Posts Tagged ‘CHRB’

By Ray Paulick
“If I had a rifle, I’d have shot him out of the saddle.” That’s how the late Hall of Fame trainer Charlie Whittingham responded when asked about the ride he got from another Hall of Famer, Sandy Hawley, when the Canadian jockey went to the early lead aboard the late-running Kentucky Derby winner, Gato del Sol, in a turf marathon at Santa Anita Park in 1984. The Bald Eagle was only kidding…I think.

Times have changed in this more politically correct era. These days, trainers are more likely to go to the stewards and complain when a jockey fails to follow their instructions in a race. That’s what John Glenney did when he was unhappy with the ride Joel Rosario gave him aboard a colt that finished fourth in a Del Mar maiden turf race on Sept. 6. Glenney told Rosario to keep Cedros in the clear; the horse ended up on the rail down the stretch. Glenney’s anger over Rosario’s failure to follow his instructions were exacerbated when Rosario’s agent, Vic Stauffer, made a flippant remark to him over the phone the next morning about whether or not Cedros was for sale.
 
But what happened next is a good example of how convoluted our game can be. Instead of looking into the complaint, talking to all the principles involved, and dismissing the case before it made headlines, the California Horse Racing Board rushed to file a complaint against Rosario, unfairly tarnishing the reputation of one of the brightest lights in California racing, and in the process giving the sport an unnecessary black eye.

How the complaint against Rosario–for not putting forth his best effort and conduct detrimental to horse racing–reached the point of a public “trial” in front of the stewards is only one of the questions that begs an answer. Why did the lead investigator in this case not talk with Rosario before a formal complaint was filed? And if Rosario’s ride aboard Cedros was deemed “questionable” by CHRB steward Scott Cheney, as he was quoted as saying, why was the accused jockey not called in by the stewards to review the film of the race, something that is standard operating procedure?

I called the CHRB to try and get answers to those questions but was told by Mike Marten, the agency’s public information officer, neither the CHRB nor its investigators would not talk about the Rosario case or how the agency’s investigations in general are conducted.

Some might say “the system worked” because the complaint against Rosario was dismissed by the stewards after a hearing. However, that was not until the 24-year-old rising star from the Dominican Republic had his name dragged through the mud on one of the most serious charges a jockey can face in the eyes of the betting public and the trainers and owners for whom he rides.

‘DOES YOUR JOCKEY FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS?’
The saga began in August, according to Stauffer, when Glenney approached the agent at Del Mar and asked, “Does your jockey follow instructions?”

“Yes, he does, who are you?” answered Stauffer, who said Glenney then identified himself and said “I can’t find jockeys to follow instructions, and I need a jockey who will do what I say. I should be winning, and I’m not because the jockeys aren’t following instructions.’”

Stauffer said he went over the horses in Glenney’s barn with the trainer and wasn’t interested in riding any of them with the exception of Cedros. “I liked his race the day Aaron Gryder rode him,” Stauffer recalled, “but Glenney said Gryder rode the horse like an ‘idiot.’” Cedros had finished second, beaten a head at 25-1, under Gryder on Aug. 9.

Glenney agreed to ride Rosario on Cedros and the jockey worked him once before the Sept. 6 race, according to Stauffer.

Rosario, who had been leading rider at Hollywood Park during the spring-summer meeting and was about to lock up the Del Mar riding title, rode four winners on Sept. 6, including the $350,000 Del Mar Derby aboard Rendezvous for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Stauffer, who said he bet $250 to win on Cedros because he thought the nearly 9-2 odds were overly generous, approached the rider after Cedros finished fourth in what was the day’s final race.

“I greeted Joel on his way back to the jockeys’ room to congratulate him and he said he couldn’t manage the horse he just rode,” Stauffer recalled. “He said the horse had ability but had the wrong bit and that we had to tell the trainer to change his equipment. ‘If he doesn’t consider changing the equipment I won’t ride him again.’”

Cedros fought for the early lead on the outside from the nine post in the 1 1/16-mile turf race, setting quick fractions of :23.11 for the opening quarter mile and :46.62 for the half. Down the backside, two horses made a strong move past the dueling leaders, and Rosario let them go. He wound up on the rail at the top of the stretch—against Glenney’s wishes—and lost a photo finish for third. The winner came from dead last. Rosario raised the whip in his left hand in mid-stretch, but Cedros appeared to shy from it and drifted out, prompting Rosario not to strike the horse.

The next morning, while Stauffer was visiting trainer Hollendorfer and his assistant, Dan Ward, the subject of Cedros came up. Ward called a replay of the race up on his computer and, according to Stauffer, told Hollendorfer, “You ought to look at this. This is a nice horse.”

Hollendorfer, according to Stauffer, was not interested for two reasons: 1) he was heading to the Keeneland September yearling sale where he planned to be active as a buyer, and 2) he had a previous experience with Glenney and didn’t want to do any more business with him.

“Jerry said to Dan, ‘You like the horse, you call the guy,’” Stauffer said. “Dan said, ‘I’m not calling him, that guy’s crazy,’ then said, ‘Vic, you call him.’”

Stauffer said it’s his custom to follow up with trainers Rosario had ridden for and called Glenney from Hollendorfer’s tack room, putting the call on speaker phone. “I asked Glenney how he was doing and he says, ‘How am I doing? How do you think I am? Terrible. That was a horrible ride.’ Then he goes off for two or three minutes on a diatribe about how bad Rosario rode his horse and how could this kid call himself a leading rider.’ I thought it was a basic rant by a losing trainer. I hear it all the time.

“So at the end of his rant, I said to him, ‘So, I guess you don’t want to sell him, huh?’ That was designed to make Jerry and Dan laugh. It was said flippantly and benignly. There was no actual initiation of being mildly interested in buying the horse. Jerry had already said he wouldn’t buy the horse from the guy. So I said this thing that I thought was sarcastic and flippant. Glenney blew up. ‘Buy the horse…are you kidding me?’ I said, ‘Yes, I was just kidding.’ He then reiterated all the admonitions about Joel’s ride, this time more aggressively.”

Stauffer listed and after a few minutes more said he told Glenney, “OK, have a nice day,” and hung up the phone. “That was the entire conversation and the entire spirit of the conversation that I had with John Glenney,” Stauffer said. “Nothing before or since.”

A few days later, the day after a late-night bachelor party prior to his Sept. 12 wedding, Stauffer got an 8 a.m. call from CHRB investigator Rick Amieva, saying a complaint had been filed against Rosario for not putting in his best effort. Stauffer said Amieva asked about his conversation with Glenney the morning after the race and asked, ‘Who approached you?’

“(Amieva) said, ‘I’ve seen the videotape. It’s obvious that he’s guilty of what is being alleged.’ And I said, ‘Hold on there. Are you certified as a film analyst?’ He said ‘no,’ and I told him, ‘So you have taken it upon yourself to analyze this film and you are telling me it’s obvious Joel is guilty?’ He said, ‘Yes.’”

Stauffer said he was caught off-guard by the call and asked Amieva if he could go back over the questions the investigator had asked him. “I think the first thing I said was the ramblings of a sleeping person,” said Stauffer. “I asked if I could restate the answers to his questions, because I wanted to make sure he got all the facts.”

Amieva, Stauffer believes, is a “bitter” person who has been passed over for promotions by the CHRB. “I think he said, ‘Aha. Now we’ve got a conspiracy. I’ve got him changing his story. This is going to put me on the map as an investigator because it’s race fixing.”

After that conversation, Stauffer immediately called Glenney and “used every cuss word that I know. I asked how he could have the nerve to do this when his horse just didn’t perform to his expectations.” Glenney hung up on Stauffer.

One week later, after Amieva consulted with his superiors, chief investigator Rod Coulter and supervising special investigator Bill Westermann, the CHRB filed a formal complaint against Rosario.

STEWARDS HEARING, THEN A DISMISSAL
After several delays, a hearing was conducted in front of stewards Randy Winick, Kim Sawyer and Albert Christiansen, beginning Nov. 19, and then continued in early December. Attorney Roger Licht, a former chairman of the CHRB and a racetrack regular, was hired to represent Rosario. Deputy attorney general Kenneth Jones prosecuted the case for the CHRB.

 

Amieva relied on backup or safety steward Luis Jauregui to analyze the film of the race in question, but Jauregui’s comments, curiously, were not included in the investigator’s report. Neither did Amieva interview Rosario before the CHRB complaint was filed. It was only afterwards, and at the insistence of Licht, that Amieva interviewed the jockey. Both Licht and Stauffer said Amieva had declined to talk with Rosario because, the investigator had said, “I know what he was going to say anyways.”

“From everything I’ve been told, (Amieva) would flunk law enforcement 101 because he had the opportunity to interview the subject and he didn’t,” said Licht.

As previously reported here, Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens contacted Stauffer after he learned of the complaint and offered to testify on Rosario’s behalf, calling the charges against the rider a “joke” and analyzing in detail what he felt happened during the race. “Gary Stevens was a tremendous witness,” said Licht. “He was very thorough and credible. You couldn’t ask for a better expert witness. He said the charges were not warranted and also spoke about Joel’s integrity.”

Hollenderfer and Ward also testified, corroborating the conversation they’d had with Stauffer and his phone call to Glenney the morning after Cedros raced. They also talked about Rosario’s character and ability.

Glenney testified about his post-race conversation with Stauffer and an exercise rider for Cedros said she did not consider the horse “unmanageable” during training. Neither Jauregui nor steward Cheney would condemn Rosario’s ride in their testimony at the hearing, leaving the CHRB and Jones with a flimsy case, at best. In his summation, Jones said he was convinced there was no conspiracy, that the video tape was the principal evidence. No charges were ever filed against Stauffer.

“Jones never had his heart in this,” Stauffer said. “He knew he was pissing in the wind, and you could tell he was pursuing this because the CHRB insisted.”

On Dec. 13, two days after closing arguments, the stewards voted unanimously to clear Rosario of all of the charges against him. The witch hunt was over.

THE AFTERMATH
Stauffer said the damage to Rosario’s reputation due to what he called “negligence” by Amieva in investigating the case is “irreparable,” adding that “people all around the country have drawn their conclusions about his guilt. You can never fix that reputation. You can’t get it back. Believe me, Joel is the absolute antithesis of what they say he did.”

Stauffer said there are no plans at present to file a lawsuit, “but we are hoping the CHRB will take it upon themselves to investigate Amieva’s shoddy work. I will not rest until Amieva is held responsible, or whoever was pushing Amieva is held responsible for gross negligence.”

“The CHRB argued that they owe the duty to the industry to investigate everything that appears to be unscrupulous,” said Licht. “There’s nothing wrong with an investigation. The mistake was in bringing the charges prematurely.”

The case hasn’t slowed down Rosario’s success in Southern California. He won his third California riding title at the just-concluded Hollywood Park meeting, where Stauffer also serves as track announcer. On the final day of his hearing, Rosario went out that afternoon and rode six winners in eight races, equaling a record held by three Hall of Famers—Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay Jr., and Kent Desormeaux.

“My heart is broken that he had to go through this,” said Stauffer. “He is such a fine young man. He really exemplifies everything that is good about jockeys.

“I also feel terrible about my contribution, which was stupid. How do you know when you’re saying something benign and flippant that it will morph into this? I wish I had been smarter.”

I wish the CHRB had demonstrated more intelligence, too. From all appearances, the investigation was shoddy from the start, and a formal complaint would never have been filed if the CHRB’s Amieva had talked with all of the parties involved. The case has unnecessarily tainted not just a future superstar, but the sport as a whole.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray PaulickThe California Horse Racing Board has created a potential mess by appointing its former executive director, Ingrid Fermin, as one of three individuals on the board of stewards during the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club meeting that began on Wednesday.

Fermin’s tenure as head of the state agency, which lasted three years, ended in 2007  when she said she did not want to relocate to Sacramento, home of the CHRB’s headquarters, as required by the board. There were several controversies and internal turmoil during her time as executive director, and some critics reportedly accused her of showing favoritism in appointments and contracts.

Foremost among those critics is owner Jerry Jamgotchian, who has filed several lawsuits against the CHRB, sent hundreds if not thousands of e-mails critical of Fermin, former CHRB chairman Richard Shapiro and others, and recently told the Paulick Report Fermin was “the most corrupt” executive director and steward in CHRB history.

When Fermin (pictured, left) was named one of three stewards for the Del Mar meeting, resuming a career she began in 1981 as the first female steward in California history, Jamgotchian requested a hearing with the CHRB to stop the appointment, saying that Fermin was biased against certain trainers and owners. The furor over the appointment ramped up when several trainers, including Mike Mitchell, Jeff Mullins, Art Sherman and Doug O’Neill, appealed to have Fermin recuse herself from judging races in which they have horses. There have been accusations that Fermin specifically targeted certain trainers in post-race drug testing while she was CHRB executive director. Fermin told the San Diego Union-Tribune the accuslations were “baseless” and “twisted.”

Jamgotchian’s complaint against Fermin stemmed from an incident in 2005 involving a horse owned by Jamgotchian that he wanted to scratch from a race at Del Mar. After a steward refused to allow the horse to be scratched, the horse ran and suffered an injury. UPDATE: While Jamgotchian has alleged that the horse, John’s Kinda Girl, was injured in that Aug. 14, 2005, race, the filly subsequently worked out three times over the next six weeks, and raced Oct. 7, 2005, and 12 more times in the next year, winning two of those races.

Jamgotchian’s request for a hearing before the Del Mar meet opened was denied when Fermin declined to attend. After the board met privately in executive session on Thursday, CHRB chairman John Harris said during the public portion of the regularly-scheduled monthly meeting that the stewards named for the Del Mar meeting would be retained. Harris also was board chairman when Fermin was appointed CHRB executive director in 2004.

Things appeared to change somewhat on Friday, however, when owner Martin Wygod, a member of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club’s board of directors and one of the most influential owners in California racing, reportedly asked Fermin to recuse herself from presiding over a race in which one of his horses was running. According to a report in the North County Times, former jockey Luis Jaurequi, now a “safety steward,” would have substituted for Fermin in judging any inquiry or claim of foul involving one of Wygod’s horses in that race. Does that mean Fermin would have judged foul claims in the same race if they didn’t involve Wygod’s horse?

Wygod is believed to have been upset with Fermin ever since an incident involving 2-year-old champion Sweet Catomine at Santa Anita three years ago when the filly left the grounds for medical treatment prior to the Santa Anita Derby. Wygod was charged, following an investigation led by Fermin, with having the filly falsely identified when she was vanned out of the stable area and exhibiting conduct detrimental to racing. The charges, which could have resulted in Wygod having his owner’s license suspended, were dismissed following a hearing.

Jamgotchian went on to say that Wygod threatened to scratch his horse from the race if Fermin failed to recuse herself as a steward in that race. “Fermin agreed,” Jamgotchian wrote, “and her recusal was made in front of fellow Stewards Scott Chaney, Tom Ward and in the presence of other parties in the room, including Wygod.”

Jamgotchian said he called Wygod’s attorney, Roger Licht, “to confirm the above facts regarding their recusal agreement with Fermin” and that Licht told him “there was an ‘oral’ confidentiality agreement in place with Fermin and that he could not discuss Fermin’s recusal.”

Jamgotchian said he also tried unsuccessfully to speak with Fermin by telephone before the first race and said he intends to file a complaint with the CHRB regarding the “Wygod recusal” and demand an investigation by the CHRB because of what he called a “unilateral” decision and one that was not publicly disclosed.

If the North County Times article and Jamgotchian’s assertions are accurate, it appears either the CHRB or Fermin are applying a double standard when it comes to Fermin recusing herself from races in which the principals involved feel as though there is a bias by her against them. If she recused herself in a race involving Wygod, shouldn’t she do the same in races involving the trainers who have made similar appeals?

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
Betting windows at 33 simulcast sites remained open on Saturday’s Los Angeles Handicap at Hollywood Park until after the Grade 3 stakes race had been run because they did not receive a stop betting signal from the Scientific Games tote system that contracts with California racetracks to handle pari-mutuel wagering.

According to Eual Wyatt Jr., the Inglewood, Calif., track’s general manager, all of the money wagered at those sites – properly or improperly—was “thrown out of the pools” and refunded. Wyatt did not know the amount. He said the 33 simulcast sites all went through a single betting hub. (Click here to view the sites affected and the amount wagered at those sites.) 

The incident is under investigation by the California Horse Racing Board.

The past-post wagering was first reported by Mike Maloney, a Lexington, Ky.-based professional horseplayer and industry watchdog on betting issues, in an article posted on the Horseplayers Association of North America web site. Maloney, a frequent speaker at industry gatherings on the issue of integrity of totalizator systems, was recently named vice president of HANA.

Terry McWilliams, a West Coast representative for Scientific Games Racing (formerly Autotote), would not comment on Saturday’s betting irregularities, saying, “I am not authorized to speak on behalf of the company. “ McWilliams referred the Paulick Report to a corporate spokesperson who did not immediately return a phone call. Scientific Games Racing president Brooks Pierce also could not be reached for comment.

Here is one explanation of the incident provided to Hollywood Park officials by George Brannen, Western Regional Director of Scientific Games Racing, in an email provided by the California Horse Racing Board to the Paulick Report. “At stop betting of race 9 for Hollywood Park we were not receiving pools from a group of 33 imports,” Brennan wrote. “All of these import processes were running on the Slave system. We had 7 other systems in the room wagering on Hollywood and of those 4 were on the Slave system and did not get the stop betting message from the California tote. The other 3 systems imports that were on the Master system did get the stop betting and shipped pools final on time. Because of this we were pretty sure that a stop betting message was not sent to any of the 33 imports and made the decision to clear and close those 33 sites. We then stopped the Slave system, promoted the Clone to become Slave, restarted all the Golden Gate imports that were also hung on the old Slave so that Golden Gate would not be delayed. A more detailed report will follow.”

“This is my first recollection of this (type of wagering irregularity),” Wyatt said. “The good thing is whatever mechanical error occurred, it was discovered and those bets didn’t count.”

At least that’s what Scientific Games apparently is telling Hollywood Park officials. This isn’t the first irregularity in California regarding the tote company, which in 2008 agreed to a settlement with the California Horse Racing Board over software errors related to “quick pick” wagers. Scientific Games knew of the software flaws for months, yet failed to notify the tracks or CHRB. It wasn’t until a horseplayer discovered the flaws while making “quick pick” superfecta wagers on the 2008 Kentucky Derby that the software problem was made public.

Other Scientific Games tote problems have been reported in other states, including a Philadelphia Park past posting incident last June 28 when wagering sites in Florida did not receive a stop-betting signal from a Scientific Games hub. Maloney reported a past-posting incident on a race originating at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, which also used Scientific Games. The most infamous Scientific Games/Autotote incident, however, involved the 2002 Breeders’ Cup Pick Six scandal when company employees hacked into the system to make Pick Six wagers long after the betting cutoff and took home the entire pool.

Kirk Breed, executive director of the California Horse Racing Board, has ordered an investigation by his agency into the latest Scientific Games mistake. “I have read Scientific Games’ explanation and did not understand what it said,” said Breed. “It is their fault. They basically said it’s a malfunction, and I accept that as their malfunction, so they are taking responsibility. They’re the ones that are going to be charged with responding to whoever lost money or was left out.”

Is Breed satisfied that the past-post wagers on the Los Angeles Handicap were excluded from the pools? “I don’t know. I’m not satisfied with anything at this stage,” he said. “All I have is an explanation from Scientific Games sent to Eual at Hollywood Park and which he sent it to me immediately. He and I talked yesterday. Frankly, I do not understand what they are talking about.

“It’s like the quick-pick," Breed added. “It had been going on for nine months and they didn’t do anything about it and didn’t tell us about it. This is why we are trying to get some real-time monitoring in this state so we can have an independent source looking at our wagering, rather than depending on Scientific Games.”

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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