This from California’s Del Mar on August 24th:
“Shortly after the third race was run the Stewards received notification from Safety Steward Luis Jauregui that when he was pulling up in front of the Receiving Barn he noticed an individual from the Doug O’Neill barn, which is situated across from the Receiving Barn, enter the stall of a horse with a detention sign on the door and administer a product into its mouth. He confronted the person, who turned out to be the foreman, and confiscated the tube, which had the brand name CB2A and contained amino acids, which are illegal to give on race day. The horse turned out to be Cinco de Mario, which was scheduled to run in the fifth race. Mr. O’Neill was informed of the situation and told that the horse would have to be scratched.”
The supplement, commonly used to boost energy, is permitted “until 24 hours of the post time.” O’Neill’s foreman gave it to the three-year-old gelding less than an hour before his race. This, of course, is not the first time “Dougie’s” been mentioned here. O’Neill’s response? (Paulick Report, 9/1/13) “It was a human error. My foreman was supposed to give it to Handsome Mike, who was running the next day.” Hmm. Remember, the horse’s stall was adorned with a “detention” sign.
Either O’Neill is lying and intended to cheat or he runs a grossly incompetent ship. Given his track record, probably the former. While an amino acid supplement is certainly not the worst they do to horses, it is raceday illegal for a reason. O’Neill awaits his hearing.
We constantly hear about all the “good apples” and there’s just attention given to the “bad apples. Well, if there are so many “good apples”, why has nothing changed as far as drugs? For 30 years, we’ve been hearing — even at Congressional hearings decades ago — that this industry will clean up its act and “put the horses first”. How do all these “good apples” that are purportedly in the majority allow the “bad apples” to keep destroying horses with drugs and allowing them to race back again too soon without a mandatory wait between races (as was suggested in a White Paper by the AAEP years ago!), and why do all these “good apples” continue to let their racing organizations refuse to take an active stance to pass the SAFE Act to ban horse slaughter and the transport for slaughter for human consumption???
If they were truly in the majority, things would change. Could it be there are more “bad apples” than “good apples”? I’m really tired of waiting while in the meantime horses die on and off the track.
Jo Anne why is it that the bad apples can not be run out of anything?? You so fondly talk about the “Congressional hearings” why is congress full of the “Bad Apples”?? You need me to tell you why, bad apples THRIVE. Not just in racing, everywhere!!! They don’t play by the rules, so rules don’t mean much. People think it is as easy as going in the barn area and saying “Ok you go, you go and you can stay”. People there are such things called LAWS. Not race track laws, State, County, and Federal laws and if the race tracks threw people out because they are labeled bad apples they would be breaking the LAW. You don’t think the race tracks want them out?? Most race tracks want everyone out.
I know most of the people on here live in his land of Rainbows and Lollipops where you can just throw away the people below you, but the rest of us have to do the best we can in the real world.
I can say one thing this is the first post i have seen you write where you are not trying to get everyone to buy your book. Not sure who to thank for that fact but it is nice not to have to read about that….
What can I say about Drug O’Neill (oops, I meant to say Doug O’Neill)? Racing is corrupt enough without this loser being allowed to participate in racing. He is not in it for the horses. Kick him to the curb and then go after the other cheats!
I am sick of hearing “he is awaiting a hearing”! What for? He’ll lie, he’ll cheat, he’ll drug … again, and basically all they’ll do is say “bad boy”, give him a tap on the fingers and go on with business as usual.
Ban this guy. For life! If I am caught with fraud at my work[lace, I am fired. If I do it again, I’ll probably never find a job in my profession again. So, why are they so lenient towarrds people like Drug (Mary Johnson,I really like it) O’ Neall ???
There is no will within racing to get rid of people like O’Neill and that is a huge problem that will, eventually, bring the industry to it’s knees.
Not soon enough for me!
I could be wrong, but I think you should research further before writing articles such as this. The oral supplement I think you are referring to is BC2A paste (http://www.bc2a.com/equine/index.html). This is a supplement containing elements that NATURALLY occur in the equine body, but are regularly depleted. I am not a vet, but as far as I know, this product is completely LEGAL to use – both on racing and show horses. Just FYI.
Beth, it is raceday illegal. That was O’Neill’s infraction.
bc2a paste is analogous to gatorade for humans. amazing how overrreactive ppl get when they try to hang a guy for something so erroneous as this. humans are so crazy
O’Neill is costing me a lot of honest winnings with his cheating. Yesterday my horses came in exactly as expected (I had four horses in a tri box), and they clearly had the best form of day in my scientific time-tested methodology. Only problem? An O’Neill horse with poor form of day beat them. Just one of many examples where his horses perform way above the norm. If it was once or twice, that would be one thing, but he stands out like a sore thumb. Any little advantage counts, people. Don’t look the other way just because you think it’s not that big to administer an innocent energy booster.
I suggest a trip to a casino.