The Michael Gill/Penn National Riders Saga
 

i was amazed when gill received votes for an eclipse this year. those voters should have their ability to vote revoked!

Good for the jockeys to speak up.

Good for those jocks. Gill and his cronies have been know to literally cut corners for years. This latest rash of breakdowns should be the final straw.

Really great article... I hope they boycott his a.ss everywhere.

Shame about the horses. Other owners are out there claiming and running horses super aggressively, just without killing them.

Not to defend Gill at all but how about some statistics behind the breakdown rates for all his entries, for claimers versus alw races. The piece talks about him starting more horses than anyone else but has had many breakdowns, think it said 14 at Penn National.

Seemed like a hit piece without a lot of research behind it.

I think this post was without any research behind it...

I play Penn once a week and try not to throw out any horses owned by Gill in my multi race wagers. They have a tendency to either run way over their past performances or unfortunately alot of the time as noted die.

I think the more important number is the number of breakdowns specific to the owner compared to others.

For the jocks to go and do this, for an owner that runs a shitload of horses for slot enduced purses, well, it says a whole hell of a lot.

The article talks about the vets which is the bigger issue. Scummy owners exist in forms other than Michael Gill. Paragallo anyone?

2005 Eclipse Award owner Michael Gill. It is an honor indeed to be awarded an Eclipse.

Man he looks like the character from the Sopranos.

He had a thousand starts at Penn National last year alone.

Whenever you claim the types he does - very cheap horses with speed and often more proven ability than the level he claims them from .. you're going to get a whole lot of cripples.

And with the purses the way they are at Penn .. it's that much harder to kid gloves a cripple.

I guess he could always look to claim slower and sounder horses ... and win a whole lot fewer races and lose a tremendous pile of more money.

Or he could instruct his trainers to handle his army of many cripples like they're Ghostzapper .. and nurse them through four races a year campaigns .. while the fewer starts result in him losing more money and getting a lot less action.

Inner track recorde holder at 5 1/2 F Melodeeman. 47-9-9-9 $258,161.
http://www.equibase.com/static/chart...012110USA2.pdf

I think it's pretty well known in Penn National circles that you just don't claim off Gill. I'm pretty certain you don't say the same thing about 99.7 percent of the other connections that run up there, including the Scott Lakes of the world.

my point exactly...I know the guy basically could give a rats arse about the cripples he is claiming and running but its more a product of his business model.

I don't remember seeing his better bred horses having near the same issues a few years ago.

i'm sure everyone will sleep better knowing it's all part of his business model.

He can't get stalls in NY....so blame Penn Nat.

Well the guy has Cole Norman training for him at his farm....that should say enough about the guy...he is no good

thats naive thinking...my experience is a lot less people care about the horses than you would believe.

Ray didn't pull any punches. This is a job for Satish. Write a law that prohibits a owner to race more than 2 horses a week. You can even dress it up some. Make it look like a condition.

Owners, non winners of two life time, or 4 in the last 2 months get 5lbs.

:D

If Assman can win titles with his baggage, let the others go too.;)

DrugS Gill is killing horses with his ultra aggressive vetting.. I assume vets are behind the horses coming back to form.. I know all Gill horses run on IV DMSO (human Grade), I dont know how much of a real PED but apparently it works pretty good? He is killing way too many in the name of business and jocks now think they dont want him around..

Was Angel OK? He rides for me Wednesday..Not that he is so terriffic but I hope he is OK.

no, i'm not naive enough to think this doesn't happen. but it doesn't mean it should be acceptable either. i'd imagine paragallo's horses went hungry for quite a while before anything was done-does that mean we should continue to turn a blind eye, because some engage in this type of behavior? absolutely not. i know that not everyone is in this business for love of the horses, for many it's just another form of competition. so what. michael gill should be run out of the game, for the health and safety of both horse and human. jocks ride those cripples he's using to win at all costs.

I am sure this type of thinking will comfort the jock in the hospital when one of Gill's horses breaksdown and takes his mount down too.

Well said.

You don't think the jocks know what is going on? They wouldn't have done what they did if they didn't know.

Never have I heard of jocks coming together, staying together, to NOT RIDE for a specific owner.

Hell, the jocks were united for about 32 minutes at Arlington when the whole surface issue came about, and the beat played on..

If they don't want to ride his horses ... all they have to do is tell their agent that.

Unless it's Vic.

Migliore was put in the hospital over the weekend after a Mark Hennig horse broke down ... said horse was a 260K yearling who had good early speed and had been fairly competitive in allowance races.

He ran one bad race .. and was jammed in for a 25K tag instead of being allowed time off.

The horse died ... and atleast one owner (Maggie Moss) reached in to claim the horse for 25K.

Those are the types Gill will claim now ... except think 4K-to-10K instead of 25K. Some turn it around - some don't - and some go down.

I doubt the fate of the majority of those horses would have been any different if they raced under small-fry connections.

What about health insurance for jockeys ? Do insurance premiums go up if they ride for high risk owners ?

Tell that to the Gil horse that had his leg sawed off at GP a few years back.

There is no such classification as a high risk owner

What's wrong with Cole Norman?

They don't want to ride in any race which has a Gill horse running in it. Doesn't matter if they are riding that horse or not...they are afraid of being behind a horse of his that breaks down and becoming part of it.

Cheaters doing what they can to try and not get caught.

They know how hated Gill is by other horseman they ride for.

It's calculated handwringing.

Sounds like the track vets, that are passing all of these horses, are doing a bang up job. :rolleyes:

Maybe if they step it up a bit, this would be a NON issue.

Gill claims tough pro race horses...Horses that have started 20 plus times and had successful careers.. He claims anything that he thinks drugs will move up slightly and earn a few bucks with.. In a way he is smart.. claims for 5k drops to 4k adds drugs and looks to win a 7200 pay day.. jacobsen does the same crap but I havent seen many of his breakdown. I am all for racing horses when they are ok but you have to admit Gill is cheating and doing it unsafely