Positive

[Maxx Bucknell]

I'm not defending Burke or Bongiorno or any other trainers who get positives, however in some cases the reason their horses improve when they first get them is because their previous trainers weren't very good, and they may have been using bad drivers. In Delaware, when Bobby Glassmeyer claims a horse, in most cases the improvement is unbelievable, same when Tracy Berry, wife of driver Pat Berry take over a horse. Glassmeyer has had a ton of positive tests over the years, I don't recall Berry having any but the marked improvement the horses show right off the bat leaves you to believe they're juicing their horses and in some cases they definitely are. 

[Call Sign Merlin]

I'm not defending Burke or Bongiorno or any other trainers who get positives, however in some cases the reason their horses improve when they first get them is because their previous trainers weren't very good, and they may have been using bad drivers. In Delaware, when Bobby Glassmeyer claims a horse, in most cases the improvement is unbelievable, same when Tracy Berry, wife of driver Pat Berry take over a horse. Glassmeyer has had a ton of positive tests over the years, I don't recall Berry having any but the marked improvement the horses show right off the bat leaves you to believe they're juicing their horses and in some cases they definitely are.

I do agree there are a lot of bad trainers out there - we have improved numerous horses by changing shoes, drawing blood, taking out wolf teeth, etc. but improvements come over several weeks and even months.  Dropping 6-8 seconds in a week or two is insane. 

To me this comes down to accountability and the lack of unbiased oversight.  If they wanted to clean things up you over punish to the point of deterrence.  All major sports have adopted this approach with PEDs.

The sport also lacks journalistic scrutiny.  I still don’t think USTrotting has written an article about Perfect Stings positive and when was the last mention of Funtime Bayama.  Those are huge ‘scandals’ and should be covered appropriately. 

[Maxx Bucknell]

I agree that harness racing gets little or no coverage. If you're familiar with Harness Racing Update, there are weekly stories by a group of writers but they're mostly positive because that's what they're probably told to write. I have seen horses who used to be all bandaged up change trainers and show up in their first start totally clean legged and run much better than their past performances say they should.

[White Rabbit]

I see on Useless Trotting that the Peimine positives have started, guess who’s next

[kooter for hipin]

And so he should. If he has a problem with that  then he he should send some (or all)  to other trainers

   

[kooter for hipin]

Bullshit , when your making that find of money your screening should be state of the art. Like the casinos, a guy watching a guy watching that guy and so on.
Just like the article on USA Today about gabapentin being the new abused drug.

 

[kooter for hipin]

Post of the year

Thats for sure!   

[seen2much]

That is no excuse.. I don't care if he has horses  at every harness track in the country.. and if he doesn't see some horses for months than why is he listed as the trainer? He is the CEO of a major operation and the buck stops with him. He will serve his suspension this winter as usual and grass is green and the sky is blue and the beat goes on. It's ridiculous. If you can't be everywhere because how big your operation is than cut down your stock... but he won't do that and why would he? Countless positives and still rakes in millions. It's sickening.

100 % correct. So many defend & suck up to Burke. Why stop taking the millions if you don't have to & can get away with it?

[kooter for hipin]

100 % correct. So many defend & suck up to Burke. Why stop taking the millions if you don't have to & can get away with it?

   

[The Unstable]

I do agree there are a lot of bad trainers out there - we have improved numerous horses by changing shoes, drawing blood, taking out wolf teeth, etc. but improvements come over several weeks and even months.  Dropping 6-8 seconds in a week or two is insane. 

To me this comes down to accountability and the lack of unbiased oversight.  If they wanted to clean things up you over punish to the point of deterrence.  All major sports have adopted this approach with PEDs.

The sport also lacks journalistic scrutiny.  I still don’t think USTrotting has written an article about Perfect Stings positive and when was the last mention of Funtime Bayama.  Those are huge ‘scandals’ and should be covered appropriately.

Correct.  They love writing puff pieces about the top trainers but don't even bother to update what is going on.  Perhaps that is not the USTA's job to do but how about HRU doing one.  Of course the big breeders and owners don't want the top stables to go down.  They need them to siphon all the money out of the game. 

[PineHurstPacer]

judging by the money he's spent at the sale tonight he's not concerned about anything

multiple 100K + yearlings

[White Rabbit]

He’s not , we were bidding on a colt and he jumped it from 75 to 100,000 last night. Have to admit we walked away defeated. He’s not held accountable, will serve any days in Jan Feb while in FLA , games very tough now