I never went to that Arizona Racing Symposium, even though I was invited. Zero interest. No. talking is cheap. Passage. I was less likely to write about it, but today I had to. Walk away from the game or write. I chose writing and maybe some of you will understand why.
As ironic as betamethasone is now legal, those who stand by are the ones who make those who are trying to get it right look like a ship of fools. There are many in this game who care, do it well and try every day. They come from every aspect of the sport. Then there’s this. Unfortunately.
I didn’t come into this game softly. I was born in and around it all my life. I know every pitfall. I didn’t fall off a truck with a $2 winning ticket in my hand. I came through the fire – a great everyday gambler who not only survived the game, but beat it hard and consistently. I have adapted to the times. I have evolved. When the landscape changed, I changed with it. I became a strike-when-I-want-to, pick-my-spots, take-down-scores player. I welcomed the new era.
CAWs? Big gamblers? Models? Algorithms? Bring them all. My mentality was simple:
This is my game and I play it against anyone, anytime, anywhere.
But the thing is, I’m not crazy. I know the difference between a game of skill and a three-card monte. And I know if you’re sitting at a table and can’t identify the mark, congratulations — it’s you.
I’ve both dealt and played poker in Brooklyn and the City long before half the people who play the sport ever made their first losing win/place/show bet. I’ve seen every angle, every move, every “trust me” pitch that actually meant, “Trust me until you break.”
And if I know one thing, it’s this:
History doesn’t just repeat itself; she mocks you for not paying attention.
The White Sox scandal.
Tim Donaghy and the NBA Referral Scandal.
The point shaving scandal in the state of Arizona.
The NFL injury reports gambling scandals.
The Breeder’s cup Fix Six – still the most infamous carry bag manipulation in racing history.
Maximum safety and the “not exactly racing clean” Kentucky Derby.
College baseball coaches bet against their own teams.
Box diving from here to eternity.
The recent one sports betting scandal involving professional athletes. Even Piet Roos.
And now? We pretend that racing exists in an angelic vacuum immune to temptation, corruption or plain old incompetence? Take a look at some of the race betting scandals in Britain; they make the US look like choirboys.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me for the third time – well, then I deserve a haircut.
I was foolish enough to think that if I limited my play to the biggest pools on the biggest daysI would at least play in something approaching a flat field. Derby day. Breeder’s cup. The time when liquidity would buffer nonsense. When all eyes were watching and everything was clean and straight and everyone was ready to win. I actually believed I could beat anyone who ever played this game on the square. And I still do and can – on the square.
But what happens when nothing is square? What happens if only one spoke of the wheel is bent?
Who was it that said: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”? Lord Acton. The truth of it rings louder than attribution ever will.
Someone else said something that also stuck with me, and while the wording may vary depending on who you ask:
“Nothing is on the same level.”
Now look around racing and try to tell me that isn’t the tenet of the modern gambler’s existence.
This is what they think of us
With all these sermons about transparencyYou’d think the industry was run by Swiss bankers, not racetracks juggling shrinking handles and outdated systems. Yet two things have happened recently that will hit you right in the face when you’re awake.
1. The cockfight video
A video that claims to feature one of the best riders in the world – maybe even two – in a cockfight, which not only appears to be there, but also involved in what could be illegal gambling, as if it wasn’t his first rodeo, shows up and…
Crickets.
No denial.
No confirmation.
No investigation.
No explanation.
No nothing.
Just “Ignore it and it will go away.” While they preach, “It’s all about the horse,” “integrity” and “transparency.” Real?
We regulate whipping as a crime, but cockfighting – a federal crime – gets the silent treatment?
Please.
Anyone who thinks that every time one of these incidents happens, the participants are caught is either delusional, naive, or deliberately sleeping. Do you believe that? Because I don’t. Not for one second. Maybe you believe that if your head only separates your ears.
2. The Arizona Racing Symposium: Transparency Theater
Patrick Cummings, one of the few truly sharp voices representing horseplayers, takes the stage to fight the good fight – to speak for the gamblers this industry is desperate to keep.
Meanwhile, the head of the TRPB – the very group that oversees bin integrity and CAW monitoring – took the microphone, answered questions and…
Refused to answer anything about the tote bag system or supervision.
You can’t make this up.
Transparency? Not today.
Not tomorrow.
Apparently never.
Why show up at all? To talk about Arizona weather? To read the room and still disrespect it?
Pat said on X, “No disrespect,” as a follow-up, but honestly, he was nicer than they deserved. That declination was not only a disdain for horseplayers, but it spat in our faces.
Shut up and gamble: the industry’s new motto
Everywhere you look:
Late odds drop.
Last second CAW batches.
Exotic payouts are shortand I mean short.
Past accusations.
Tote systems old enough to qualify for Social Security.
But the message from above?
“Trust us and gamble.”
Like we’re losers.
As if we are markers.
As if a sucker is born every minute and racing doesn’t mind raising the next batch.
Let them eat cake.
Like a calculated gambler with patience and discipline, a man who plays to win and earns only what I call good bets – horse racing does everything it can to make that more of a challenge than a game.
And believe me, I know BS when I see it.
The bottom line
The game is not dead.
But it’s not clean.
It is not transparent.
And it’s certainly not flat.
Maybe there never was anything. But don’t sell me “integrity” while dodging questions about the tote bag system. Don’t preach “all about the horse” while ignoring videos that could get any groom or hotwalker fired at dawn. Don’t use whip rules while pretending illegal gambling doesn’t matter. And don’t tell me the future of racing lies with gamblers, while gamblers are treated like they are expendable fools.
I can beat the game. I beat it longer and harder than most ever will. But I can’t and won’t beat it a setup. No one can do that except those involved in the installation.
History teaches the lesson.
Human nature writes the script.
Money is the motive.
And racing continues to act as if none of it applies to them.
Nothing is up to standard? Some days it certainly feels like the fairest line in all of sport. No one wants to shoot craps with funny looking dice.
Memories:
#Trust #bet