is so unremarkable, so unworthy of notice, that it is the very definition of slander to characterize him as being any different than his peers.
He concluded his self-destructive whining with “nobody gave me credit” for having trained Big Brown up to the caliber of a Kentucky Derby-Preakness winning thoroughbred.
This slandered the racing press - about the only remaining possible scapegoat left unmolested by Dutrow since June 7th, 2008 (the grooms & the hot walkers better start digging some foxholes).
The media’s remarkably positive pre-Derby coverage of Dutrow was relentless - until Dutrow himself, prior to the race, created the first stage of his inevitable downfall with his revolting statements about how easy it would be for Big Brown to win the Derby.
On that day, on or about April 30th, his self-inflicted & inevitable reversal of fortune began.
A recap:
Dutrow summarily dismissed all of his actual past fines & suspensions as being meaningless.
He directly blamed the vets (& indirectly, any of his owners who might have hired the vets);
He bluntly stated that other successful trainers engaged in corrupt practices, & - without a shred of evidence - accused five specific trainers of being corrupt;
He implied that racing officials had willfully ignored the positives detected in the testing of the horses trained by at least one specific trainer, or that the testers themselves were incompetent;
He insinuated that every trainer in the country has a rap sheet with multiple infractions similar - if not identical - to his own;
And he accused the racing press of having poisoned his reputation with prejudiced & irresponsible reporting, when, in fact, his press coverage had been notably & consistently positive in nature - a practice that only ceased after Dutrow’s statements increasingly became offensive.
This is a severely disturbed individual. His training license must be revoked - permanently & without delay. Do it now.
Don Reed
June 30th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Well I dont know about those specific trainers, but I can tell you (and no I wont name names), the glass is more than half full with trainers who do do things illegally. Only reason I claim these things (while others stay silent) is because I would love more than anything to see this sport finally cleaned up for the sake of the poor horses.
This business has gone far too long unregulated and its obvious that the industry itself is incapable of properly regulating it. After all, many of them in a position of power with the ability to make changes have their palms out being greased.
In this industry, most look the other way to the unethical practices. Many protect their own just like law enforcement agencies or are just too afraid to speak out because it could ruined them.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Kentucky and New York are priomarily responsible for racing’s decline and permissive medication rules. When you closely examine thye NYRA trustees and The Jockey Club, you realize that a majority of the leaders look like they come from the Kentucky breeders and good ole’ boy regime. In my opinion, Kentucky created our problems, so now irts time for them to act, and 15 days for Mr. Dutrow certainly can’t be considered action. Federal oversight is the only real solution.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Here’s a fun bit of trivia. This is 810 KAR 1:028, the penalties reg:
Section 3. Prior Offenses.
(1) [...] Prior offenses occurring in other racing jurisdictions may be considered by the stewards and the Authority in assessing penalties. [...]
(2) Prior offenses occurring before September 7, 2005 shall not be considered.
(3) Prior offenses involving a Class C drug or Class D drug may be considered as a prior offense, if the act that constituted the offense was committed after September 7, 2005 and within one (1) year of the offense for which the person stands charged.
(4) Prior offenses involving a Class A drug or Class B drug may be considered as a prior offense, if the act that constituted the offense was committed after September 7, 2005.
(5) Prior offenses shall not be considered for purposes of enhancing a penalty if the drug, medication, or substance that was the subject of the prior offense was of a lower class, pursuant to the schedule, than the drug, medication, or sbstance that is the subject of the offense for which the person stands charged.
Here’s how I read the above: Looking at Christ’s ‘Dutrow rap sheet’ - http://cristblog.drf.com/crist/2008/06/bad-rap-sheet.html …
The only ‘prior offenses’ the Commission could have even considered were the 2008 Phenylbutazone overages (after September 7, 2005, within one year of this charge … why they don’t look back beyond three years, or in this case one year, is baffling). Moreover, Clenbuterol is a Class B drug, Phenylbutazone is a Class C drug. So according to (5), the Commission couldn’t have even considered the Phenylbutazone overages because the subject of the offense was a lower Class.
Bottom line: according to the Kentucky regulation … 13 prior drug rulings looked like a blank slate.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Kerry makes a good point. The real problem is the regulations of the KHRC (KHRA) were/are written by people who do not know how to write a clear, cogent sentence in the English language.
Perhaps this is deliberate. It allows the Commissioners to make whatever ruling is in the best interests of insiders.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
[...] For the record, I unwittingly answered this question yesterday as a comment on a Paulick flashback: [...]