Add to the attention that someone like Bob Baffert gets the fact that his drug-related news seems to occur in the classic, or marquee races like legs of the Triple Crown—the races the casual, seasonal fan knows about—and you have a lot of attention coming Bob's way almost seasonally.
But racing does not operate under a seasonal cloud, its skies are always partly sunny/partly cloudy. The die-hard racing fan knows this and just shakes their head at the latest news, news that doesn't even make the mainstream newspapers like the New York Times, but stays confined to the trade papers like the Daily Racing Form (DRF) and Thoroughbred Daily News (TDN). If not for scanning links to these publications how would I know that a long-time New York trainer, Linda Rice has been given a three-year suspension and $50,000 fine from the New York Racing Association (NYRA) for "improper and corrupt conduct to gain an edge with her horses by obtaining the names of entries in races before the cards became final." And what is that?
The short explanation would be trying to gain inside information on who her competition will be in a given race, and then deciding whether she is going to enter her horses at all; using inside information to spot an easy spot in which to enter to improve her chances of booting home a winner for herself, jockey and owners. Jesus, that's a thing?
Apparently, and you have to follow horse racing to realize that being accused of that represents a new one. Most trainer suspensions are the result of a chronic pattern of drug abuse on their horses. Richard Dutrow got a 10-year suspension so many years ago that it's almost over. There are those who are not looking forward to his return.
Jockeys in turn can also get suspension for careless riding, and sometimes even more serious infractions like trying to use a battery to jolt a horse with a charge of electricity in order to get them to run faster. Just recently Joe Drape of the NYT wrote of Kendrick Carmouche's father Sylvester who famously cut the course at Delta Downs, Louisiana, and brought home a long shot with a 24-length lead by not running the full length of the race That was accomplished under seriously foggy skies, at night, and earned Sylvester a 10-year suspension.
I once read that the great jockey Eddie Arcaro was nearly suspended for life! for a riding infraction. The penalty was downgraded, and Eddie continued to ride after serving a suspension. I don't know the details, but it must have really been something to rule that a jockey could never compete again.
Almost any trainer has been slapped with a drug infraction of some kind, even if it's been determined there was no intention to deceive and no malice aforethought. A positive test is viewed with finality, since that trainer is responsible for all aspects of the horse's care.
In the case of the most resent high-profile positive test result, Bob Baffert's Medina Spirit's win in this year's Kentucky Derby is under a cloud because the first post-race sample tested came back positive for a banned substance, betamethasone, a pain killer.
In the case of drug testing, horses and humans, there is a split sample taken at the same time as the first that is held aside and tested further if the first sample comes back positive. In Medina Spirit's case this sample hasn't even been sent to a lab, a lab I read is remarkably of Bob Baffert's own choosing. The explanation for the delay is a single word: lawyers.
While all the legal sabre rattling takes place, NYRA has banned Baffert from running any horses at its tracks, Belmont, Saratoga, and Aqueduct. Since Bib is basically a West Coast, Santa Anita trainer, this is notable, but not crushing. There are high value races that Bob can right now not come East for, but it's not the most severe restriction that can be invoked.
Everyone seems to understand drugs. As humans, we certainly take plenty on our own, prescribed and otherwise, but what the hell is a "corrupt scheme to gain an edge..."
Here's where a little deep dive into the nuts and bolts of race eligibility comes in. Every race has eligibility conditions associated with it. This is done to level the competitive playing field so that horses are not overmatched by being made to compete with more accomplished (read faster) animals. Racing is so hierarchical that it would make an English Lord smile in his oak paneled manor library with the restrictions that are created for each race.
Since I made a long-awaited appearance at Belmont this past Saturday, and still have my printout of the day's DRF past performances (pps) in my wastebasket, I've just fished out the conditions for the first race at Belmont, an Optional Claimer, for $80,000/N2X, purse of $94,000. The conditions for a horse's eligibility to be in that race were:
"For fillies And Mare Three Years Old and Upward Which Have Never Won $13,000 Twice other Than Maiden, Claiming, Starter Or State Bred Allowance Or Which Have Never Won Three Races Or Optional Claiming Price of $80,000."
What follows in the conditions are the conditions for the weight assignments, dependent on age and how recently they've won, weight off favoring horses that haven't won since a pre-determined date.
If you think that's boiler plate worthy of needing a lawyer, you're almost right. But those at the track know that this makes the race basically an allowance race, with the option for a trainer/owner to put a horse in for a "tag," a claiming price of $80,000.
Reading and understanding the conditions of a race are important to handicapping. The conditions establish the level of competition. The more the word "or" appears in the condition the more wide-open the race becomes; the umbrella for eligibility widens."
I once wrote to the NYRA racing secretary and asked how did he create the conditions. I imagined this to be a sophisticated computer program that looked at all the horse on the grounds and what their level of competition has been, and spit out a narrative of conditions.
Almost. The racing secretary was kind enough to call me and explain that he creates conditions based on the horses that have been working out in the mornings. Working out is an indication by a trainer and owner that they're ready/getting ready to race. The racing secretary compiles these intentions, synthesizing them into conditions, and prints a condition book, a proposal of race conditions for a designated period of time in the very near future, perhaps for the next 10 days.
This is a Bible. Trainers and jockey agents are always looking at the condition book and deciding who they may want to enter in a given race; by extension for the jockey's agent, what trainers are looking to need a rider for a given race. Sign my jockey up. The condition book creates the races.
Every condition is different. They are snowflakes. If you've got a New York bred that's just broken its maiden (first win) you're going to need a race that recognizes that accomplishment, but doesn't thrust your horse into running against a proven stakes horse or a non-New York bred. You're going to probably scan the condition book for a distance and surface for a state bred that's won a race, but maybe not yet two races, and that you're willing to put in for a tag, or not. The condition book will keep you in the barn, or put you in the starting gate.
Linda Rice has ben a leading trainer for many years on the NYRA circuit. She's won trainer titles at meets. Her father Clyde was a trainer. If you ever see Linda in the paddock or in the winner's circle you will see that she's always clutching papers. She's always got her eye out for what to do next, like a pool player figuring out their next shot. She's very active with claimers and established allowance horses, for owners of wealth, but perhaps not extreme wealth. She' not a Bob Baffert, or a Todd Pletcher, but horses from her stable fill the card. So what did she do that was "corrupt?"
Apparently, based on investigations that looked at behavior over a period of time going back to 2011-02015 at Aqueduct, she bribed racing officials for improper access to information that may have provided her an edge in races. The New York State Gaming Commission revoked her license for three years that prevents her having any thoroughbred racing interests in New York State.
After months of hearings, she was found guilty of obtaining, through bribes, pre-entry racing information. The TDN reports that Rice testified in 2020 that she had handed over cash gifts amounting to thousands of dollars at a time to NYRA racing employees between 2011 and 2015. The investigation reveled that improper access had been given to the Jockey Club's InCompass entry management software.
Winning a race is tough for anyone, the jockey, the owner, the trainer and the bettor. To myself it's interesting that Rice's infraction of the rules could actually pay off for her if she detected a stiff competitive field and therefore chose to stay in the barn. Not entering a race because the chances of winning were considered dim would just mean you'd have to wait for the next condition to roll around for your horse to qualify, and that may not occur for another two weeks, maybe longer. Racing is a waiting game.
I always imagined talk on the backstretch going something like this: "You know so and so is entered in next week's turf race that your horse is entered in. You're in deep do-do against that one." Birds and rumors fly on the backstretch.
I imagine Linda can appeal. If not successful, it would seem she could move her operation to California perhaps. The ruling seems binding only in New York. There is not always reciprocity in race rulings.
I always print out the trainer stats when I do my handicapping. From watching the FS1/2 racing telecasts and looking at the stats, I saw that Linda Rice only had four wins at the meet, two of which were turf races. She was ranked 7th amongst the trainers, a little low to what I expected to find.
If she is ruled off the grounds for three years I'll miss her and her entries. She always had the so called "lunch pail" horses who were of modest pedigree but were of high winning percentage. And perhaps the "corrupt edge" gave her that.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
Hoping they are all caught if guilty...
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