Urine Trouble: Woolley admits to Prairie Meadows indiscretion

by | 07.07.2011 | 3:32pm
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Officials at Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino have zipped their lips, but Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Chip Woolley admitted to the Paulick Report that he publicly urinated near a slot machine in the Altoona, Iowa, casino Saturday night, an incident he now says he deeply regrets.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” said Woolley, a 47-year-old who rose from obscurity in New Mexico to saddle Mine That Bird to a 50-1 upset of the 2009 Kentucky Derby. “I messed up. I know I did, and it’s something that will never happen again. It’s a regrettable situation. I went and met with the Prairie Meadows people, and we’ve gotten it taken care of.”


Woolley, who was escorted out of the casino by security after the incident and temporarily put on a “trespass” list (meaning he was banned from the casino premises), said no charges were filed against him by the Altoona or Polk County police, and that the association and Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission stewards told him they plan to take no action against him.

“There’s not going to be a hearing in front of the stewards. It’s all been taken care of,” said Woolley, who has won five races from 24 starters at the Prairie Meadows meeting for $45,546 in total earnings.

“Was nobody who actually seen it,” Woolley said of the incident, though he said it was caught on surveillance video. David Kinder, the director of surveillance for the casino, would not confirm whether or not that was the case.

Director of security Clint Pursley refused to comment on what he described as “an incident or a non-incident” but did say Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission regulations require all surveillance videos be kept for a minimum of seven days and that they can only be viewed through a court order or subpoena.

Jack Ketterer, administrator for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission that oversees tracks and state casinos and all licensees, called it “an association issue. I really haven’t looked into it any more than that. It’s a situation where it’s up to Prairie Meadows if they want to do something.”

Earlier this year, Prairie Meadows and the local media trumpeted the arrival of Woolley and his 13-horse stable as a sign the track was luring some big names from out of state.  ”Everything I’ve seen here so far I really, really like,” Woolley told the Des Moines Register in April.

Now, Woolley hopes the incident doesn’t affect his career.

“It’s very out of character for me to do something that stupid, but we just move on,” he said.

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  • You should have known them.

    Wow, for a minute there, I thought they were talking about Parker or Cheeney.

  • Petey Green

    And the deterioration of journalism continues… Exactly how is this news, other than to unnecessarily embarass somebody?

  • roy snedigars ghost

    Chipper…Chipper…Chipper…..

  • Rideout

    If he’d have gone #2 I would say it’s a story…

  • The Colonel

    I think this is a great site but this story has no place being here. When I saw the headline my first thought was that one of his horses tested positive for a banned substance. This could sully a trainer’s reputation unfairly.

  • Mary L.

    If this would have been anybody else, they would have taken some sort of action, but because he won the KY Derby, they are taking it easy on him. I hope they (Prairie Meadows) remembers this the next time a horseman gets in trouble in the casino.

  • here we go loopty laaa!!

    ‎”I don’t really care what people do,…as long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses”___George B. Shawe

  • The Punisher

    Hey, when ya got to go, ya got to go. Ya know?

  • Aunt Bea

    Man, that boy makes country look like Manhattan

  • Ron Taylor

    Maybe he was on a roll and didn’t want to leave the machine….

  • Abatement

    “sully a trainer’s reputation unfairly” How in the world would it be UNFAIRLY? Good Gravy child, the man peed in public. Tacky, rude, GROSS. NO excuse. Like it or not, Chip’s a public figure of sorts and an adult. I couldn’t care less about the story, but it’s not out of place to report on. Unfairly? Argh.

  • Bocephus

    So, am I to understand that he whipped it out, right in the middle in the casino, and made like a unbroken puppy right there on the carpet? I hope for his sake that he was drunk or stoned out of his mind, because if he did that sober they need to put him on a bus and return him to the New Mexico desert and turn him loose with the coyotes and other vermin. Wow.

  • RUFingKidding

    Ray…..RUFingKidding?
    Is it THAT quiet around the world of racing for this to be the headline?
    oh yeah new visitors, welcome to Potty, I mean Paulick Report.Want to get in the horse buisness? How about recruiting new racegoers to PM? Come see our Derby winning trainer, he’s a gas, well actually quite a p**ser!

  • Kelso

    Stay classy, Nogales.

  • Greg J.

    Seriously? This is news? Give me a break, Chip is one of the good guys in a sport with the likes of Dutrow and O’Neill, and he gets a headline like this? Sorry, with all due respect, this is not news and should not have made a headline at all. It will get a lot of comments though, umm…

  • Joel stone

    What a hillbilly

  • Backontop

    Greg J.
    “Seriously? This is news? Give me a break, Chip is one of the good guys in a sport with the likes of Dutrow and O’Neill, and he gets a headline like this?”

    The guy urinates in a casino and he’s a good guy! You have to be joking or stupid! Do you really think that this is the first time he’s done this or just the first time he was caught? The guy’s a FOOL!

  • Greg J.

    Backontop, Tell me what this has to do with the sport? What’s worse, drugging your horses and getting caught over and over, or pissing in a casino? Tell me how many infractions Chip has had in the SPORT? Zero! Lack of judgement? Of course! Does it deserve national attention on the Paulick Report? No! If YOU really care that he pissed in a casino, then you are the stupid one, certainly not me.

  • EUGENE LEVEY

    Its too bad he didnt do it on you

  • roger t.

    I am siding with Backontop on this….And thanks to the PR for publishing it….What industry players do, IS news.

  • Richard Cranium

    Ray, stop pissing around and publish newsworthy stories

  • Anony mous

    He just misunderstood the expression about pissing it all away in a casino.

  • Anony mous

    He just misunderstood the expression about pissing it all away in a casino.

  • Don Reed

    Now, Chip, get it straight – it’s MONEY, and you’re supposed to be tossing it off the back of trains!

  • Special Ed

    Maybe he was making a political statement for racing against Slot Machines!

  • big dog

    It’s not his fault , he’s on Lasix !!!

  • Gary Fartsmith

    Frankly, I’m surprised this is news in Iowa. Progress!

  • giveme a break

    This is a low point for the Paulick report as a serious news report. Who cares????

  • Coach K

    Maybe Nancy Grace can provide us with some real analysis?

  • DS

    The summer after this guy won the Kentucky Derby with Mine That Bird I saw him out one night in Saratoga. He had some blonde girl half his age sitting on his lap at the bar (on the leg without the cast- in case you were wondering). He’s more than capable of pulling a move like this one.

  • Google Act 71

    Maybe the vet gave him a shot of Lasix and he really had to go.

  • knowitall

    Dang man hold your liquor. I havn’t been that drunk since I was twelve (a washing machine instead of slot machine)

  • Concerned Observer

    It says a lot about the state of our society and the people in racing that so many of you would defend this type of uncivilized behavior.I love racing but I’ll do my best to stay on the opposite side of the crowd if you condone this.

    It was news when he won the derby and it is news when he makes an ass of himself in public.

  • Dan Bellinger

    I think it was all part of a master plan. If we get a famous person, like a KY Derby-winning trainer, to create a diversion, like uriniating near the slots, then our other team member can use a break into one of the several racetrack ATMs that charge a ridiculous 8% vig and grab the cash. The syndicate probably approached Graham Motion and Todd Pletcher about being the decoys first, but since they were unavailable Woolley agreed. Great plan!

  • thomasMc

    What a waste of time.

  • http://Bellwether4u.com Bellwether

    ONLY “THE TOASTED”(ON BOOZ)DO DUMB A$$ STUFF LIKE THIS…BLACKED OUT BABY???…ty…

  • caroline

    Really a very amusingly written piece, I certainly laughed, and really – one could imagine, as the headline PR piece – quite the clever tool to p*** on someone else’s parade :)

  • Hank

    Was his urine test clean?

  • Onlooker

    Was this a newsworthy racing story?

  • McGov

    Too funny but I’d rather be laughing at someone else’s expense. This guy is over the top in the likeable department…I wish it was D Wayne’s boots he was pissing on…now THAT would be a good story.

  • Nick

    GregJ,
    The only reason you call Mr Woolley “one of the good guys” is that he put MTB’s blanket of roses on your precious Barbaro’s statue for a photo op. Prior to that your followers on the FOB CULT forum were badmouthing Mr. Woolley for not hugging MTB after his win. To come here and bash Dutrow (who has a very low DNF record, even compared to your hero Michael Matz).
    Mr. Woolley, for whatever reason pulled a dumb stunt, but he fessed up. Newsworthy? In today’s society of celeb stalking, probably. It has brought many responses here, so people are interested for one reason or another.
    Perhaps you should stick with your merry band of “self back patters” and marvel over important things in racing, like “Where is the Barbaro Beanie Baby”, or some fool with a car named BARRBARO. Or perhaps get realistic and find a way to convince the owners of a couple of allowance horses that they’ll never be able to “run on water” and retire Nickie and Lennie or put a tag on them so they can run where they should be.
    Don’t use this thread as a sounding board to bash those trainers who you think aren’t worthy.
    I’m sure your band of followers will be in to bash me, but they will stand out just as they do when they invade the track with their blue and green outfits, pins and cheap rubber bracelets, screaming and blocking the food lines (and not the windows).
    Have a swell day Greggie. Hopefully you can slip away when your boss is out and reply.

  • DavidB

    Some of you need to lighten up. OK, it’s not major stuff, but you don’t see witty lines like “urine trouble” on the other sites!

  • Stanley

    Does any one think if a jockey or any other trainer pulls this stunt he is not going to be arrested, fined, or suspended?

  • johnny

    Hard-hitting reporting Ray. You must be very prouf of yourself once again. You’ve outdone yourself yet one more time. Are you just miserable or angry, which one??

  • Cris

    For a nice guy to do something this stupid says something is going on that is not in the story. I too thought it was a story about a horse and not the man. Must have been a slow news day. Shame on you Chip. Now lets all move on.

  • Abatement

    National attention? This is the only place I’ve seen the story and we race at Prairie Dog Town. None of our casual race fans have clue one about this site. ALSO racing needs to STOP sweeping bad press incidents under the carpet. You do that too often and you become NEBRASKA. Shine the light of day on it.

  • RaySource

    This is disgusting Chip but par for you. I really don’t know why the stewards didn’t “relieve you” of some cold hard cash. You should be the poster boy for “rectal/cranial inversion.” You can fix ignorance but you cannot help stupid.

  • back up clocker

    Ease up on him, he is just getting prairie meadows prepared for their quarter horse crowd.

  • Greg J.

    Nick, Too funny, for someone that seems to hate a certain group of people, you sure spend a lot of time reading about them, lol. I have been following this sport for thirty years, not just since 2006, I feel pretty comfortable that I know what I am talking about. That is about all the time I will waste on you, really not worth more then what I just wrote.

  • JN

    How can you clowns say that this is not news?! It may not be important. But it is indeed news.

  • Paul Parezo

    I believe it is unfair to take a minute of embarasment in ones life that has done so much good for racing and paint a picture in the publics eye.
    When Chip Wooley was in Saratoga the year Mind That Bird won the Kentucky Derby you saw Chip stop and talk with anyone who had a queston or ask for a picture, early morning, during racing and yes out at night. He also attended all types of functions for the fans wheather it was a big or small event.
    Thats how you grow racing, being accessable to the fans. Thanks Chip.

  • Nick

    Greggie, you’re still ticked off at Ray for his column “Nicanor & Lentenor: Just Let Them Be.”, so you and your minions love to come in and criticize him.
    I read ABR in the same way I’d watch a train wreck. Have a nice day………..lookout, your boss is coming.
    See you on Facebook. (we’re “friends”)

  • Greg J.

    Nick, What a pathetic existence you must lead, I honestly feel sorry for you, hope you get help! To request being “friended” on Facebook, just to read stuff that doesn’t interest you? Pathetic indeed…

  • Nick

    Greggie, Who said it didn’t interest me. Watching you and your CULT is like watching a bad horror film. I also have learned a lot about fraud and deceit from that venue. Your boss must be tied up, you’re busy today on line.
    You will get props today from the followers for your stand. That will make you feel all warm and fuzzy. Perhaps a few will write poems for you. Have a swell day.

  • McGov

    You two sound like you’re married.

  • Sandra Warren

    It’s not clear to me: was the urination a commentary on slot machines at racetracks, or did he just get liqoured up and needed to go? ‘Cause you know, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go….

  • http://www.paulickreport.com progressive

    I’ve been in that slaughterhouse, deserves to be pissed on:)

  • http://www.equinehealthandwelfare.org Allison Booth

    # 12 – you cracked me up!

  • http://www.5rstables.com Sean Kerr

    Well, there is A.P. Indy – how about I.P. Freely?

  • http://Bellwether4u.com Bellwether

    KEEP THE PRESS ROLL N RAY…ty…

  • http://Bellwether4u.com Bellwether

    ps…CHIP SHOT!!!…NOE CAPTIAL CRIME HEAR!!!…MAY NEED TO SLOW DOWN WITH THE EVIL SPRITS???…WE WISH HIM THE BEST N THE FUTURE…ty…

  • Nick

    GregJ, decides to make a funny at the FOB CULT forum:

    “I think someone dropped a sea urchin in the casino, Chip stepped on it, and he decided to neutralize the urchin venom ;)”

  • 20onthenose

    Ok. Here’s my take: Regrettably Woolley had a little too much to drink playing a hot paying slot and decided to relieve himself right there next to the machine in the casino. Nothing you don’t see everyday in downtown Las Vegas….Case closed.

  • DavidB

    Nick – was it followed up by everyone telling him how smart and funny he is? Were poems involved? Tears, perhaps? Candles lit? I shouldn’t make fun – the ongoing saga of Beanie Barbaro causes me many a sleepless night.

  • Wildhorse 13

    Some of you amaze me. How CLASSLESS do you have to be to urinate in a crowded public building? How can you defend this guy? Do you really think he should just walk on this charge with no public humiliation. Mine That Bird MADE him a celebrity and this is how he handles success and fame he never would have attained otherwise!

  • OldSchool

    It is obvious that he is on too much Lasix. Only in America. Maybe racing could make that corner a shrine and offer every visitor a chance to pi$$ in the same corner as a Derby winning trainer? Line would be out the door.

    That is an example of the class that most people think about when someone mentions horse racing today. It is a putrid greedy industry without integrity or any basic human decency. The last outhouse standing in a world of indoor plumbing…

  • The Punisher

    “compared to your hero Michael Matz”

    LOL that’s laughable. It’s funny how some people can idolize this guy.

  • Rewards

    if he was a “nobody trainer” Ray you would not even have this on your page…

  • Panty Raid

    you’re right, and if Tom Brady were caught peeing in public, don’t you think that would be headline news across the country while a third strong qb would barely make the local paper? Once you accomplish certain things in life, you become more of a target. Don’t like it then either don’t win the ky derby or don’t pee in public. Pretty simple choice

  • Oscetra

    Not news! Should have presented this as a cartoon – not news!

  • Jumper

    It’s very out of character for me to do something that stupid, but we just move on,” he said.

    Yeah, says the guys who’s previous “chopper accident” consisted of his motorcycle falling on him IN HIS DRIVEWAY becasue he was drunk and decided he wanted to drive somewhere…

  • Joe

    Jumper exactly. Allegedly, that cowboy can loose his temper with horses. Racing is so desperate for heroes and good stories, it doesn’t bother to vet and test its characters.

  • Tapit

    OMG. 73 comments. Awesome.

  • bookiebuster1

    Oh my imagine that another drunk at the race track spending his day money in the casino and bar hardly news. No its sos.

  • Scott

    ok move on.

  • matt m

    quit taking up for the dumb hick, wimps. the guy pissed on a slot machine and his horse is a Derby winner. like it or not, Chip (lol) Woolley is a celebrity in the sport. you piss on anything in public and get caught, it will be reported.

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