If you follow the Big-A there are some great wagering opportunities. Many of these favorable situations are based on the masses betting the usual suspect connections when they have no shot. In my development and socialization as a horseplayer I have learned to respect the game. However I do not have the same level of respect for the masses that play the game against me. The masses are lazy, they move in herds and do the same things over and over again. Their favorite shortcuts are betting on names they associate with winning. This is called "jockey capping". While I concede that some of these connections are superior to their competition; the fact remains that they lose 75-80% of the time. It is in this area -separating horses from the connections- were the public fails. Betting the overlays is where the winning horseplayer should make a home; using the public tendencies to your benefit.
To help chop the horseracing world down to size I focus on NYRA racing. This gives me the home court edge almost all the time, I know the trainers, the horses, the jockeys. Most importantly I know the tendencies of my parimutuel competition. The people in the OTBs of New York love to bet connections. When something or someone is in fashion they bet them every time. Jjust like when Pavlov's dogs would salivate when old Pavlov would ring a bell these connections salivate every time they see Dominguez listed as the jockey.
Among the jockeys racing in New York Ramon Dominguez has monopolized the affections of the contingent of "jockey cappers". He is a family man that I respect, a great jockey but he is not god. He is not going to make a an uncompetitive horse win a race. He rides well, is supported by trainers with live horses and he wins many races. However he is overbet by the public even when he should not be bet.
Consider this example. In today's first race Dominguez had the mount on "Fuzzy's Story". This horse was 1 for 8, just got thumped last out at Philly for 15K N2L. Furthermore the race at Philly was won by a 38-1 longshot that emerged out of a weak 12K maiden claimer at Philly. The place and show spots where also claimed by longshots that would have been 50-1 today. He should have been 10-1 in this 14K claimer for three year old horses instead 5-2. "Fuzzy's Story" was sure to have a sad ending today; this horse was emerging out of a very weak race. Rather than the 10-1 he should have been the public bet him down to 5-2. The only expaination is that the public has a betting Dominguez fetish.
The winner of today's race "Irving Rules" broke his maiden for 35K in a strong race. The race that Irving Rules emerged from yielded five horses that returned to break their maiden. This powerful winner -who scored by six lengths- was sent to the post at nearly 7-2. Why was the price so generous? The public has a history of cashing tickets on Ramon Dominguez and they backed him instead of the best horse.
The title of "king of the overbet trainers" goes to Rick Dutrow of the Dutrow training dynasty. The one truth we can all agree on with Mr. Dutrow is that he sends his horses to the post ready to run. His stable is a betting stable. When his horses are live money floods in early; his horses routinely open up at 1-9 on the parimutuel tote. The kicker with Rick Dutrow is that so many people that like to bet on him. Even when his first team of supporters do not show up there is a cache of reinforcements-presumably dumb OTB money- betting on him even when his horses are not live. These people show up in droves with late money to bet his horses. Sometimes he gets bet when he has no shot by this late money.
Consider Aqueduct's seventh race on 18JAN10. This was a showdown between two stakes placed sprinters; Out Of Respect and Dahlgren Chapel had this field dominated as both have been competitive with the cream of the New York Bred sprinter crop. Shockingly neither went to the post as the favorite. The Rick Dutrow trained Cajun Jet returning from a lengthy June layoff was bet all the way down to 8-5. Cajun Jet was emerging out of a very weak race; not one horse from that race has ever gone on to break it's maiden. The long layoff was surely prompted by an injury. When the winner-Out Of Respect- hit the wire Cajun Jet was in a holding pattern 12 lengths behind second place finisher Dahlgren Chapel. Cajun Jet had little to no shot of winning the race but was made the favorite on the good name of his trainer Rick Dutrow.
There are surely others that seem to take too much money. Then there are surely times when I bet on these guys as sometimes they have horses that absolutely dominate their races. The best bets are when I like a horse ridden by a jockey that is not so much in fashion, trained by a second tier trainer and the competition has no shot but is trained ridden by one of the masses favorite connections. In these situations you are sure to receive a generous price; really it is a gift from masses and their foolish ways.
Power cap- existential handicapping
Showing posts with label Rick Dutrow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rick Dutrow. Show all posts
22 January 2010
11 April 2009
Jeff Mullins Is Horse Racing
Being a horse racing fan was a tough haul this week. The twin stories being brutally beaten over and over have made their way to the mainstream. After a winter of nil publicity the game has made the TV news and the front page of the NY Times sports section. They say bad publicity is better than no publicity but the negative tone and the amount of the internet comments is overwhelmingly negative. The entire derby trail is being neglected this year while sensational tabloid journalism riddled with errors and misrepresentations is having an unprecedented run. The beating that Jeff Mullins is taking is the same beating that horse racing is about to take during the triple crown. It is unfortunate and deserved. If the same voices making a mountain out of the detention barn incident continue to sing their strident song for the mainstream media we could be looking at a banned sport in just a few years.
The derby story lines are being buried and it seems like the buzz surrounding the derby will focus on the soiled name of Jeff Mullins. It is not enough that his horse was scratched from the Bay Shore, he has to be publicly humiliated and repeatedly flogged in blog after blog and article after article. He was wrong to do this in the security barn. Mullins will have his hearing and punishment will be doled out. The sensationalists must have their public stoning as they gather around and squeal in pleasure as stone after stone is applied. The reaction is outrageous and not based in reason. For them the application of an all-natural product sold in tack stores is proof that Mullins is a dirty cheater/pharmacist that has concoction after concoction of secret substances that make horses run at the front of the pack like machines. The fact that he has been winning horses racing since he was seventeen years old is not considered. Backstretch backstabbing may also be at work here. Reason and fairness have been scratched from the race alongside Gato Go Win.
Condemnation of Mullins is not the end. After the condemnation of Mullins then comes the condemnation of racing period. There is an agenda at work here. The anonymous comments on these on-line articles referring to how most racehorses are routinely abused while they are in training is troubling. Yes these things do happen in isolated incidents but the game is being defiled as a activity filled with abuse and cruelty by people who have never been near a barn and surely have never mucked a stall. Racing has made tremendous strides to clean up the game. There is a stereotype that racing is a very dirty game and that the racetrack is a dirty place. Like many stereotypes there is some truth to the matter but the facts are being exaggerated to make the make the story fit into the anti-racing agenda.
Tell someone you are a horseplayer in New York and they will turn up their nose to you. The
assumption is that you are a degenerate gambler through horse racing betting, disgustingly profane and a low-life. It is a ridiculous assumption but these stereotypes help simple people navigate the complex social landscapes where snap judgment decisions must be made with limited information. Simple people are applying the same stereotypes to Jeff Mullins. The way Mullins is being dragged through the mud is a foreshadowing of how the game will be dragged through the mud. Forces and agendas are building to remove horse racing from the American tapestry.
The public beating that Mullins is bearing is the same beating that horse racing has been taking for many years. Isolated examples are blown out of proportion while the beauty and positive parts of the game, the hard work and love for the animals is completely ignored. Do you really think all of the horses in Mullins barn are abused and drugged to win races? Why is it that Michael Matz is the national spokesperson for Air Power yet his name has not been soiled in any of this? Is it because Mullins grew up riding at bush tracks and Matz is a high-class dressage legend? Does Mullins only employ only animal abusers? The almost unanimous condemnation against Mullins is beyond all reason and could only survive in the preposterous bleating of the flock of sheep against indoctrinated into shunning anything not politically correct.
Many people want to see racing go away and those giving inordinate amounts of coverage to this sensational story are feeding the fires for the extremists like PETA who do not understand the complexities or appeal of horse racing. These people deal in half-truths , sound bites and sensationalism which has been produced by the lot this week. The articles appearing in the mainstream and extremist press are riddled with errors or poor information. If they can not get the minor details correct they are surely wrong on the big picture. The deluge of negative information from on-line racing sources and bloggers with good intentions are feeding the frenzy that will look to besmirch the game during the upcoming triple crown season. In this deluge of negative information there is but a trickle of attention on how this may be the best crop of three year olds to emerge in the decade. It is like good sense and perception have yielded to cheap attention and the sheep mentality.
Few things in life are black or white, good or bad but Mullins almost universally denigrated all bad. He is like the Emmanuel Goldstein of racing, the boogieman that Big Brother uses so the masses have a target to direct their angst towards. The sensationalists have had a field day dragging out Mullins violation record. Yes there are offenses there but when we are dealing with the numbers of horses Mullins has in his care the numbers are skewed. While he is besmirched as a cheater most of the violations are for racing office violations like scratching a horse without permission or paperwork issues. There is a difference between cheating and the violations in Mullins record.
Mullins has a green light on his head for abuse, he is one of the few people in racing that can openly be abused without consequence. Like Mullins horse racing is one of the sports that can be openly abused in the mainstream without consequence. A combination of success, working class background, frank talk to reporters and past offenses have landed Mullins squarely in the cross heirs of the sensationalists. Racing's use of animals for gambling have landed in the crossheirs of the politically correct and the animal rights extremists.
Frank talk never gets you very far when talking to the masses and when Mullins called horseplayers idiots he displayed a lack of media savvy and tact. Sometimes frank talk like this is very helpful. The game has ridden itself of steroids due to the frankness of Rick Dutrow. America needs more frank talk and less smiling liars. America needs less sensationalism and more good racing.
The derby story lines are being buried and it seems like the buzz surrounding the derby will focus on the soiled name of Jeff Mullins. It is not enough that his horse was scratched from the Bay Shore, he has to be publicly humiliated and repeatedly flogged in blog after blog and article after article. He was wrong to do this in the security barn. Mullins will have his hearing and punishment will be doled out. The sensationalists must have their public stoning as they gather around and squeal in pleasure as stone after stone is applied. The reaction is outrageous and not based in reason. For them the application of an all-natural product sold in tack stores is proof that Mullins is a dirty cheater/pharmacist that has concoction after concoction of secret substances that make horses run at the front of the pack like machines. The fact that he has been winning horses racing since he was seventeen years old is not considered. Backstretch backstabbing may also be at work here. Reason and fairness have been scratched from the race alongside Gato Go Win.
Condemnation of Mullins is not the end. After the condemnation of Mullins then comes the condemnation of racing period. There is an agenda at work here. The anonymous comments on these on-line articles referring to how most racehorses are routinely abused while they are in training is troubling. Yes these things do happen in isolated incidents but the game is being defiled as a activity filled with abuse and cruelty by people who have never been near a barn and surely have never mucked a stall. Racing has made tremendous strides to clean up the game. There is a stereotype that racing is a very dirty game and that the racetrack is a dirty place. Like many stereotypes there is some truth to the matter but the facts are being exaggerated to make the make the story fit into the anti-racing agenda.
Tell someone you are a horseplayer in New York and they will turn up their nose to you. The
assumption is that you are a degenerate gambler through horse racing betting, disgustingly profane and a low-life. It is a ridiculous assumption but these stereotypes help simple people navigate the complex social landscapes where snap judgment decisions must be made with limited information. Simple people are applying the same stereotypes to Jeff Mullins. The way Mullins is being dragged through the mud is a foreshadowing of how the game will be dragged through the mud. Forces and agendas are building to remove horse racing from the American tapestry.
The public beating that Mullins is bearing is the same beating that horse racing has been taking for many years. Isolated examples are blown out of proportion while the beauty and positive parts of the game, the hard work and love for the animals is completely ignored. Do you really think all of the horses in Mullins barn are abused and drugged to win races? Why is it that Michael Matz is the national spokesperson for Air Power yet his name has not been soiled in any of this? Is it because Mullins grew up riding at bush tracks and Matz is a high-class dressage legend? Does Mullins only employ only animal abusers? The almost unanimous condemnation against Mullins is beyond all reason and could only survive in the preposterous bleating of the flock of sheep against indoctrinated into shunning anything not politically correct.
Many people want to see racing go away and those giving inordinate amounts of coverage to this sensational story are feeding the fires for the extremists like PETA who do not understand the complexities or appeal of horse racing. These people deal in half-truths , sound bites and sensationalism which has been produced by the lot this week. The articles appearing in the mainstream and extremist press are riddled with errors or poor information. If they can not get the minor details correct they are surely wrong on the big picture. The deluge of negative information from on-line racing sources and bloggers with good intentions are feeding the frenzy that will look to besmirch the game during the upcoming triple crown season. In this deluge of negative information there is but a trickle of attention on how this may be the best crop of three year olds to emerge in the decade. It is like good sense and perception have yielded to cheap attention and the sheep mentality.
Few things in life are black or white, good or bad but Mullins almost universally denigrated all bad. He is like the Emmanuel Goldstein of racing, the boogieman that Big Brother uses so the masses have a target to direct their angst towards. The sensationalists have had a field day dragging out Mullins violation record. Yes there are offenses there but when we are dealing with the numbers of horses Mullins has in his care the numbers are skewed. While he is besmirched as a cheater most of the violations are for racing office violations like scratching a horse without permission or paperwork issues. There is a difference between cheating and the violations in Mullins record.
Mullins has a green light on his head for abuse, he is one of the few people in racing that can openly be abused without consequence. Like Mullins horse racing is one of the sports that can be openly abused in the mainstream without consequence. A combination of success, working class background, frank talk to reporters and past offenses have landed Mullins squarely in the cross heirs of the sensationalists. Racing's use of animals for gambling have landed in the crossheirs of the politically correct and the animal rights extremists.
Frank talk never gets you very far when talking to the masses and when Mullins called horseplayers idiots he displayed a lack of media savvy and tact. Sometimes frank talk like this is very helpful. The game has ridden itself of steroids due to the frankness of Rick Dutrow. America needs more frank talk and less smiling liars. America needs less sensationalism and more good racing.
07 July 2008
Rick Dutrow Has Saved Racing
Rick Dutrow is the savior that American racing has been waiting for. While many were offended by his brashness and lack of tact they completely missed that Dutrow's honesty opened up American horse racing to transparency. What no one had told him was that it's fine to pump your horses full of drugs, but not fine to go and tell everyone. Other trainers like Zito, Pletcher and Jerkens get a pass for their drug use while Dutrow due to his candor got hammered from all sides. It is almost like people do not like hearing the truth and prefer when people lie about it. Now with the truth appearing in the mainstream press and in blogs the momentum to reform racing is gaining a head of steam.
One jurisdiction after another is tightening up the rules. Just last week New Jersey raided their leading trainers barn and test for EPO. California has banned steroids. Without Rick Dutrow's honesty none of this could have never happened. People like Dutrow have their role in life and it is not to be some persons step stool to high moral ground. He is a very good trainer and his honesty is bringing real change to the game.
One jurisdiction after another is tightening up the rules. Just last week New Jersey raided their leading trainers barn and test for EPO. California has banned steroids. Without Rick Dutrow's honesty none of this could have never happened. People like Dutrow have their role in life and it is not to be some persons step stool to high moral ground. He is a very good trainer and his honesty is bringing real change to the game.
02 June 2008
Dutrow-Iavarone Bashers Need To Step Up Their Game
Commenter Rufus Youngblood came back with a fair rebuttal to the Dutrow/Iavarone post and would like to expand on the topic. Mr. Youngblood made many cogent points which I agree with and I think he is on-point regarding IEAH. Hopefully they will do the right thing and have Brown race a few more times and get in the gate for a mega race with Curlin. However I think the barrage of articles, internet blogs and comments about Dutrow and Iavarone completely miss the point and are more of a expression of jealousy and envy than well thought out criticism of what Big Brown means to the sport.
If these people wanted to bash Dutrow and Iavarone they should have had the substance to consider the present and the future in their attacks. The Bloomberg article was a strait up smear piece and the anonymous commenter-cockroach that dug up and made up a bunch of stuff about Dutrow was even worse. Digging up some dirt from the early 1980's and 1990's ignores the pertinent issues and frankly shows the bashers to be envious, hateful, close-minded people.
Bashing Dutrow because of his brashness shows that the bashers are close-minded, inexperienced and square. The real way charactor is measured is in how treats his horses, how he treats his family and his staff. Those that think Dutrow is rude and uncouth are missing that he is good for the game with his big mouth, a real headline maker in a game desperate for headlines.
If these bashers could focus on how Big Brown is going to be retired and cashed out like a savings bond, their bashing might be something I could get behind. At this point it smacks of jealousy, envy and shallow social experience. I can not get behind this bandwagon to nowhere. They can keep the character assassination, perhaps a more educated mode of attack, one that focuses on how IEAH is going to crap all over the game, is something I could agree with a bit more.
If these people wanted to bash Dutrow and Iavarone they should have had the substance to consider the present and the future in their attacks. The Bloomberg article was a strait up smear piece and the anonymous commenter-cockroach that dug up and made up a bunch of stuff about Dutrow was even worse. Digging up some dirt from the early 1980's and 1990's ignores the pertinent issues and frankly shows the bashers to be envious, hateful, close-minded people.
Bashing Dutrow because of his brashness shows that the bashers are close-minded, inexperienced and square. The real way charactor is measured is in how treats his horses, how he treats his family and his staff. Those that think Dutrow is rude and uncouth are missing that he is good for the game with his big mouth, a real headline maker in a game desperate for headlines.
If these bashers could focus on how Big Brown is going to be retired and cashed out like a savings bond, their bashing might be something I could get behind. At this point it smacks of jealousy, envy and shallow social experience. I can not get behind this bandwagon to nowhere. They can keep the character assassination, perhaps a more educated mode of attack, one that focuses on how IEAH is going to crap all over the game, is something I could agree with a bit more.
31 May 2008
Dutrow & IEAH Getting Thrown Under The Bus
Rick Dutrow is the kind of guy that reporters dream about. He is animated, honest, candid and has a colorful past. This is a guy that could fill a newspaper page everyday. He could sell papers like hotcakes and captivate the public's imagination with his polarizing comments. Yet the press is not satisfied with just reporting on him and his barn. They have to forage for dirt. They could write a story about how he brought his horse Rising Moon off a year layoff for a rousing win but they do not. They could write a story about how he has claimed horses with his own money and retired him to the farm, but they do not. They could write about his tremendous horsemanship skills, gleaned over a lifetime of working with horses. Instead they choose to rehash sensational, painful stories about the horrific murder of his girlfriend. Over and over we hear about his 70 odd infractions of the last 30 years. This is his time and he the man of the moment, who are these people trying to take his moment? Some say Dutrow is classless or crude. Isn't trying to bring him down at a time when he is completely validating his horseman skills classless?
Dutrow may be a bit of a sneak but being a bit sneaky is not only part of the trainers job description it is a very desirable trait. The trainer from Seabiscuit was certainly sneaky, working his horse out in darkness to avoid scrutiny. This may have been an endearing trait for Tom Smith, but it not endearing for Dutrow, as he is labeled a cheat. Horse trainers should not be confused with high school guidance counselors or mistaken for the eastern region director of process improvement or some other position where you have to dress up, stifle your personality and shut up. A stable operates in secrecy especially a claiming stable where the bottom line is affected by the looseness of lips and conversely the braggadocio that helps scare away competition. It is Dutrows job to give his horse every edge he can muster. Sometimes brash comments may discourage a contender from entering a race, sometimes it may get a tired horse claimed. Dutrow is master of all things braggadocio and it seems to either endear him to people or completely turn them off. One thing for sure almost everyone has an opinion.
Dutrow owns a trifecta of headline grabbing personality traits. The guy has brass balls, panache and a transparent personality. In a world where everyone says the same thing while saying nothing, Dutrow says everything and anything that comes to his mind. He can be funny, bold , rude and animated. He is the kind of person that makes the headlines that racing needs to stay in the limelight. Dutrow's personality trifecta is in short supply in racing, where many can be a complete bore. (2007 eclipse awards show expect for the steeplechase owner) Does Dutrow's candor make a classless person? Since when does boring equal class? Does Dutrow's personality make him classless? Or is it that everyone else has a sensitivity problem and can not take hearing the truth? Is the entire world at a dinner party with the Queen Mother at all times where the strictest of manners and protocol applies. There is a time for polite conversation and a time for discretion. However there is also a time for brash, bold comments and the racetrack is the perfect place for the comments that Dutrow makes. He is a breath of fresh air in this new backstretch world of political correctness and bland, vapid personalties. He injects personality and a bit of controversy where there was nothing.
Dutrow is a throwback to the game of old, a direct link to every trainer that had to scratch and scrap to keep horse going to keep the food on the table. He is his fathers son who was a master trainer in his own right. Now that old line of claiming trainers is back on top. Every comment from Dutrow is played like a poker hand, every move designed to bluff, to intimidate or draw in his competition for the kill. There was a time before Go Baby Go when the racetrack was a unapologetically a big boys place and a bad boys place. Sure there were upper class people at the track, but there were also gamblers, drunks, bookies and loansharks. Dutrow would have done just fine at the racetrack of old. Now his brash confident comments rub people the wrong way. They are not used to Dutrow's raw, unbridled confidence and demand the homogenized trainer speak they are used to which is somehow mistaken for class nowadays. His comments polarize the public and those that do not like him must not only hear what he has to say but they feel compelled to comment on what he has to say. Bashing Dutrow is a common occurance, it is almost as saying something bad about Dutrow and his past somehow makes you a better person, he is almost universally disparaged. If these people looked closer at Dutrow, and considered the historical context of the racetrack, I believe they will realize their folly.
Iavarone
Another guy taking a beating in the press is IEAH chief Iavarone. This guy went from pushing penny stocks on the Island to the top of the racing world. Learning about Iavarone's background makes the IEAH accomplishments all the more impressive as he is clearly operating on pure talent and panache. He picked Big Brown out of a maiden turf race and outbid the sheik and everyone else that wanted him. It was Iavarone that saw Big Browns brilliance in a turf maiden and it was Iavarone who had the stones to bet big on him off that turf win.
Iavarone is certainly no blueblood, but he is not street trash either. Street trash does not slap together the most successful stable in the country in just a few years. Not only is his stable a classic race winner, they are Breeders Cup winners and Dubai World Cup card winners too. He certainly had to fight, struggle, plan, take risks and persevere to get where he is today. Having the sand to take those risks have paid off in the biggest of ways. Rather than give credit to where credit is due, most are foraging like roaches looking for crap to rehash from 1992, looking to cut the man down with his past rather than acknowledge the present. Then there is so much thinly veiled innuendo about the guy from the public and the press who has watched one too many Godfather and Sopranos episodes. What is the biases for this innuendo? Is it simply the vowel on the end of his name? What this guy has accomplished in this game is extraordinary, but few realize it.
Anyone that has read about about some of the famous familys like the Kennedys, Bushes or house De Rothchild knows those at the top always have a few skeletons in the closet. The Kennedys started out as bootleggers and Bushes/Rothchilds have been war brokers for generations, all those with success are doers and doers do lots of things good and bad. Is a SEC violation from the early 90's and bad check really that horrible a transgression? Certainly the UCLA deception is embarrassing but Iavarone came clean about that. What we can all agree upon is that he has made a huge impact on racing. Unfortunately with that success comes the envy and the haters who always push their way to the front with attempts to defame and marginalize. Fortunately history is written by the victors and history will be written next Saturday.
Dutrow may be a bit of a sneak but being a bit sneaky is not only part of the trainers job description it is a very desirable trait. The trainer from Seabiscuit was certainly sneaky, working his horse out in darkness to avoid scrutiny. This may have been an endearing trait for Tom Smith, but it not endearing for Dutrow, as he is labeled a cheat. Horse trainers should not be confused with high school guidance counselors or mistaken for the eastern region director of process improvement or some other position where you have to dress up, stifle your personality and shut up. A stable operates in secrecy especially a claiming stable where the bottom line is affected by the looseness of lips and conversely the braggadocio that helps scare away competition. It is Dutrows job to give his horse every edge he can muster. Sometimes brash comments may discourage a contender from entering a race, sometimes it may get a tired horse claimed. Dutrow is master of all things braggadocio and it seems to either endear him to people or completely turn them off. One thing for sure almost everyone has an opinion.
Dutrow owns a trifecta of headline grabbing personality traits. The guy has brass balls, panache and a transparent personality. In a world where everyone says the same thing while saying nothing, Dutrow says everything and anything that comes to his mind. He can be funny, bold , rude and animated. He is the kind of person that makes the headlines that racing needs to stay in the limelight. Dutrow's personality trifecta is in short supply in racing, where many can be a complete bore. (2007 eclipse awards show expect for the steeplechase owner) Does Dutrow's candor make a classless person? Since when does boring equal class? Does Dutrow's personality make him classless? Or is it that everyone else has a sensitivity problem and can not take hearing the truth? Is the entire world at a dinner party with the Queen Mother at all times where the strictest of manners and protocol applies. There is a time for polite conversation and a time for discretion. However there is also a time for brash, bold comments and the racetrack is the perfect place for the comments that Dutrow makes. He is a breath of fresh air in this new backstretch world of political correctness and bland, vapid personalties. He injects personality and a bit of controversy where there was nothing.
Dutrow is a throwback to the game of old, a direct link to every trainer that had to scratch and scrap to keep horse going to keep the food on the table. He is his fathers son who was a master trainer in his own right. Now that old line of claiming trainers is back on top. Every comment from Dutrow is played like a poker hand, every move designed to bluff, to intimidate or draw in his competition for the kill. There was a time before Go Baby Go when the racetrack was a unapologetically a big boys place and a bad boys place. Sure there were upper class people at the track, but there were also gamblers, drunks, bookies and loansharks. Dutrow would have done just fine at the racetrack of old. Now his brash confident comments rub people the wrong way. They are not used to Dutrow's raw, unbridled confidence and demand the homogenized trainer speak they are used to which is somehow mistaken for class nowadays. His comments polarize the public and those that do not like him must not only hear what he has to say but they feel compelled to comment on what he has to say. Bashing Dutrow is a common occurance, it is almost as saying something bad about Dutrow and his past somehow makes you a better person, he is almost universally disparaged. If these people looked closer at Dutrow, and considered the historical context of the racetrack, I believe they will realize their folly.
Iavarone
Another guy taking a beating in the press is IEAH chief Iavarone. This guy went from pushing penny stocks on the Island to the top of the racing world. Learning about Iavarone's background makes the IEAH accomplishments all the more impressive as he is clearly operating on pure talent and panache. He picked Big Brown out of a maiden turf race and outbid the sheik and everyone else that wanted him. It was Iavarone that saw Big Browns brilliance in a turf maiden and it was Iavarone who had the stones to bet big on him off that turf win.
Iavarone is certainly no blueblood, but he is not street trash either. Street trash does not slap together the most successful stable in the country in just a few years. Not only is his stable a classic race winner, they are Breeders Cup winners and Dubai World Cup card winners too. He certainly had to fight, struggle, plan, take risks and persevere to get where he is today. Having the sand to take those risks have paid off in the biggest of ways. Rather than give credit to where credit is due, most are foraging like roaches looking for crap to rehash from 1992, looking to cut the man down with his past rather than acknowledge the present. Then there is so much thinly veiled innuendo about the guy from the public and the press who has watched one too many Godfather and Sopranos episodes. What is the biases for this innuendo? Is it simply the vowel on the end of his name? What this guy has accomplished in this game is extraordinary, but few realize it.
Anyone that has read about about some of the famous familys like the Kennedys, Bushes or house De Rothchild knows those at the top always have a few skeletons in the closet. The Kennedys started out as bootleggers and Bushes/Rothchilds have been war brokers for generations, all those with success are doers and doers do lots of things good and bad. Is a SEC violation from the early 90's and bad check really that horrible a transgression? Certainly the UCLA deception is embarrassing but Iavarone came clean about that. What we can all agree upon is that he has made a huge impact on racing. Unfortunately with that success comes the envy and the haters who always push their way to the front with attempts to defame and marginalize. Fortunately history is written by the victors and history will be written next Saturday.
20 May 2008
Racetrack Jealousy Syndrome Approaching An Epidemic
The honesty of Rick Dutrow may endear him to some as a lovable rouge, but it has also stoked a mass epidemic of racetrack jealousy syndrome. At the racetrack any amount of success will bring a huge backlash. Any successful trainer is accused of juicing horses, or a handicapper that finds success will find themselves under the microscope to reproduce that winning form or face tremendous scrutiny.
Steve Asmussen is a good example of racetrack jealousy syndrome in action He is criticized on the frontside by horseplayers as a trainer that "juices" his horses. Sure he has multiple violations but this guy starts thousands of horses per year and has a string at a half dozen racetracks in on both sides of the Canadian border. When you consider the scope of Asmussen's operation and the amount of horses he sends to the post he is not a frequent offender. This is like a car service operation getting more traffic tickets than a certain individual. Sure Asmussen taxi gets more tickets than Joe Blow, but Joe Blow only has one car while Asmussen manages a huge fleet a cars from Hudson River to the Rio Grande. The amount of success Asmussen has and the scope of the success from Toronto to New York to Chicago to Kentucky to Louisiana and Texas brings a huge amount of scrutiny and this is why Asmussen has a negative reputation in some circles. If Asmussen had no horseman skills could he have managed to bring the brilliant Curlin to hand? How did he do it in drug free Dubai?
Dutrow is taking a beating in the press and on-line for the telling the Daily News that he uses Winstrol on his horses. While most trainers use steroids like Winstrol on there horses it has not been published in the press in plain English. Unfortunately Dutrow is going to be a victim of the fact that the public can not handle the truth. The public prefers to be lied to. The reaction to the truth will be to kill the messenger. While using Winstrol may be legal I can only recall one other trainer actually admitting its use to the press. The other I trainer that admitted to Winstrol use was was Allen Jerkens, the well respected chief himself uses steroids on his horses but I do not hear anyone bashing Jerkens or the many others that do the same thing. Why? Because only those that have massive success come under the scrutiny of racetrack jealousy syndrome.
Dutrow is a victim of his own success, racetrack jealousy syndrome is a very real thing. It is a curse the rides right along side success. Here is a person that was at the lowest of lows and pulled himself out of the gutter to be a huge success in his field. He has risen from the gutter, to being a claimer trainer just a few years ago, plying his trade on the working class Aqueduct Inner meet, to the trainer that is on top of the world. Shouldn't people feel happy for him that god gave him a second chance and he capitalized on that chance to the maximum? Instead of admiring Dutrow for pulling himself out of the gutter, the racetrack jealousy syndrome has many people trying to drag him back down. They pigeonhole him as a trainer with little to no horseman skills. If his only skill was juicing horses how does he win multiple Group I's in drug free Dubai with Benny The Bull and Diamond Stripes? People do not appreciate his honesty, his candor and his genuine personality and use it against him. They only resent his success and want to see him crawl back into the gutter by using his past against him and denying the present Here is a guy that has risen like the phoenix and almost nobody can recognize the redemption before us. Racetrack jealousy syndrome has reached epic proportions.
Steve Asmussen is a good example of racetrack jealousy syndrome in action He is criticized on the frontside by horseplayers as a trainer that "juices" his horses. Sure he has multiple violations but this guy starts thousands of horses per year and has a string at a half dozen racetracks in on both sides of the Canadian border. When you consider the scope of Asmussen's operation and the amount of horses he sends to the post he is not a frequent offender. This is like a car service operation getting more traffic tickets than a certain individual. Sure Asmussen taxi gets more tickets than Joe Blow, but Joe Blow only has one car while Asmussen manages a huge fleet a cars from Hudson River to the Rio Grande. The amount of success Asmussen has and the scope of the success from Toronto to New York to Chicago to Kentucky to Louisiana and Texas brings a huge amount of scrutiny and this is why Asmussen has a negative reputation in some circles. If Asmussen had no horseman skills could he have managed to bring the brilliant Curlin to hand? How did he do it in drug free Dubai?
Dutrow is taking a beating in the press and on-line for the telling the Daily News that he uses Winstrol on his horses. While most trainers use steroids like Winstrol on there horses it has not been published in the press in plain English. Unfortunately Dutrow is going to be a victim of the fact that the public can not handle the truth. The public prefers to be lied to. The reaction to the truth will be to kill the messenger. While using Winstrol may be legal I can only recall one other trainer actually admitting its use to the press. The other I trainer that admitted to Winstrol use was was Allen Jerkens, the well respected chief himself uses steroids on his horses but I do not hear anyone bashing Jerkens or the many others that do the same thing. Why? Because only those that have massive success come under the scrutiny of racetrack jealousy syndrome.
Dutrow is a victim of his own success, racetrack jealousy syndrome is a very real thing. It is a curse the rides right along side success. Here is a person that was at the lowest of lows and pulled himself out of the gutter to be a huge success in his field. He has risen from the gutter, to being a claimer trainer just a few years ago, plying his trade on the working class Aqueduct Inner meet, to the trainer that is on top of the world. Shouldn't people feel happy for him that god gave him a second chance and he capitalized on that chance to the maximum? Instead of admiring Dutrow for pulling himself out of the gutter, the racetrack jealousy syndrome has many people trying to drag him back down. They pigeonhole him as a trainer with little to no horseman skills. If his only skill was juicing horses how does he win multiple Group I's in drug free Dubai with Benny The Bull and Diamond Stripes? People do not appreciate his honesty, his candor and his genuine personality and use it against him. They only resent his success and want to see him crawl back into the gutter by using his past against him and denying the present Here is a guy that has risen like the phoenix and almost nobody can recognize the redemption before us. Racetrack jealousy syndrome has reached epic proportions.
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