What seems to be the problem officer?

Churchill is dark tomorrow due to the Memorial day racing so I had no card to handicap. I spent the greater part of my day tweaking the layout of my blog and trying to figure out how to embed widget code and such nonsense onto the page. The trojan horse that infiltrates your computer is not my fault...

I did buy a car in less than thirty seconds and had it delivered twenty minutes after I bought it so the day was not a complete wash. Yeah...that's how I roll.

I read on DRF today-don't make me figure out how to link this particular snippet without unintentionally attaching the entire search history on my browser-that John Sadler was fined $500 by the Hollywood Park stewards for failing to report that one of his horses had been gelded since its last start. Now I don't know the man, nor do I know enough about handicapping to presume to say that the status of a horse's sexual equipment plays ANY part in my selection; to wit...man I can't believe that giraffe knocked me out of the Pick Four, dead last in its last seven and vanned off in its last but had I just bothered to notice that it was a gelding I could've SINGLED his ass. It did however send me off on a moderately entertaining flight of fancy, at least it killed off a few minutes of my day. Follow.

I don't know that $500 is an appropriately high enough fine. I'm sure that Sadler is a nice enough guy and a decent trainer. He certainly wasn't hoping to score a wagering coup on a $12500 claimer that would put him on easy street (and while yes, my modifier was dangling, I meant Sadler and not the $12500 claimer). It might very well have been an honest omission but the stewards should throw the bloody book at him. We need to start seeing some real fines and penalties handed out for transgressions. Rules are rules and when the inmates see that no one is at the helm then all bets are off...to mix my metaphors.

Oh, your horse tested positive for steroids? That's o.k., just pay us like, oh..I don't know, $2500, have your assistant saddle your horses for thirty days while you watch from the turf club and then we'll pretend this whole thing never happened. What's that? This is your second time you say? Come on (fill your favorite name here), you are making us look bad. We do these tests so people think we are doing something, not to actually catch anybody...COME ON!

Trainers need to have their license on the line when they saddle up...and don't make me go off on the trainer that "saddles" thirty horses in four different states on the same day. I don't know jack about training horses but I know enough to know that you need to be with the horse to put a saddle on it. There should be some version of the hippocratic oath they make you take when you pass your trainer's test. Why have the test if you are not going to expect some minimum standard of conduct? Are these people not responsible for the well being of their charges? Am I alone here? ...and where the hell was I?

It saddens me to think that this sport so rich in tradition and well..rich people, allows this to happen to a truly noble animal. We are all to blame. The next time you walk up to the betting window ask yourself '...just who the hell am I putting my money on?'