Agendas

We Need V L Ts took Saturday's third for trainer Linda Rice, who purchased the daughter of Freud for herself at the Ocala April 2009 two-year old in training sale for $10,000. The horse was named Social Snafu at the time, so I guess Ms. Rice has some sort of an agenda with her, can't imagine what it is! Also rather surprised that she paid as much as $12.60 given the topical nature of the name, plus the fact that the trainer simply rules these turf sprints. She did it again in the 11th race with Recharged ($6.70), and had three winners on the day in all, with City Sneakers ($20) wiring the field in the 7th. The barn's winning percentage in these dashes at Saratoga over the last three years is now up to 27% with a 91 horse sample. And she's now won four of them in a row, and seven out of 20 (35%) on this year's meet; she's 14 for 48 overall, as she takes over the runner-up spot in the trainer standings from Chad Brown with 14, six behind Pletcher.

Speaking of those V L Ts that Ms. Rice wants, James Odato again reported in the Times Union about those two Genting officials accused of various misdeeds, and who have now been fined $1000 by the State Racing and Wagering board.

They pleaded "no contest" to charges they jumped the gun in running the operations of Empire Resorts before being licensed by Racing & Wagering.

I mentioned the other day that I think Odato has an agenda in this matter, and this is what I'm talking about:

Their fine is five times stiffer than the one levied to trainer Todd Pletcher for allowing unlicensed jockey Gary Stevens to ride in a training run last week at Saratoga.

Here, the writer is attempting to create context for us; but to me, the sample cited is arbitrary and purposeful. He just as easily, if he was trying to create a different impression of the significance of these fines, could have compared them to, say, the $96,000 fine that the Commission on Public Integrity feels that Governor Paterson should face for accepting those World Series tickets for free. Or, that it's the same amount that trainer Bruce Brown was fined by the Board for a drug violation in May. If Odato is trying to make the point that the fine is on the high end of SRWB actions, it seems a fair one after scanning through recent board actions. But c'mon, I think we all know that when a couple of corporate suits like these guys are fined $1,000, they probably laugh it off as a business expense....and that's if they don't put it on their next expense report. So again, I think that the reporter is trying to stir up controversy where, in my opinion, and as I discussed in a prior post and in the comments section here, there just isn't anything significant at this time.