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.

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.

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