THE WILD WEST
By Ray Paulick
The California racing and breeding industry appears to have the stability of a bowl of Jello. Two tracks, Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields, are owned by bankrupt Magna Entertainment and their future is cloudy. Hollywood Park is in the hands of a land developer that already bulldozed Bay Meadows and has similar plans for the Inglewood facility, though when he gets the money to develop the property is anyone’s guess. Del Mar is run by a non-profit association whose contract will soon expire. Training centers are being shut down, farms are closing and the foal crop is sinking. The former head of the California Horse Racing Board pleaded guilty to a crime most often committed by juvenile delinquents. The Thoroughbred Owners of California has been without an executive director for the last several months. And now the state’s Thoroughbred trainers are forming a circle, pulling out their weapons and getting ready to fire.
In a word, it’s a mess.
It’s been more than 15 years since the late Ed Friendly—the Emmy-winning television producer of such shows as “Laugh In” and “Little House on the Prairie”–led a revolt that ejected the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association from its traditional role representing the state’s owners and trainers and created the Thoroughbred Owners of California. TOC would be responsible for negotiating purse and simulcast contracts with racetracks and represent owners in front of the CHRB and state lawmakers. At the same time, a new group called California Thoroughbred Trainers was formed and certified, and their role was to deal with track management and the CHRB on issues related to backstretch conditions, track safety and benevolence.
Owners in other states have tried similar maneuvers but failed, in part because they lacked a leader with the tenacity and commitment of Ed Friendly and also because they didn’t have a focal point to rally around. For Friendly and his fellow owners, that focal point was a trainer-led boycott of Friday night racing at Hollywood Park in 1992. The trainers didn’t want to race at night, and Friendly said it wasn’t up to them to decide when to race his and his fellow owners’ horses. Friendly persevered and won the fight, getting legislation passed that created TOC and neutered the HBPA.
The two groups have pretty much stuck to the script since then, with TOC representing owners not only in California but on national organizations like the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. CTT has focused mainly on backstretch issues. How well has the arrangement worked? It depends on who you ask.
A group of prominent trainers have become increasingly unhappy with the situation and with the representation they were getting from the CTT. When an general election was held in June for three of the CTT’s board seats, trainer Jim Cassidy, who had served as president for the previous year, was voted off the board. The following month, when the newly seated board met (John Shirreffs, Clifford Sise and Ed Moger were elected in June, joining incumbents Dan Hendricks, Jack Carava, Bill Anton, Gloria Haley and Tim Bellasis), their first order of business was to appoint a replacement for Eoin Harty, who had resigned from the board with one year left on his term. Harty said he was spending an increasing amount of time out of state.
The board voted to replace Harty with Cassidy, who had the fourth-highest number of votes for the three board positions in the June election. After being put back on the board, Cassidy was then re-elected president on the second ballot (three individuals nominated on the first ballot each received three votes, and one of the candidates withdrew his name from consideration prior to the second ballot).
That sequence of events didn’t sit well with the trainers who voted to keep Cassidy off the board in June. Much like the Friday night boycotts motivated owners to form the TOC, the appointment of Cassidy and his subsequent reelection as president galvanized CTT’s critics. They formed an ad hoc group called California Horsemen for Change, and began laying the groundwork in an effort to replace CTT as the organization representing trainers. Members of the California Horsemen for Change and others met with the CTT last Friday (click here for a press release from the California Horsemen for Change), and urged the CTT’s board to vote for a new election to fill all nine board seats. The CTT board agreed, by a 5-4 vote according to a source, but additional changes in the bylaws will be required before they can wipe the slate clean and elect a new board of directors. According to a published report, one CTT member has challenged the legality of the board’s decision to hold a new election.
Interestingly, the trainer said to be behind this new organization is Darrell Vienna, one of the leaders of the Friday night boycott at Hollywood Park in 1992 that led to the HBPA being ousted and the trainers losing much of their clout. According to a source, Vienna, who is one of a number of trainers unhappy with the CHRB’s synthetic surface mandate at California racetracks, spoke up against the synthetic tracks at a CTT meeting earlier this year where the CHRB’s equine medical director, Dr. Rick Arthur, presented statistics comparing equine fatalities on dirt versus synthetics. Vienna “got into it” with Arthur, the source said, demanding to see the data of the study. At that point, Gloria Haley, a CTT board member from Northern California, was said to have reprimanded Vienna, reminding him that he was “guest” at the meeting. The comment apparently infuriated Vienna.
“When we had the vote three months ago I asked Vienna personally to run for the board,” Cassidy told the Paulick Report. “He refused. He said ‘I’m not getting involved.’” It looks as though he’s changed his mind.
Vienna didn’t answer questions when contacted by the Paulick Report, instead deferring them to Chris Knight, a recent law school graduate and son of trainers Chay and Mary Knight who has been brought on as interim executive director of the California Horsemen for Change. Knight downplayed any discord between any individuals within the two organizations or anger with the recent election, instead saying the “CTT and California trainers in general are dissatisfied with California racing. We’ve capitalized on the momentum and will be holding a new general election, having everyone involved.”
Knight said there are a number of critical issues, including:
- the pending closing of Fairplex Park to stabling and training due to revenue shortfalls;
- the poor economic state of the racetracks and the uncertainty over the future of Hollywood Park, Santa Anita Park, Golden Gate Fields and Del Mar;
- questions about the safety of the synthetic tracks;
- a desire to be more closely engaged with TOC (according to sources, there have been recent talks between CTT and TOC to bring the groups closer together).
Cassidy said the individuals within the two groups share common ground in many areas, including a desire for higher purses and greater stability in track ownership. “A lot of them have their own agendas including a change in surfaces, and I understand all that,” he said. ”I tell them we work on what we can. I’m at so many of these meetings that my head spins. I hate to see what’s happening, because people are desperate and angry, but those are the times we are in right now. I feel like the Lone Ranger.
Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
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Tags: california horsemen for change, california thoroughbred trainers, chris knight, ctt, darrell vienna, ed friendly, eoin harty, gloria haley, hbpa, hollywood park boycott, horsemen's benevolent and protective association, jim cassidy, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, rick arthur, thoroughbred owners of california, toc
October 13th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
The fact that Baffert and Sherriffs both are winning AND want to change back to dirt is quite telling.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
…and I thought the state of racing in Ohio was the biggest joke of them all.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
There is nothing “fun” about the synthetics.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Surely the man on the white horse isn’t Jim Cassidy.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I have raced mainly in CA since I started almost 20 years ago. The one thing that has been a constant during this time is that the people in power (way too many cooks in the kitchen) of all facets of the industry have attended the Bozo the Clown School of Horse Racing.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Will Shapiro try to spray paint a mark on the white stallion?
October 13th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Vienna screwed up the chance of horsemen getting a piece of the Hollywood Park casino years ago. About all he’s succeeded in is getting hop trainers off for their positives
October 13th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
CA is the Wild West minus the guns.
So many California mares and babies have been sent to slaughter since the CA economy began to crash, there will be fewer horses to fill Cal-bred and other races so no one should worry too much about having just a few tracks left because you can’t race ghost races.
Can anyone reveal the real reason behind the hiring of Darrell Vienna, a trainer no stranger to drugs and “overages”, as a highly paid CHRB “expert consultant”?
From The Blood Horse:
Vienna Resigns CHRB Consultant Post
Date Posted: 6/10/2007 4:34:04 PM Last Updated: 6/12/2007 10:35:07 AM
“Trainer Darrell Vienna, whose controversial position as a state consultant became part of a political squabble with a California state senator, has resigned.
Vienna, who is also an attorney, held a no-bid contract as an adviser on rule enforcement to the California Horse Racing Board.
Ingrid Fermin, executive director of the CHRB, confirmed that Vienna, a Southern California-based trainer, submitted his resignation in mid-May after completing one year of an agreement that would have paid him $348,000 over the full three-year duration.
“He felt the work that he had been contracted to do was completed,” Fermin said.
The 60-year-old Vienna, who worked in both the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office and in private practice, also is considered expert in medication law. In the past, Vienna has assisted the CHRB in the development of rules and procedures relating to backstretch security, surveillance and TCO2 testing.
Fermin said he was hired to review and fine tune CHRB rules that were outdated and to help establish uniform procedures for handling cases. He conducted seminars this spring for track stewards as well as a four-day training session for agency investigators. For his work, he was paid about $124,000, she said.
“He advised them on procedures for fine tuning our cases and streamlining investigations,” Fermin said. “His expertise was tremendous. He was very unique with the kind of work that he has done and its application to this board. Some experts in their fields are not necessarily very good at communicating their knowledge, but he was also a good teacher. I think everyone who spent time with him learned a great deal.”
Vienna, who has trained, owned and bred Thoroughbreds since 1976, did not return a phone message. He was in South America the week of June 4, according to CHRB spokesman Mike Marten. During his tenure with the CHRB, Vienna continued to train horses but was barred from representing licensees before the board and could not participate or provide counsel on any matter in which he had an interest.
Vienna’s arrangement with the board was called into question as a conflict of interest by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) and a government watchdog group after they alleged that the trainer’s record included 14 fines totaling about $4,500, including eight for medication violations involving his horses. In addition, Richard Shapiro, chairman of the CHRB commission, acknowledged that he had sent Vienna one of his horses to train after Vienna was given the consultant’s job.
Yee became an outspoken critic of Shapiro and the CHRB after a March vote — now being reconsidered — led to a decision by Bay Meadows Race Course to close its doors after 73 years. Yee, who threatened the agency’s funding in the dispute, complained that it was a conflict of interest for Shapiro to use Vienna as a trainer while being paid by the CHRB as a consultant.
Vienna said any of his medication violations were for “residual amounts” or overages for permitted drugs that were not performance enhancing.
“The allegations regarding the awarding of a contract to an individual with my CHRB medication record are spurious and misleading,” Vienna wrote in a letter to a government official that was cited by The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Fermin said she did not know if the political imbroglio factored into Vienna’s decision to terminate his contract.
“I’m not sure if it did or not,” she said. “He told me he had completed what he was hired to do. It was never brought up.”"
October 13th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I guess Rodney King isn’t a member of either of these trainer groups. Otherwise he would ask “Can we all get along?”
What the hell is wrong with these people?
October 13th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Those behind the California Horsemen for Change - (did they borrow this from Obama?) are delusional if they think that electing a new board and whining enough can get them dirt tracks. The owner of Santa Anita is bankrupt. Do they think a new buyer would be willing to spend what it takes to put in an entirely new track? Hollywood Park is on its last legs, Del Mar’s lease is nearly up and the state threatens to sell the property Do the “CHC” idiots think they can get dirt tracks there? We have what we have. The CTT is impotent and will remain so, no matter who is on the board.
October 14th, 2009 at 12:08 am
Ahh the Paulick report. The Paulick Report is no longer catering to the insider. The Bloodhorse is for the blue bloods and those who are safe with the status quo.
But this page, this report seems to voice the opinion of the new thinkers. Gone are the old, tired, and stubborn. The Priscilla’s of the industry, who seem to think because they can’t figure it out, nobody can, please step aside. You have had the last 30 years to prove you are useless, mission accomplished.
If the game is to be saved it has to come from new blood, and I don’t mean younger old blood like the ambassador jr. and his ultra connected new wife (like the whopper jr..only 99 cents, but you’re only paying for a cheap imitation).
Zero tolerance is the only way. Enough lame excuses and crying. And Paulick, c’mon man this is your call to arms. Find out who the rogue racing officials are and take it to them. Use the readers’ comments as your guide. Who is reprimanding trainers who won’t comply? We all know it happens. Sounds like a big story to me. Find these vengeful criminals and take them down, once and for all.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:41 am
I wouldn’t be surprised if owners, with deep pockets, such as Jess Jackson, Jerry Moss, Michael Pegram, etc …, put up some of the money needed to renovate the “plastic” tracks if funding is a problem.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:13 am
after just attending the abysmial sale in obs all i can say is OY! for our industry.
How are any regional markets going to survive?racetracks? our industry?
what a mess is right. good thing that no one can tell the horses.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:58 am
We are having a two-day downpour here right now and the hillsides are threatening to slide in the burned out areas. The track is good though, and some of those here for the BC should be reminded that they don’t have to train their good horses on slop. Just go to Santa Anita’s webcam and look at the difference between the main track and the soupy training track.
October 14th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Yes, the track is great in SoCal.. There was a whopping 4, that’s four, horses who worked over it this morning. That’s all weather, all right.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
So typical in SoCal, they all freak out at a drop of rain. Round the clock TV coverage of wet streets, and CLOUDS, OMG!! I’ll bet half the trainers left their horses in the barn all morning so as not to get them wet. The racetrack was in good shape all morning and was particularly good after the break. It seems to be even better with some rain on it. I suppose people would rather have a sealed track for two days and then sticky goo for two more. We see that there are plenty of workouts just the day after the two day deluge, and the times look fairly quick.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
I think it’s a good idea to have plastic so they can cater to the European horses. Those are the trainers wanting to keep the plastic.
October 15th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Plastic is better than dirt on rainy days and safer than a sealed/sloppy track. That said, grass is better than plastic and dirt.
October 16th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Don’t worry Carrie. The horses don’t need to be told. When they’re being dumped - broodmares, stallions, babies, off track thoroughbreds - at low end auctions and purchased for their meat for $75-$200 a piece, or driven directly to kill buyers’ holding lots, they know exactly what the incompetence of industry participants means for them. They just don’t know that its their “caretakers” that caused the entire ludicrous mess.
October 18th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I guess I could claim to be the senior turf writer of California even though I now live in Las Vegas. My disgust with those who run horse racing in the state where I spent 30 years on the backstretch has been documented. I recently penned a lengthy letter to Ron Charles at Santa Anita Park. As a cub reporter for the Pasadena Star News many years ago I was taught by the late Jim Marugg: “If you must be critical, present a constructive solution.” That is exactly what I did when I submitted my letter to Charles. I told him it was more a matter of therapy at this end because the industry I dearly love is so out of touch it’s hard to fatham.
You have a passive head of the CHRB who truly believes everything is okay. I refused to get into a mud slinging contest with him. You can bet your bottom dollar if his cattle business or his breeder awards were not doing well, he’d be calling for reform. But don’t expect anything much to come from the people currently serving on the CHRB because they simply don’t get it.
There are so many things wrong with the once great race place I don’t know where to begin. What I do know is thoroughbred racing, as we know it in California, is in free fall. Sadly, just as the case with our national leaders, we have nobody to look to. Horse racing can be likened to a rudderless ship.
Having covered the sport of horse racing coast to coast for over 30 years gave me a solid perspective of what is right and what is wrong. We have lost two generations of players, and we need only to point the finger at racetrack management. Name calling and accusations are not going to fix the free-fall from grace.
Years ago I wrote a column in the Pasadena Star News. In short I said horse racing needed a cfzar like Stan Bergstein. At the time Stan was the kingpin at the Harness Tracks of America. Some of the most brilliant marketing in sports was accomplished back in those days. You continue to see Stan’s name in the column he pens for the Daily Racing Form.
If I were calling the shots of horse racing in California I would sever all ties with the TOC, TVG and HRTV. That’s right, all three groups. For many years now I have placed a lot of the blame of our sport’s free-fall on the selfish owners who belong to the TOC. TVG? They could have been a positive force. Their format has stunk from day one and does little to promote a great sport of horse racing. I had hopes when Betfair entered the picture things would change. That has not happened. Tony Allevato? He’s never been receptive to constructive suggestions. Betting on horses is not a comedy. Allevato has never figured that one out.
For those of you who prefer HRTV over TVG, they are the best of the two. But when you cannot get their signal in far too many places, why back them? My suggestion is to send them all packing and to start over. Create our own program for cable, making the programs available during the early morning hours. Work hand in hand with other factions like Australia, Canada, and Great Britain. A 24-hour channel would not be mission impossible. And the tracks, not producers who don’t have a clue, would have the say on the format.
In my view the racetracks need to take back their house. If the selfish owners don’t like the way Santa Anita elects to run their meet, then let them go where they wish. You cannot have so many selfish groups running the show.
Last but certainly not least, we need new blood in the racing offices. The same old tired racing conditions are nothing but reprints of the previous meets. Get the assistants in the racing offices off their duffs and out hustling horses. Stop writing racing for horses you wish you had. Write race conditions for the horses actually available.
This comes from someone who used to play California races day in and day out. I’ve had it with synthetic tracks. My hard work at video tape review is not applicable. The morning workouts are of little use in the afternoon because the surface changes. You can’t have one substance at Del Mar, another at Santa Anita, and yet another one at Hollypark. And then there’s Golden Gate, probably the best of all the synthetic surfaces we have.
Bottom line. You have lost a host of horseplayers. When you lose day after day, and results are simply hard to explain, it’s time to make sensible decisions. I have quit playing the races at Santa Anita. I also wrote a letter to my friend Joe Harper down at Del Mar after their meet. I never received an answer. So I guess it’s the player be dammed.
If I told you the number of good players I know personally who hate synthetic tracks, you wouldn’t believe me.
Years ago when I was writing for the Pasadena Star News I tabled what I feel was a valid theory on bleeding. We used the first turn at Santa Anita as an example. The vehicles come in and park outside the clubhouse. Obviously there will be drippings of oil, and other substances hitting the asphault. After the races and the cars have left the cleanup crews come out. They used the blowers to push debris up against the hedge on the outside of the clubhouse turn. A vet friend of mine said it’s possible that the oil & debris that had been blown up against the fence, could be detrimental. In the mornings, during training, the horses go around and around. A number of horses back track on their way back to the stable area. So were there any studies made in regard to this theory? You know the answer.
Which brings me to synthetics. How much testing and study was done before Shapiro’s mandate was passed in California. You and I know the answer. How much affect does the hot surface hinder the performance of an equine, especially on a hot day? And what about the long term effects of breathing the spray of these syntheric surfaces.
Yes, count me out as a player as long as synthetic surfaces exist. Those majestic mountains are a beautiful backdrop to a place that was once the greatest place to bet thoroughbreds.
My longtime friend Don Kieger, a crack handicapper, was light years ahead of us all. As soon as they intruduced synthetics, Don told me it was not going to work out well. Kieger agrees places like Turfway may be faced with no alternative other than synthetics.
A lot has been written about the injuries to horses. Here’s the bottom line. What happens if the sport continues to lose gamblers who elect not to bet on “fake dirt?” Years ago I predicted in print that if things continued the way they were, the selfish members of the TOC would wind up racing amongst themselves.
Gentlemen. This past Saturday’s card was pitiful. Today’s Sunday card was more of the same. I guess my prediction has come true.