Robert Sampson

[Fuguzzi]

Speaking of dying tragically, Ricky LaFramboise drove a horse for me just hours before he and Robbie Rankin were killed in that horrific car crash in Feb. 1990. To return to the track about 10 hours later to find out he had been killed in the wee hours of the morning really shook me up. Ricky was a nice kid, didn;t really know Robbie, both so young. Both had decent ability, not that that matters when measuring the value of their lives. Anyway.....

[theokodjak26]

Robbie was a very nice young man. I was in a group of 5 that owned a nice horse named Elected. Robbie trained and drove the horse. We thought he was a better trainer than a driver. We asked him to use an established Roosevelt/Yonkers driver and he wasn’t too happy with us. With a mutual resolution we moved Elected to Vinnie Aurigemma who always used Mike LaChance as I recall. Eventually we moved the horse to Freehold as he was hitting a wall if he won in the NY B-1/B-2 classes. Elected took off at Freehold winning 3 in a row with gentleman Harold Kelly driving. He hit the wall there once he was put in the Invitational class. Anihid Avakian was our trainer in NJ and she was great. Robbie’s death was a terrible shock. I believe either his father or brother also met an untimely death all too early. We finally sold Elected to the survivor Jack Parker Jr. for $30,000 when he was around 9 years old. Having a horse that gave us so many win photos and also paid his way was a great experience. As we owners know this is not always the case.

[Fuguzzi]

good tale from the glory days. Remember your horse well. Vinny and mike were very tight. Vinny and Joy always did well. When they joined forces with LaChance, they exploded. Mike helped them a lot!

[theokodjak26]

I too liked Vinny and yes his partnership with Mike LaChance was a huge win-win. Around 10 -15 years after moving this horse away from Vinny I saw Mike in the Meadowlands paddock. We chatted and he informed me how Vinny’s life went in a very bad direction. That was shocking to me since Vinny seemed to be so grounded and focused on his very successful career. Vinny passed away in 2020.

[Fuguzzi]

hey. please fill me in. I knew that he and Joy ultimately divorced. What is a "bad direction" They always ran what appeared to be a first class operation. had many significant horses as you already know. WTH happened?

[The Exporter]

Great story. What a bunch of morons. Funny part is they all met a Johnny's. Johnny's was a strip joint about a half mile from the track. Apparently they didn't think this through. Bobbalou -- I too remember him well -- not a name you can forget. Thanks for the article.  As someone mentioned -- yes -- back then it was all about fixing races -- now it's all about the chemists.  Back then the drivers' ruled, now the chemists (trainers) rule. Better back then as far as I'm concerned -- less harmful for the horses and everybody had a fair chance -- even if you got stiffed now and then.

I would say there was plenty of illegal drugs being used since the days of Ben Hur.  The difference was the effective drugs were very expensive and kept to a few participants. At the lower class tracks such as Monticello, it was cost prohibitive. In 1973, they raced for $800. Dropping a package on a few guys living at or below poverty levels was much more practical.
 Not in a hundred years, will harness racing ever become legitimate and relevant. No longer does the states have a vested interest in funding and policing the game. Only a couple racetracs even act like they care. Long gon is the local County Executive working to protect his portion of parking 10,000 cars a night and programs. No longer is the state willing to suspend anyone who has the wherewithal to fight them in court. 
 And the #1 reason harness racing will never be more than what it is; the guys who have the juice to make a difference are getting theirs. The average horsemen has little or no political power or funding to battle.
 So, we go and rehash the arrests and facts from 50 years ago. Change the date to 2023 and all remains the same . Even some of the names. 

[Fuguzzi]

As usual you make many good points. I would like to add something that may sound simplistic, but if you give it a second thought, I think you may find it more significant than it may seem at first.   In the old days drivers did rule and I think that's partly due to the fact that they could orchestrate and coordinate more easily when races were slower and fields were tightly bunched and you had guys constantly pulling to block or pulling to give "friends" trips. In short, drivers could do a lot of shit in 2:06

Trainers rule today, i believe, because expenses are very high, competition is much more fierce, owners can't make nearly as much betting as they used to and in this speed world horses pace in 50 or 51 and don't even get checks  a lot of the time. The pressure to produce in my opinion is higher than ever. yes, there's plenty of purse money out there but you better be damned ready when you show up to the paddock. it is chemical warfare, IMO, now more than ever.

[theokodjak26]

2:06.0 at MR in those years wasn’t half bad in those $800 purse races. Who won George Sziklai or Jim Grundy?

[The Exporter]

No disagreements in principal. My point was drugs have been around forever. But, until this last bunch of chemist and general scumbags got the notion to buy and sell some shit over the internet as well as develop local networks and buyers clubs, drugs were too expensive for the common horsman. Yes, investing $500 to cash a good triple ticket made more economic sense to this level of racing. Same in the Thoroughbreds.
 I know people who got into the horse racing game for ease of race fixing. Both drugs and race fixing. It will never change. If you believe it will for the sake of civil conversation, please say so and why.

[7minuteAbz]

When Jim Rankin died, Stan Bergstein divested himself of Doc's Fella and the rest is history.

[Fuguzzi]

No disagreements in principal. My point was drugs have been around forever. But, until this last bunch of chemist and general scumbags got the notion to buy and sell some shit over the internet as well as develop local networks and buyers clubs, drugs were too expensive for the common horsman. Yes, investing $500 to cash a good triple ticket made more economic sense to this level of racing. Same in the Thoroughbreds.
 I know people who got into the horse racing game for ease of race fixing. Both drugs and race fixing. It will never change. If you believe it will for the sake of civil conversation, please say so and why.

Hey buddy. Great stuff. You are totally correct about the drug scene. You read me every day so you know I certainly do not believe the game is ever coming back to a fraction of what it is. We lost our fan base for good 1 and 2 generations ago. As I've said , if not for racinos, the game would have ground to a virtual halt 20 years ago. what we are looking at today is not harness racing. The game has become a caricature of itself. I used to tell anyone who would listen the fascination with speed is going to kill this game over the years. we are witnessing the slow painful death before our very eyes.

[JIDGE]

I would say there was plenty of illegal drugs being used since the days of Ben Hur.  The difference was the effective drugs were very expensive and kept to a few participants. At the lower class tracks such as Monticello, it was cost prohibitive. In 1973, they raced for $800. Dropping a package on a few guys living at or below poverty levels was much more practical.
 Not in a hundred years, will harness racing ever become legitimate and relevant. No longer does the states have a vested interest in funding and policing the game. Only a couple racetracs even act like they care. Long gon is the local County Executive working to protect his portion of parking 10,000 cars a night and programs. No longer is the state willing to suspend anyone who has the wherewithal to fight them in court. 
 And the #1 reason harness racing will never be more than what it is; the guys who have the juice to make a difference are getting theirs. The average horsemen has little or no political power or funding to battle.
 So, we go and rehash the arrests and facts from 50 years ago. Change the date to 2023 and all remains the same . Even some of the names.

Yes illegal drugs have always been around. Back then it was always a balancing act on how much is it worth spending vs. the possible purse return. This included vet work (joints injected) (vitamins) etc. Even shoeing -- can he go another race without getting shod. I could go on and on. Back then you had to come up with creative ways to be a horseman. There were so many more little guys with 5-10 horse stables.  How many times does Burke actually sit behind his horses? He relies on someone else, who might or might not care. He watches the race on television then calls the vet to check the horse out. The top trainers today are more or less Managers of stables -- not hands on trainers.  Therefore they have to rely on chemicals to provide the necessary results.

[jupiter]

Robert Samson came over the border in 1969, worked for Angus Farm at Monticello as a groom. Did a lot of the training. Marcel Lefavre was listed (spelling off). Robert was a good guy, and he wanted to be called Robert. He was a gay as they came. I tried to buy a colt from them, Adios M Angus.

[Fuguzzi]

Yes illegal drugs have always been around. Back then it was always a balancing act on how much is it worth spending vs. the possible purse return. This included vet work (joints injected) (vitamins) etc. Even shoeing -- can he go another race without getting shod. I could go on and on. Back then you had to come up with creative ways to be a horseman. There were so many more little guys with 5-10 horse stables.  How many times does Burke actually sit behind his horses? He relies on someone else, who might or might not care. He watches the race on television then calls the vet to check the horse out. The top trainers today are more or less Managers of stables -- not hands on trainers.  Therefore they have to rely on chemicals to provide the necessary results.

Interesting that you call the trainers today "managers" to a certain extent, especially the big barns. I was thinking the same thing. How much our trainers today are like T-bred trainers now.

[JIDGE]

Interesting that you call the trainers today "managers" to a certain extent, especially the big barns. I was thinking the same thing. How much our trainers today are like T-bred trainers now.

Diamond Creek even hires a manager, Marcus Johansson, to manage the trainers, who manage their barns.
A little different from the times you trained, groomed, and paddocked your horse.