Was Masochistic stiffed in his debut?
 

Second-time starter Masochistic shows up in a Maiden Special weight event today, on Derby day.

In his career debut, he was dismissed at 8/1 odds in a Cal Bred MSW race. He was never involved at any stage, and finished 5th.

Interestingly, Masochistic received a comical ride from Omar Berrio that day. He gave him a ride only the Boston Strangler could have admired. I am told he was called into meet with the stewards to explain that ride.

More interestingly, Masochistic tested positive for a tranquilizer. He was disqualified from purse money, and got nothing for his 5th place finish.

Ok, cool. That looks shady.

Now, in career start #2, this Cal bred shows up in a MSW event on the Kentucky Derby day card. He's bet to 2/1 favoritism, and wins by 14 lengths in the sizzling time of 1:08.85 seconds.

Perhaps I'm cynical ... maybe the tranquilizer was an accident and maybe Omar Berrio was stricken with paralysis when he rode him in his debut.

Have a look at Serling's twitter. He was the worst kept secret of the day.

For whatever it is worth, we (TimeformUS) had him fastest in the race today off his debut regardless of intent that day.

Acepromazine isnt what you'd give a horse to stop them in a race. It wears off too fast and is almost always tested for. I have had 1 horse in my career DQ'ed for a bad test and it was for ace.

http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbP...try=USA&race=7

Here was the report:

http://www.drf.com/news/purse-redist...itive-sedative

Honestly how can that supposed stiff job be distinguished from any other race for a first time starter? The stewards must have lost their you know what that day.

Reminds me of the old days when outfits would bring their maidens with no workouts for a score. Or maybe he was trying to show off a faster cal bred than Chrome..

Well ... it wasn't the greatest moment for the Pace Projector...



He only had one horse beaten in the pace projector ... and yet he rolled on a loose lead through a 21 flat opening quarter mile.

Of course, having Berrio strangle the horse into submission, throughout his debut, probably hurt his pace figure.

Obviously, that is never going to be as reliable for lightly raced horses.

I wasn't trying to say you were wrong or anything, just saying that even given his "trip" first out, he ran faster than anyone else in the field had overall. It said more about his competition today than anything he had done.

Dennis Manning did it with a maiden a few years ago at GP. Had a few nonsense workouts from a Ocala training center, opened up short, stayed that way and galloped.

You can go many years without ever seeing an effort that poor by a jockey on a first time starter at a major circuit.

He strangled him early. He had every opportunity to tip out in the clear and make a run, but he buried him inside and did nothing through the stretch.

Maybe Chuck is right, and the bad test for Ace was coincidental.

However, you have to feel for the people who had 8/1 odds on Masochistic in his debut against Cal Breds. They got a 69 Beyer performance from the horse, but the effort of the jockey was worthy of a -0 figure

Yeah...that was the eventual flaw in the "putover" -- as Serling called it on Twitter.

The assumption being that a MSW race on the Kentucky Derby card would come up tough.

The race came up so soft, that Masochistic was just 4/1 on the morning line and had the fastest last out fig on everyones numbers. Even his 69 Beyer was fastest last-out.

Had he caught a tough MSW race on Derby Day -- he wouldn't have won by 14 lengths going six furlongs, but he would have been a much better price.

It is amusing to see a maiden race go 1:08.85 and the Kentucky Derby go 2:03.66 ...on the same card.

I see this crap weekly in California and nothing is ever done. This bs is far from isolated. The connections certainly didn't try to cloud his ability given his workouts prior to and after his first race.

No, I saw the same thing. I don't think you're being paranoid/cynical. It just doesn't happen often in big circuits so it definitely stuck out.

The connections of Masochistic really got screwed.

In a typical MSW race on Derby Day for males -- you'd expect seeing plenty of horses, from fancy connections, who've run Beyer's in the high 80's, at least.

A horse with that form is 20/1+ ML if the races comes up as you'd expect it.

They got so brutally unlucky, that they came into it having the top fig, on everyones numbers, off a 5th place finish in an 8 horse field of average Cal Bred maidens.

I honestly didn't know that or never would have brought it up. I just saw he was picked on top by our software so looked a little deeper, seemed odd at the time.

Gotta love the ownership group named Los Pollos Hermanos, by the way.

That is awesome!

Gotta love Avila's quote: "wanted Berrio to preserve him to the stretch then ask him."

This is a horse capable of running :21 flat for the opening quarter. Why would you choke off a horse's early speed unless you don't want to win? Does Avila think everyone is brain dead? It was an out and out stiff job, and he knows it.

Peter Miller does this on a weekly basis. He has admitted to it and stated it has paid for his kids future college tuition. Now, when i see him entered in a MCL with a 1st timer I cringe. He will even throw a low % jock on to beef up the price.

Remember it well. Grand Hombre working three very slow half miles in 52 at Classic Mile. 30-1 ml , goes off at 14-1 with Edgar Prado and goes 1:08 n change . Later selling him to Darley for some sick change...

The definition of nobbling:

I'd like to see A. C. Avila asked about Tornado Allie's first two career starts.

She certainly has the look of a horse who could have been the victim of nobbling:

In her first two starts, she ran BRIS speed figures of -2 and 28. She ran Beyer figures of -0 and -0 in those first two starts.

In both races, she showed no speed at all and still tired throughout. Who bets a horse at 12/1 odds, off of two -0 Beyers, in Southern California?

You're not supposed to see nobbling anymore. In this era, the purses are way too large to justify it. It really should never happen, and especially never happen at bigger circuits.

One of my fathers bigger betting scores came that way. He nobbled a horse named Nat's Thunder with reserpine in a race at Commodore Downs, and brought him back to win a race on a Saturday at Thistle Downs in the summer. He says he profited over 20k betting the race by catching the exacta. In those days, Thistle Downs handled well and was a far more respectable track than it is today. Antonio Graell rode there at the time, and he used him when he could get him. But, he'd bring in a Commodore jockey if he was trying to cash a bet.

Scratching Smogcutter
 

They have balls. Good for them.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/...?#article-copy

Frankham said the entire episode with Masochistic has soured him on the game.

“It’s one of the disgusting parts of this game,” he said. “That’s why we’re not going to be in a race with A.C. Avila in it. I felt in principal, we had to step out of that race. He defrauded the bettors who bet on that race, and yet, no one got their money back. If there is no light put on this, it will be another wink wink scandal. If this were the United Kingdom or Asia, A.C. Avila would be banned for life. I Iove this sport, and it’s with a heavy heart that I get into this situation and fight this. I don’t want to take down the sport, but people work hard to get their horses ready for a race, and it’s not fair to them. We need to make changes, and the state needs to act in a more timely manner with its investigations. We can’t have egregious cheaters like this allowed to continue to race 4½ months later.”

Not the first time Avila has "magically" turned a horse around.

http://pic.twitter.com/oquEfNBali

Oh yes.. They're so noble with their grandstanding.

As Jay Privman tweeted, 'Not defending what's gone on with Masochistic, but I remember when Shoemaker & Charlie Whittingham would operate similarly and no one ever questioned them.'

And of course like every other wrong-headed notion about International racing, no one is getting 'banned for life' for setting up scores. Obviously they weren't following Barney Curley's exploits last year. http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/sho...ghlight=curley

everyone says they want to clean up the sport...and then when something happens, there are shrugs.
deeds, not words.

Didn't know it was required to..

You don't think there's a difference between "giving a horse a race" and having a firster test positive for aceprozamine at 40 times the allowable limit?

I do.

Hi Luv... I had thought about sticking it here, on this thread BUT wanted the focus to be on the positive (their action) instead of a footnote to a negative.

It's all good though... it really doesn't matter.

With respect, if this is grandstanding? I'm all for it. I think the feeling of the line about being banned for life was what was important and not taking it in a literal sense.

Exactly.

There are some legitimate differences with the Curley coup, mostly in that the public wasn't taken for a ride, but rather the bookmakers.

That said, when the bookmakers lose, the UK racing industry loses money too.

Assuming there is some kind of wrongdoing going on, it is somehow more acceptable to defraud bookmakers than the public?

While the ace positive makes Avila look really bad, for those who bet on the horse what is the difference between not trying or not trying plus acepromazine?

probably nothing. but to say he needs a race vs don't really push him and let's give him a tranq too....just seems so over the top.


but that's probably why it's called gambling and not winning.

Exactly..I bet on horses that are not well meant ALL the time without knowing they arent fit enough or conditioned to win a race. The drugs are just a eye sore they really have little to do with the fact that in most races there are several horses that arent in it to win it.

which doesn't excuse what he did one whit.
again, people say clean up the sport....and then excuses are made whenever a bad apple turns up.