Louisiana Downs trainer fined over paddock altercation

by | 07.11.2012 | 10:06am
  • click above & share!
    X
  • click above & share!
    X


  • click above & share!
    X
  • click above & share!
    X

Stewards at Louisiana Downs have fined trainer Eric Heitzmann $1,000 for instigating an altercation in the paddock on July 5. In addition to the fine, Heitzmann must also undergo counseling for anger management.

According to people who witnessed the incident, Heitzmann confronted fellow trainer Wes Hawley after the fifth race. Heitzmann was upset with Hawley for claiming Autobeacat, which had just finished second in the race, from his stable. Heitzmann reportedly knocked Hawley to the ground and was on top of him before members of the Louisiana Downs gate crew were able to subdue him.

Heitzmann has also been issued a citation from the Bossier City Police Department.

» Read more at Daily Racing Form
New to the Paulick Report? Click here to sign up for our daily email newsletter to keep up on this and other stories happening in the Thoroughbred industry
  • Lisa Wintermote

    I don’t know why people don’t understand that running a horse in a claiming race is tantamount to putting a price tag on their a$$!

  • WILLIAM L. ANTON

    Many years ago when I lost my first claim I sorta took it personal. Jack C.L. Uttley (a great friend, trainer, and like a second dad to me) said, “did you claim that horse?” My respnse was positive, “Then don’t cry when you lose him that way!”So Mr. Heitzmann, let me pass that on to you. Now you have a fine and anger mgt. classes to attend and pay for.  Oh bye the way the horse is still in the other barn.

  • Bookiebuster1

    He was just mad because he knows Hawley will win more races with him. 100% trainers fault for trying to sneak him by the sharks more so considering Hawley will claim and win off anyone ;)

    Wajir on Me is a prime example.

  • Guest

    Why was he fined and not suspended?

  • MikeKelley

    Wait, why did he get mad that someone claimed the horse?  Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?  Don’t they want to sell the horse? 

    Can you tell I’m not a horseman?  LOL.  My wife likes to bet on the horses, and I go with her, that’s about as far as it goes…   

  • Y

    Yes why wasn’t he suspended?  Why wasn’t he lead out of there in handcuffs?  He is a crazy man and needs help.

  • Sandra Warren

    Hi Mike:  You did seem genuinely interested to know, so I’m going to answer you seriously.  Forgive me if I give you a tutorial that you already know.  When we enter in a claiming race, we are acknowledging the value of the horse to ourselves.  I am free to take my $50,000 horse and put him in a $5000 claimer so that he will blow them away and I’ll get a win, but someone will see that value and claim him for that price, and I’ll lose $45,000 in value, plus a lot of future purses.  On the contrary, if I put my $5000 horse in a $50,000 claimer, he will not win, I will waste my jock mount, and I may break my horse’s competetive heart so that he won’t win anywhere later, not to mention that I will look like an ass.  So claiming races are very necessary so that horses will find an equilibrium value.  I had a horse I bought for $2300, had claimed from me for $25,000 right when I really needed the money, and I bought her back later for $4000.  So even though I loved her and was very sad to lose her temporarily, it worked out for me.  Sometimes you lose a horse and it goes on to rise tremendously in value, as recently happened to me. I’ve claimed horse that I’m positive the trainer was happy to lose because they were out of conditions, etc.  Them’s the breaks.  I don’t know these Louisiana horsemen, but that’s a very immature reaction.  When you put them in a claiming race, you are perfectly aware they are for sale.

    I wonder if those two had gotten into a claiming war, where they are just trying to pick each other like a chicken.

Twitter

follow us on twitter »