WILL'S WAY NA ISSUE 27_Jerkins feature.qxd 01/02/2013 12:57 Page 1
WILL’S WAY The views of William Koester Make them sweat I am honored to have the opportunity to speak on a subject that is important to me as a life-long enthusiast of Thoroughbreds and racing. I previously chaired the Association of Racing Commissioners International (RCI), but the opinions and ideas expressed in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily represent either the RCI or the members themselves.
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HE horse is out of the barn, if you will allow the expression. Whether it is in government, politics, religion, healthcare, banking, or scouting, the current velocity of information is shaking the foundations of our institutions. Dirty little secrets spread virally now, and news of HGH, EPO, Toradol, steroids, concussions, and frog juice are making sports professionals sweat. The racing commission that I serve is now receiving public record requests like never before, as are those in all racing states. Well into the information age, people are demanding information as an inalienable right. There are many fine portals of information on various aspects of our sport and online accessibility has allowed even casual fans to delve deeply into the sport. But the Paulick Report, particularly, is an agent of change in racing. Due to the reader comments, static headlines bloom into dialogue. The chorus of changing voices can take any topic anywhere, and all of us along with it. What was once a small, insular group with knowledge guarded as a source of power has grown into a diverse virtual community. For every 100 readers who comment on raceday drug use, thousands may have read, considered, and internalized the opinions but not commented. As a member of the virtual community, we all share an interest in racing, but are individually as varied as veterinarians, owners, breeders of Derby winners, gamblers, commissioners, or uninitiated new fans. For
the first time, we are all in the same room. We are now privileged to be exposed to a diversity of point of view. We are now witnesses to first-hand accounts of what were in the past only individual experiences diffused across the country. Some readers have business acumen. Some share emotional responses. Some are youthful and some are mature. Some readers ask simple, yet perceptive questions. Some are wearing masks and aren’t afraid to throw stones. Our community is more diverse than ever, and change is happening faster than ever. Claiming race rules were revised after casino money inflated purses incentivized owners and trainers to race horses into the ground. Change came astonishingly quickly. This efficiency was only possible because of the current conversation about breakdowns. Many people were on watch with heightened sensitivity to the number of breakdowns. Now Aqueduct has pledged to perform necropsies on all fatally injured horses and other tracks are likely to join in the initiative. This is progress. Last fall, a Quarter Horse trainer who was suspended for 21 years in New Mexico for frog juice doping merely sidled across the border and entered horses in races in Oklahoma. Of course we all agree that some issues within racing are beyond ridiculous, this being one of them. But yet they still occur. Social media has kept our attention on this issue, and brought it into our own backyard. Now, more than ever before, the racing community is hyper-vigilant to this particular breach of
justice. Our culture has changed: and in the dearth of state reciprocity, our community now demands that racetracks take accountability for giving stalls to trainers with histories of drug violations. I expect that the recent suspension of a top trainer from New York racing will be honored by tracks in other states. For better or for worse, the current reality is that the enforcement of ethics in horseracing is by the self-deputized. If your name is among the top ten trainers by earnings and you drop a horse down the claiming ranks until it breaks down, questions fly like arrows from the online community. Why were there so few works recently? Why was a route horse sprinting all of a sudden? Why didn’t anyone claim such a good horse? Of course, the trainer has not committed a crime; he has only used to his greatest advantage the opportunity available to him. But the voices within our community are speaking loudly against the ethical transgressions within our sport, this being clearly one of them. The voices are reconciling the rules of the sport with present-day, democratic, ethical boundaries. This is progress. All of the questions are moving up the food chain. Who is paying for the joints being tapped? Who is dropping the horse precipitously down to a claiming race? The buck stops at the owners. Online at least, no one is off-limits. For the betterment of the sport, make them sweat. n
“Now Aqueduct has pledged to perform necropsies on all fatally injured horses and other tracks are likely to join in the initiative. This is progress” 02 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 27