PETA undercover in Asmussen's barn - Whoa!

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Jay Frederick

The reality is that if PETA is going to try and embarrass him or the sport, they will do it whether he is there or not. Especially if he has horses running in the big races. I'm sure there will be something mentioned in the broadcast about it. That's going to happen if he attends or doesn't.

I'm not defending Asmussen or his record. Just don't see why he should have to step away from his job because a tape surfaced with where one of his employees swore a lot.

you think that's a correct summation of the video?


you have a multiple violator of many and sundry rules of the sport. to the point where several racing jurisdictions had given him longer than normal suspensions. too bad they allowed him to serve those sentences concurrently, rather than consecutively.
then, you have the sport who says it wants to 'clean up' have this 'gentleman' on its hall of fame ballot. you have a video and a 275 page report, leading to the firing of an almost two decade long top assistant. the loss of a big owner with deep pockets, and two racing jurisdictions opening investigations.
yeah, it's just profanity....
he should not be there derby and oaks day. it's too bad owners hire him, give their stock to him. it's like hiring bobby petrino-whose fault is it when things go wrong because of ethics? the snake you hired, or you for hiring him?
an assistant should saddle, and he should stay out of the glare. will it get mention? of course. should he be there so they can add questions of why he's there along with all the rest of the mess? no.

[Jay Frederick]

Originally Posted by Danzig

you think that's a correct summation of the video?


you have a multiple violator of many and sundry rules of the sport. to the point where several racing jurisdictions had given him longer than normal suspensions. too bad they allowed him to serve those sentences concurrently, rather than consecutively.
then, you have the sport who says it wants to 'clean up' have this 'gentleman' on its hall of fame ballot. you have a video and a 275 page report, leading to the firing of an almost two decade long top assistant. the loss of a big owner with deep pockets, and two racing jurisdictions opening investigations.
yeah, it's just profanity....
he should not be there derby and oaks day. it's too bad owners hire him, give their stock to him. it's like hiring bobby petrino-whose fault is it when things go wrong because of ethics? the snake you hired, or you for hiring him?
an assistant should saddle, and he should stay out of the glare. will it get mention? of course. should he be there so they can add questions of why he's there along with all the rest of the mess? no.

It's a tape that has been doctored up. His assistant being fired was a PR move all the way.

What in that tape warrants him to step away from his job? That's what I'm trying to figure out. I get that he's a repeat offender and I'll mention again that I am not defending him or his actions.

But taking personal feelings about him out of the equation for a second, what has he done wrong based on the video? Running horses who aren't 100%? There'd be no races ever if that was the case.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Jay Frederick

It's a tape that has been doctored up. His assistant being fired was a PR move all the way.

What in that tape warrants him to step away from his job? That's what I'm trying to figure out. I get that he's a repeat offender and I'll mention again that I am not defending him or his actions.

But taking personal feelings about him out of the equation for a second, what has he done wrong based on the video? Running horses who aren't 100%? There'd be no races ever if that was the case.

no, it's a tape that's been edited. not doctored. no one is denying anything that was said.
i think you're still oversimplifying. there's more to it than them saying they ran horses at less than 100%.
it's not just that tape that has me saying he should stay away. two racing jurisdictions, two of the largest in the country (one being ky) are conducting investigations based on the video and the report compiled by peta.

yes, it's peta. so, we just ignore the entire message because we don't like the messenger? we just conduct business as usual?
doing the right thing isn't always easy. sometimes it's painful. but at this point, i think the sport would be better off if people like SA were not involved.
had the kid gloves come off several years back, we wouldn't be having this discussion now. people keep saying we don't want the feds invovled. well, talk is cheap. keep turning a blind eye, and then we can some day discuss why things went south.

[Jay Frederick]

Originally Posted by Danzig

no, it's a tape that's been edited. not doctored. no one is denying anything that was said.
i think you're still oversimplifying. there's more to it than them saying they ran horses at less than 100%.
it's not just that tape that has me saying he should stay away. two racing jurisdictions, two of the largest in the country (one being ky) are conducting investigations based on the video and the report compiled by peta.

yes, it's peta. so, we just ignore the entire message because we don't like the messenger? we just conduct business as usual?
doing the right thing isn't always easy. sometimes it's painful. but at this point, i think the sport would be better off if people like SA were not involved.
had the kid gloves come off several years back, we wouldn't be having this discussion now. people keep saying we don't want the feds invovled. well, talk is cheap. keep turning a blind eye, and then we can some day discuss why things went south.

It's been edited to fit an agenda. Months and months of tape was condensed into a few minutes to spark outrage (mission accomplished).

What is the right thing here? Thinking he should have to step away from his job because of the video? Don't agree.

Maybe the sport would be better off without some trainers. I'm of the opinion that if you are going to take away someone's livelihood, you need a better reason than that video. You can't punish him now, again, for what he has done in the past.

So I'll ask again, what in the video did you see, that warrants him stepping away?

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by Jay Frederick

Maybe the sport would be better off without some trainers. I'm of the opinion that if you are going to take away someone's livelihood, you need a better reason than that video. You can't punish him now, again, for what he has done in the past.

What about the people who have lost their livelihoods because of guys like Asmussen and his ilk? Shouldn't the system be more concerned about protecting their right to earn an honest living?

[Jay Frederick]

Originally Posted by parsixfarms

What about the people who have lost their livelihoods because of guys like Asmussen and his ilk? Shouldn't the system be more concerned about protecting their right to earn an honest living?

You'll get no argument from me about the system being broke. Let's fix the system.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by parsixfarms

What about the people who have lost their livelihoods because of guys like Asmussen and his ilk? Shouldn't the system be more concerned about protecting their right to earn an honest living?

How has Asmussen (and others like him) caused other people to lose their livelihoods?

I am no fan of him, but other than potentially hiring undocumented workers (and allegedly faking papers for them), there's nothing in there that is illegal, and if a trainer should step away from the Derby for hiring undocumented workers, I suspect there would be many more than just Asmussen.

Until the allegations are proved, he's innocent in the eyes of the law. It's not his job to give racing a good image; it's his job to win races for his clients. If the owners are concerned about how things look, they are free to move their horses (and personally, I think Zayat's moving his had more to do with Blasi calling him a name, that meanie! The wealthy are very sensitive and their feelings get hurt easily. We must protect them at all costs from the cold, cruel world). If racing fans should be angry at anyone, it should be at the owners who stayed with him, who clearly care more about winning races than how racing looks to Joe Q Public who doesn't follow the sport. I would wager money (and probably more successfully than I have in the Derby the last few years) that Asmussen doesn't feel he's done anything wrong. If you were accused of something you felt was untrue at your job, would you voluntarily give up your livelihood to make your field of work "look better"? Or would you say, "eff you, prove it first"?

Again, I'm not a fan of his work, as they say, but at this point, demanding he step back from training his Derby/Oaks horses smacks of Polytrack- knee-jerk responding. Horse racing has a lotta image problems (the biggest, and most insurmountable probably being modern US society infantilizing animals that we don't like to eat), but Asmussen stepping down isn't going to do step one towards actually addressing any of them.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

How has Asmussen (and others like him) caused other people to lose their livelihoods?

I am no fan of him, but other than potentially hiring undocumented workers (and allegedly faking papers for them), there's nothing in there that is illegal, and if a trainer should step away from the Derby for hiring undocumented workers, I suspect there would be many more than just Asmussen.

Until the allegations are proved, he's innocent in the eyes of the law. It's not his job to give racing a good image; it's his job to win races for his clients. If the owners are concerned about how things look, they are free to move their horses (and personally, I think Zayat's moving his had more to do with Blasi calling him a name, that meanie! The wealthy are very sensitive and their feelings get hurt easily. We must protect them at all costs from the cold, cruel world). If racing fans should be angry at anyone, it should be at the owners who stayed with him, who clearly care more about winning races than how racing looks to Joe Q Public who doesn't follow the sport. I would wager money (and probably more successfully than I have in the Derby the last few years) that Asmussen doesn't feel he's done anything wrong. If you were accused of something you felt was untrue at your job, would you voluntarily give up your livelihood to make your field of work "look better"? Or would you say, "eff you, prove it first"?

Again, I'm not a fan of his work, as they say, but at this point, demanding he step back from training his Derby/Oaks horses smacks of Polytrack- knee-jerk responding. Horse racing has a lotta image problems (the biggest, and most insurmountable probably being modern US society infantilizing animals that we don't like to eat), but Asmussen stepping down isn't going to do step one towards actually addressing any of them.

nyra and ky are both currently investigating asmussen for cruelty to animals, among other things. i'm not sure that hiring undocumented workers is the only thing he needs to worry about.
seems to me whenever cruelty to animals is asserted, animals are removed from the care of the person charged during the investigation. it doesn't mean the person is guilty, it's done to make sure the animals are taken care of while the case proceeds.
i agree, owners are wrong for hiring such a person.