In a comparison on a much lower level of the game, do we all miss Michael Gill from racing ? He still has a few horses with gammy, but he tried to monopolize the claiming game and most race fans disliked him . Tracks also disliked him for his aggressive claiming tactics among other things. Delaware Park would not give him stalls and he bought his own training center nearby.He would dominate some tracks claiming divisions by buying up so many that there was little competition. Owners/trainers kept their horses in the barn until the gill show moved on to another track. Was what he was doing legal, sure, was it good for the game, I don't think so. The same could be said for what the sheiks are doing. I'm glad that Beyer penned this column.
BTW, this past sunday the NY Times had a new sports magazine included. The name of the magazine is PLAY . ( Bill Parcells is pictured on the cover.) On page 16 is an article, GALLOPING TO GREATNESS . It is the story of Bernardini. Its a sparse article listing what's so good about Bernie with a large photo of him taking up half the page. Just suprised to see it in the NYT.