Comments on: IAVARONE DEATH THREAT: IT’S NEWS TO NYRA

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:52:32 +0000

Yes, because an entire police department would make the whole thing up for… what reason exactly? I mean, come on.

By: chris

chris — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:37:53 +0000

I still don’t believe it. Remember earlier this year when IEAH donated to the Nassau County Police Detective who was injured? And now after the NYPD denies it as does NYRA, Nassau somehow just remembered. Not buying it.

By: TonyHorsepower

TonyHorsepower — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:47:09 +0000

Today the Blood-Horse posted a report where police confirmed the death threat and explained what happened: http://news.bloodhorse.com/article/47841.htm

By: Steve Zorn

Steve Zorn — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:13:10 +0000

Just a first-hand comment on the two vets mentioned in this thread. Both Jim Hunt and Patty Hogan have treated my horses, and they’ve both been fully professional. Dr. Hogan, in particular, is more than professional; she’s lavished the same care on my mid-level claimers that she did on Smarty Jones, and in fact managed to save the eye on our horse Tactical Gold after several race track vets thouhght he’d lose it to an infection.
As for their involvement with IEAH, I have no inside information, but I’d hope they think that they could be doing good work. Belmont certainly needs a major surgery facility nearby; at present we have to ship horses that need surgery up to Cornell, down to New Bolton, or to Dr. Hogan’s place in New Jersey. I just hope they don’t get screwed by IEAH somewhere down the road.

By: Snowbum

Snowbum — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:06:15 +0000

opey: Wild Desert may have been a multi-layered coup. Doping had to be suspected based on the unprecedented anti-doping/EPO measures Woodbine took the following year which may have caused its Plate favorite to finish last… Allday is no pansy. He was clearly angry at Dutrow and said: “It’s pay-back time”.

I agree with you that Afleet Alex came back too soon. Was Dr. Hogan pressured by AA’s people and caught in the middle? Was this an experiment? Worth taking a chance? Did she make a mistake? Dr. Hogan has a great reputation as a veterinarian beyond Smarty’s eye and is also a strong supporter of equine welfare.

Dirt vs. synthetic. Humans directly and indirectly break horses down at least 95% of the time. I have yet to see the total number of injuries synthetic vs. good dirt, which include injuries severe enough to be season and career ending. Fatality numbers for synthetic used over and over for PR purposes are deceptive since synthetic tends to cause more soft tissue injuries which may not be immediately fatal like fractures can be but become fatal following complications days and weeks later and when horses are sent to slaughter.

Cortisone: should be banned from racing, yet it is hardly mentioned because it enables sore horses to fill an insane number of cheap races. Drug pushing vets, abusive owners and trainers, cheap racing where the majority of injuries happen all need to be reformed and cut back. Slots keep racing afloat in some states as the decadent claiming game spreads. Both are enablers and killers. Major solutions are painfully obvious but too tough to tackle, yet.

By: opey

opey — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:30:23 +0000

one more note:
The prestigious Dr. Patricia Hogan gained a whole lot of mileage off the fact that she put some stitches in Smarty Jones head when he was a yearling or so. There are perhaps a hundred people or more who could make the same claim that they saved the life of every racehorse in training, be it a Kentucky Derby winner or a 10K claimer.
It should also be noted that Dr. Hogan was the advisor of Afleet Alex’s premature, and ill-fated return to the races after a fracture was diagnosed, and gave T Ritchey the go-ahead to resume training.
If racehorse veterinarians such as the prestigious Drs Hogan and Hunt that are involved with the IEAH REMC would begin to act more like doctors that their degrees empower them with, we might not even be saddled with the current debate that dirt racecourses endanger horse’s lives. Dirt courses are not the problem, medication (cortisone in joints $$$$), along with poor medical advice coming from vets whose only care is to paint a bright picture to trainers who stuff their pockets, are..

By: Willie Leave

Willie Leave — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:57:15 +0000

Wow, just when you thought Mike couldn’t be even sleazier he finds a way. Hopefully some racing jurisdiction will deny him a license due to his lack of character. Be nice to see the industry rid of him.

By: greg

greg — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:10:38 +0000

Makes sense that anything this character says is up for a fact check.

If we learned one thing in racing this year, it’s that one can only take anything Iavarone says with a grain of salt. From High profile Investor, to UCLA graduate, to future major league baseball star, he has created quite a list of outright lies. Not misunderstandings, not mistakes, no outright 100% lies. But he’ll get his people in this case “Kelly” to back him up. That’s just the way it is. One lies the other swears to it, old story.

On a more serious note, I see IEAH is selling off a lot of their stock at the FT sale. Looks like the biggest buyers are becoming sellers, does that mean no hedge fund? Could this latest saga be Iavarone’s last chance for pubic sympathy from the masses, which he obviously craves (see his Talkin Horses interview on bloodhorse)? Or is it real? Who knows but I got to give him credit, he isn’t boring and he and his crew have changed horse racing in America forever. Dinny Phipps and Farish were so sick of Dutrow and Iavarone beating their tales from coast to coast, they had to do something. They may have accidentally saved American breeding/racing, and that is no lie.

By: opey

opey — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:05:20 +0000

Wake up Snowburn,
Wild Desert was not a coup, the NYRA racing sec. had a beef with the owner and ruled his horses off NYRA property, you can’t blame Dutrow for trying to do everything he could to train a nice horse up to a big race. He went too far as far as trying to officially switch training locales, but he got caught and did the time, so what?
As for the Dr. Allday piece on Sirius, that should all be thrown into the trash heap along with half of everything that he says about trainers that he has worked for IN THE PAST. Note that his tirade came within a week of Kip Deville winning the BC Mile at Monmouth, and there are probably several dozen trainers in racing that can tell you not to believe anything Allday says. Dr. Allday and Dutrow fell out in Oct. 06 and if there is anything the talented, but nuts Dr. Allday can’t stand, it’s one of his former clients continuing to do well without his overbearing BS, self-aggrandizing self being involved with it!!!!

By: Snowbum

Snowbum — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:35:52 +0000

Owners and trainers tend to be a perfect match. Dutrow is a good horseman.

But could Dutrow have ties to the underworld? He races in NY and NJ, some or all of his owners are huge gamblers like him, he is based in his own little world at Aqueduct where he was able to sneak by security in the middle of the night while serving a suspension and visited his horses (spooky as hell), his coup with Wild Desert, drug positives, arrogance, rumors of his racing ringers, his warning toward all jockeys before the Belmont Stakes that (paraphrasing here) if they pulled a Smarty Jones on Big Brown they would risk being assasinated… and last but not least a series of damaging comments made by Steve Allday, DVM (Steve Byk Sirius Radio show “At the Races” , November 2, 2007, Hour 1) that Dutrow likes to cheat, he is bad for racing, etc. This show is worth a listen!

Apparently the prestigious Dr. Patricia Hogan don’t mind being associated with the Ruffian Hospital either.