Racing Media
 

I am amazed at what a kotex-sucking bunch the racing media is when it comes to calling out trainers like Jamie Ness.

Can't say anything because they might miss a chance to get a butt-snorkling interview for their paper column or radio show.

Unlike normal journalists who sniff out stories and beat the bushes to arrive at the truth, racing scribes cower at the thought of investigative journalism.... Why? Because they may not cash a bet? Or, because they might not get that elusive interview?

Bernstein and Woodward, who risked it all - they don't compare to racing scribes whose johnsons shrink at the thought of doing their job - just call the racing guys stumpy.

Whatsnottolike got an 81 Beyer for her effort Fri night. Previous best before Ness was a 58.

As a bettor, is that acceptable? As a horse owner, is that acceptable? As a trainer, is that acceptable? As a media person, is that explainable without questions? No journalist to date has the cojones to do an investigative report on it, though......just accept it, you bunch of pigs.

For one out of 4 questions mentioned, it's apparently acceptable for the media, especially if it enhances your paycheck.

I can't think of another sector of journalism that would let this crap fly. The racing media does, and embraces it..... especially if they got down for a score.

http://www.drf.com/news/beyer-tampa-...-its-ascension


http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...=2011307219865

OK, so you've got some nuts. Kudos to you. I love guys like you!! But where's the blood and guts of the real story? Where's the expose'? It doesn't stop with Ness simply saying, " Oh geez, I made a mistake..." That's not ok.

And where's the rest of these print, internet, tv/radio blow-hards? Oh yeah, cashing a Pick-4 ticket......and doing handicapping seminars at Pimlico prior to the Preakness.

In every historical event worth mentioning, the public benefits from the media doing investigative reporting. That term seems to be the anti-thesis of the racing media, though.......

Haskin, Crist, Sheinman, Magee, Byk, Beyer - just give us the us the fluff, right? And cash that paycheck.

In what world are journalists of any kind still like that? Journalism in general is devoid of the Woodwards and Bernsteins, not just racing journalism. The scarcity of Watergate journalism in America is staggering.

I think you're overestimating a lot of these guys as handicappers and bettors.

The list of suspicous trainers out there goes well beyond Jamie Ness. I wrote a very rough and tumble column about Stephanie Beattie when she gave me the chance because she had a bunch of overages here.

General newspaper coverage of horse racing simply isn't very good anymore. I'm only being paid to also write occasional columns here because the general sports guys want no part of attempting to cover horse racing... even though a few of the writers do show up at the track quite a bit. Guys like Beyer, Crist, and Moss did great work covering horse racing for newspapers in the 80's.

As for the guys who write for the Daily Racing Form -- they take themselves very seriously. Other than Jay Hovdey anyway, but he does absolute clown work most of the time and wastes his writing ability.

It's not 1905 anymore, the DRF writers aren't going to pin their ears back and take people on and call people out anymore. They are a friendly and very kind bunch.

Bloodhorse and Thoroughbred Times every bit the same.

Don't detract from the issue at hand. You and I, as racing enthusiasts, deserve better. We need someone to look out for our interests. I expect more - do you?

So, who does the $hit work and holds these guys accountable? Obviously, I'm on a rampage two days after the fact but what ear do I have? Maybe 102 people might read what I write, 57 of which will simply dismiss me as a whiner, while the another 30 will worship Ness and accept what he does while getting beat 70% of the time on their 2/5 tickets.

Who does the $hit work? The media used to dig stuff like this, but not this current bunch of cowards we have in the racing media.....

Believe it or not -- the DRF of the 1970's and 1980's was like Blood-Horse ICE.

Blaming the media for a Jamie Ness isn't the most logical thing. Ness was a sports writer himself and worked in the press box at Canterbury. He doesn't care what anyone writes about him.

You can make jokes in front of other people with him listening about the Jamie Ness move where horses re-break, he'll laugh about it. You can go up to a TV screen he's watching and yell "kick in with the juice! kick in with the Ness JUICE!" as his horse is closing to win a race. He'll smile or act like he doesn't hear it.

The stewards, track managment, and racing officals are where the blame should start. Look at when Ness ran the wrong horse here, a KY bred in a PA Bred race no less, not only did they not suspend him... but the fine was only like $500.

Completely agree - ultimately it's the racetrack management that should be held accountable. But how do I do that? Reality, I can't. Used to be that the press could hold them accountable.......and I never claimed to be logical.... 8-)

It fries my ass to see a racing secretary give 50, 60, 70 and more stalls to guys like Ness. The claim is - "...they fill races...". Couldn't be more short-sighted and untrue. Ness/ Midwest bring nothing to the table but other owner's horses they have claimed. Instead of 7 different owners running their horses in a $10k claimer at Laurel, Ness will have 2 entered, and then claim another one out of the race. Next time the race goes with 1 less horse, Ness has 2 more entered, and claims another one. Next time the race doesn't go with 5 entered and management doesn't understand why. It's because Ness has half the horses, stupid - but give him 10 more stalls.... Ness/Midwest kills races, just like Gill did back in the day. The middle claiming races all but disappeared years ago in MD. Why? Because Gill claimed all the horses at the level and then moved 'em out of town when races didn't go. It's like deja vu' all over again..... Give him 10 more stalls.

Why does the racing media not stand up and make this an issue? Oh yeah - there's a Pick 6 carry-over at Hollywood.....gotta get down....

In New York, they tried to go very hard after Rick Dutrow Jr. They found a way to snipe Juan Carlos Guerrero at Parx. They ran Gill out of town.

Those three are realtive choir boys compared to someone like a Scooter Davis who has stayed at minor leauge slots tracks despite a lundry list of major violations, major move-ups, and repeated 29th chances to stay out of trouble.

Write a letter to the stewards and other racing officals...or just give in and use those guys as trainers.

So the media is to blame for Ness moving up a horse you used to own?

Laughable....

Clown answer, bro.....you can do better.

That probably would have confused the waitresses in the clubhouse here.

Why didn't you just claim the horse back?

Arguably the biggest name in horse racing media (Beyer, not DrugS ;)) writes an article talking about everything you mention here, and you're going on (day two) about a horse getting claimed from you.

Who's the clown, bro?

No one likes what Ness does. You're preaching to the choir here. The media isn't going to change this IMO. It's up to the tracks. And when Ness is gone, another five are going to pop up in his place.

If you are looking towards the media to help clean up the game, you're wasting your time.

In terms of name recognition, I'm in about a dead heat with that Ellen Parker lady that voted for Drosselmeyer as champion turf horse.

Try again - happy to have the horse claimed from me. I'm a claiming owner and can't think of one in 15 years I wish didn't get claimed, including this one. That isn't the issue. I made my money and the profit check cashed nicely from the private purchase. Ever done that?

Filly got an 81 Beyer Fri night off a previous non-Ness best of 58 at Parx. Check the split times for her race - she never slowed down under a hand ride. Freak performance for a horse I owned, know, touched, saw radiographs of, etc. Simply wasn't a better horsemen's training effort, better placement, better jock - as an owner and bettor, what happened isn't acceptable or explainable.

But I respect your suggestion that the racing media won't do anything. I completely agree..... guess that's the saddest part of all and the point of my rant.

I think the point here is the racing media can't do anything. Sure, they can write the articles, but it doesn't do any good. They have all been written many times. Just insert the latest super trainer name. One misinformed article in the NYT was given more press than any 100 articles in the DRF, Bloodhorse, and Thoroughbred Times combined.

I understand the frustration. We all have it. But you are barking up the wrong tree. The people that can do something don't care.

Getting off the Ness subject...

here is a cut from an old DRF column that shows the amusing gossip and entertaining stories they would routinely write.

This is from a piece about horses who were expensive purchases and flopped. $20,000 in the 1890's is close to about $500,000 today adjusted for inflation. James R. Keene was one of the most powerful men on Wall Street, he owned several Hall of Fame horses, owned the winner of six different Belmont Stakes, and died worth a staggering $15 million in 1913.

Here is an amusing story about how an illiterate, black, 2nd string trainer of his got him to pay $20,000 for a horse he owned after he scared him into thinking he would beat "The Black Whirlwind" Domino. Domino was a Hall of Famer who racked up $193,550 in earnings in the 1890's.

1) I think its a slippery slope when you believe Penn National numbers, its like believing Lone Star #s

2) like Cm said, the people that we need to care dont, and horseman are trying, look at that match race last night at Penn, think that was coincidence

Here's a DRF article with a more in depth discussion of how the sale went down. Hyder Abad purchase. Hyderabad/Hyder Abad (depending on how they felt like spelling it that day) went for $400 as a yearling. That's around $10,000 in today's money. $30,000 would be roughly $775,000 today. Nice pinhook. From the article it sure sounds like the colt put on a show in a workout that made Keene scared enough to take it seriously.

Hyderabad/Hyder Abad apparently fell in the mud in the Futurity and nearly caused Domino to fall as well. Cooper seemed to think his colt would've won had he not fallen and the jockey spoke highly of the colt's effort before the incident. Something tells me it's not just blowing smoke up someone's arse. Overconfidence? Not sure, but I think Cooper believed it. Hyder Abad must not've broken down though because DRF's got at least one son I could find. Who knows who else because he clearly wasn't successful at stud. I can't figure out the breeding of the mare. The colt's name is Sheik, born 1896 out of Musical Gem by Dan Godfrey. Can't seem to find her dam's name.

I wrote this years ago HERE; as long as people continue to bet and the tracks continue to get their cut off the top, they have no incentive to care who wins or loses (sad but true). The only thing that will bring anything but lip service, is if people STOP betting.

Yeah, you sure seem like a person pretty happy with the profit they made. :rolleyes:

That's the problem with whining threads. You have to make up your mind. are you going to whine, or gloat? Can't do both.

Again, you're preaching to the choir here. You're a bigshot though. Can't you make something happen?

I'm not defending Ness, but there are some trainers that claim a horse and make changes, getting improved results. I'm not saying he didn't JUICE her, but he took off front wraps, could've changed the diet, changed dist., etc.
This happens when a few trainers claims horses, then makes changes, just as some horses get claimed and run worse than before.

You're barking up the wrong tree being mad at the media, really what do you want them to do? You should be mad at the tracks for not being able to prove this guy is cheating. More importantly you should be mad at the sport for a lack of a governing body which is able to enforce real penalties and suspensions.

:tro:
and a lack of people at said tracks who will ban someone. you have to have your trainer cut a horses' leg off before they deny you stalls.

Testing is usually done at the commission or state level. Tracks don't test horses or really have much to do with specific testing.

They can deny stalls and/or entry.

yep. and some trainers should have licenses revoked.
did the sport suffer when biancone(for example) wasn't training? why was he allowed to come back? what purpose did that serve? i would say none.

Nice mischaracterizations.....

I'll do what I can though but it will have to go to #2 on my list of things to do this week - #1 is to resolve the crisis between Frank Stronach and the MD horsemen....

Or at least give these guys a hard time and treat them with suspicion instead of treating them like royalty.

Not at all.

Penn National is one of the more straight-forward tracks for speed figure making.

They are very cut and dry all the time at Penn National.

Golden Gate is a track that is brutal for figure making -- the track repeatedly changes speed throughout the day. It's a first class pain in the ass and you're on your toes and guessing because of the small fields, the way the main track changes speed all the time, and the way they card a mix of turf and syn, not to mention sometimes they'll run two different baby races with all FTS.

Now, from GG, they go to PLN. A dirt surface where the vast majority of horses are exiting rubber form.

Speaking of super trainers..........is it me or have they disappeared a bit in socal? Mullins, Ted West, Dough Oneill.....who all were some of the more suspicious guys have been pedestrian for a while now.

Maybe its the elimination of the claiming races there at all but the lowest levels?

Maybe there are some new guys I am unaware of.

I don't think Ted West and O'Neill ever arroused any strong suspicion from serious people. Especially Ted West.

Mullins is still getting it done. He's winning at 24% this year and his new horses are overachieving all of the time. Even with his bodybuilding distractions, he's doing the work of a God with what he has.

Mullins and Mike Mitchell have been the leading alchmeists of the So. Cal circuit for a great long while now.

The media in regards to any business/industry/sport is only able to affect change in one of two ways. Either unearth/prove corruption which is not such an easy thing to do or cause strong public reaction with reporting of controversial issue which forces a reaction from the business/industry/sport. Racing media is for the most part toothless where it even exists. There are few mainstream papers covering racing outside the T. Crown/B. Cup and of those that do the NY Daily news and Times are both manned by buffoons who believe themselves far smarter and in tune with what is going on than the actually they are. Paulick is pretty hopeless as the Lexington blue blood crowd is what he fancies and they are totally out to lunch. Who else is there?

The sad reality is what Tom is complaining about is not only completely valid but a far greater threat to the health of the sport than most of the other ancillary nonsense combined. Sure no one really cares about Penn National outside of those that are racing there and the tiny group of players that bets that product but the perception of corruption is not unique to the small trcks.

I was sitting at MTH with a bunch of guys playing on Sat in handicapping tourney there. A lot of serious players who bet a pretty good amount of money, some with a good feel for the realities of the game and some just good handicappers. And when Belmont runs a 3 horse race on a Sat card they all just chuckle and wonder aloud why on a Sat would this race be carded? But the real rumbling starts when Serey's horse in the 3rd runs off the screen. The horse figured in the race but the reemergence of Serey and the unveiling of Ramon Moya, Sr. who wins another race later in the card which gives him close to 50% win % for the year (training for a group of ex Carlos Guerrero owners which of course isnt lost on anyone) just drives most of these guys crazy. The thing is that every trainer on a hot streak isnt juiced and every horse that reverses form isnt because of drugs but because these things and people are allowed to go unchecked AND there seems to be little to no response from track management or the state regulators or stewards or horseman organizations the PERCEPTION is that cheating is allowed which implicates pretty much all of us in the business. The idea that a lot of horsemen arent skeptical and tired in a lot of cases of Jamie Ness is wrong. Alot of owners have left or cut down a lot because of the juice guys but they dont leave with much fanfare. They just leave and when there are empty stalls at tracks with pretty good purses the industry consensus (almost always wrong by the way) is that there is a horse shortage when there most certainly are plenty of horses in this country but a distinct lack of new people to buy and race them. The reasons that so many people are dead wrong about so much in this business is they are so willing to go along with something that sounds plausible as opposed to actually doing a bit of critical thinking or looking up the facts. The idea that Ness is just a better horseman is laughable in the way that Madoff was just a superior money manager. The idea that the business needs younger people is so off base because the age of the people we need to target is insignificant to a huge number of factors that should be far more important like "is there a good chance that they will bet". Perhaps we can blame the racing media for being lazy for the most part, yeah but there just arent enough of them to make a difference even if they werent for the most part so inept.

I cant reiterate strongly enough that there are very few people in leadership positions in this business that really have any grasp of the issues, have any understanding of what the customers in the grandstand or backside want and any temerity to ever deal with anything other than what is directly in front of them.

When some of your biggest customers are standing up and injecting the air with imaginary syringes when your leading trainers are winning races....well what else is there to say about your product?

Wow!

I stand corrected.

West won at like 30% a few years back, I got a few good West stories.

I forgot about Mitchell, but it feels as if his horse move ups are not nearly as pronounced.

I was with Mitchell and a friend of mine who claimed a horse for 20k or so and moved him to 50k (back when those #'s meant something at Del Mar) and there was little doubt he was going to win (it ended up being very close), and we all scored out at 9/1.

to me the problem in as far as ness and dutrow and involved. the sport has no reciprocal Jurisdiction in these matters.get caught..no biggie ill appeal..and still run, still win. owners dont care hes winning. why should the reporters ie drf ect keep raising the question and over and over again nothing is done.until we have a commissioner in racing that has absolute power in regards to drug positives that carrys over in all tracks in the us we will never have a level playing field.yes we can achieve this.a standardized testing procedure would have to be set up.imo starting a racehorse should be privilege not a right. especialy when people are gambling on them..

my 2c