Truth Hurts

- The truth is a powerful weapon, and having been confronted with it at the recent Congressional hearing, the previously smug Jockey Guild head Dr. Wayne Gertmenian has retreated into a cocoon of silence as the calls for his resignation by indignant and betrayed jockeys resound coast-to-coast, even before the November 15 emergency meeting at which his ouster will be discussed. A group of permanently disabled members have called for the reinstatement of ousted Guild head John Giovanni. It won’t be long now until Dr. G slinks away and we don’t hear from him again until his defense attorney, who I presume will be of better quality than a stooge like the Guild’s counsel Lloyd Ownbey Jr., proclaims him innocent of the charges of embezzlement that will surely be brought against him if there is any justice at all in this world. At least Dr. G hasn’t yet shown the bad taste and judgment to compound his deceit with denials, like another liar did today.

Ownbey, by the way, in an August letter to Rep. Whitfield so rambling and bizarre that it could only come from the present Guild, identified himself as a person who has always supported the Republican party. Big surprise there. The fact that this letter is still posted on the Guild’s website is typically off the wall. Here’s an excerpt:

The senior majority staff officer's conduct has been reprehensible. Reminiscent of a cocker spanial [sic] attacking a Raggedy Ann doll, he refused to accept that there is no validity in his accusations against Dr. Gertmenian. The claim that Dr. Gertmenian misappropriated or misdirected moneys out of the Disabled Jockeys Fund keeps him snarling even though he has clear and convincing evidence that each check drawn on the account was paid to a disabled jockey and the account was controlled by a trustee of a Kentucky bank, and that the true reason for the exhaustion of funds was that the Board of Directors authorized the invasion of capital of the fund to maintain payments to the disabled jockeys.

I don’t know if Ownbey’s claims regarding the Fund checks are technically correct, but we now know that Gertmenian did indeed misdirect Guild money to his own consulting company, as well as to his sister daughter and cohort Albert Fiss. His inevitable departure can’t come soon enough.