While I’ve said all I need to say on the-former-jockey-turned-analyst Donna Brothers (here, here), there may be some newcomers to the site who don’t fully understand the depths of delusion we’re dealing with. So here we go again. Follows is…
Jockey Denny Velazquez has been suspended by the Minnesota Racing Commission after a vehicle search allegedly turned up a “buzzer” (aka a “machine,” aka a “battery”) – a device used to shock racehorses into running faster. A tentative hearing is…
Bob Baffert, again. The superstar trainer with 15 Triple-Crown-races wins is back in the hot seat for drug positives. Last fall, you may recall, The New York Times reported that Justify, Baffert’s 2018 “champion,” failed a drug test in a…
In 2015, jockey Roman Chapa began a five-year suspension for, the Thoroughbred Daily News (TDN) reports, “using an illegal electrical shocking device on a Thoroughbred at Sam Houston Race Park.” But that wasn’t the first time for Mr. Chapa, as…
Back in January, X Y Jet, a million-dollar racehorse, was killed training in Florida. His trainer: Jorge Navarro. Yes, the same Jorge Navarro who was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department last week on multiple doping charges. So I thought…
Harness trainer Rene Allard (pictured below), one of the most successful in the land, is the latest to be indicted by the Justice Department. The following transcript, published in the Thoroughbred Daily News (TDN), is from an intercepted call between…
Ignore everything you read and hear from the apologists. This is bad. Very bad. For an industry that has been under relentless siege for over a year now, the federal indictments that came down yesterday against some 27 people in,…
The industry quote of the week comes from a recent BloodHorse article by longtime racing writer/apologist Jay Hovdey. The piece began by acknowledging what we at HW have long known (and exposed): not all kills are treated equally. Hovdey: “I…
You know it’s bad when even your staunchest supporters are calling you out. John Cherwa is, of course, an unabashed racing apologist and, not unrelated, the paper he writes for, the Los Angeles Times, is a decidedly biased source of…
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Belinda Stronach, president of The Stronach Group, calls the 40+ deaths at Stronach-owned Santa Anita last year a “wake-up call” and that safety should outweigh all other concerns. With that in mind,…
An updated list of some of the more damning (and thus, beneficial) statements from those within horseracing: Various direct quotes from those within and around the racing industry… “Those efforts [reforms] seem to be paying off as the breakdown rate,…
In a column in HorseRace Insider Tuesday, (racing) journalist and lifelong handicapper Mark Berner renounced his beloved “sport” – yes, renounced, as in he’s done. And here are some of his reasons why: “The horseracing industry runs on a pack…
