Ruiz v Baffert

[mysaladdays]

www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/269039/judge-stewards-action-in-justify-case-lacks-clarity


I don't mind saying that I have thought all along that Justify should have been DQ'd and that the Stewards simply pushed the Baffert's horse through (behind closed doors).  

As we have learned, after this, after the string of deaths, after all the excuses and explanations, after the ban from CD....

...Baffert only stops when he gets stopped.  


Ruiz was brave to do what he did.  

[merasmag]

brave? ok
but it's still not over
is this why ruis stopped training?

[mysaladdays]

May 31, 2023 16:38:32 GMT -5 merasmag said:

brave? ok
but it's still not over
is this why ruis stopped training?

I have no idea why Ruiz quit training, but I find it odd that you would throw a red herring into this discussion.  Conflating what Baffert does/did with Ruiz training or not training isn't the point here.  Not sure why you threw that comment in?

The issue is not about Ruiz.  It matters not whether I like Ruiz or whether he is a good trainer. 

The issue is about Bob Baffert.  It's about fraud and corruption committed by the governing body of the sport in the state of California, who knew about the bad test result, the split sample results, and they hid the results, discussed it in secret meetings, and changed the rules after the fact.  Baffert was treated differently because he is Baffert and every trainer should be furious that a horse who should not have been in the KY Derby was allowed to compete.

All Ruiz did was formally bring forward what other trainers have said (but won't go on record).   And as a result, California horse racing put another nail in their coffin.  Their star Baffert has done nothing but embarass our sport, over and over again, but they coddled him.  

Now we have 4-6 horse fields there. The smaller outfits at any track, are already at a disadvantage for stall space.  I expect many more small outfits to just quit, too, when you add in corrupt stewards favoring and covering up stuff for the big guys.  Plenty of owners and trainers have left the business in California ... that's a no brainer.   Nobody is going to invest large amounts of money into a scheme like what happened there.  


I said Ruiz was brave because in this situation, he was right:    when one guy gets special rules and the other ones don't ---- that is fraud and corruption.  And Ruiz formally acted on that belief.   He may not have been a great trainer, he may have been a whiner, but in this case, he stood the ground that everyone with a conscience and an interest in our horse racing sport should be standing.    

If you or anyone else wants racing to devolve further into that kind of territory, welcome to it.  Ruiz was right.....it's a bad trend IMHO.  When all the small operations are put out of business.   Less trainers/less competing trainers is not good for the sport or for the owners.    Just more death by a thousand cuts. 

[merasmag]

i don't think it's a red herring at all
u said he was brave
he quit training and obviously u were implying there would be consequences 4 his actions

AND HE QUIT TRAINING

i looked up plenty o stuff today and it looks like he's living the good life in montana

when i do racing saturday i'll post the links

[mysaladdays]

Jun 1, 2023 22:57:53 GMT -5 merasmag said:

i don't think it's a red herring at all
u said he was brave
he quit training and obviously u were implying there would be consequences 4 his actions

AND HE QUIT TRAINING

i looked up plenty o stuff today and it looks like he's living the good life in montana

when i do racing saturday i'll post the links

I'm glad to hear Ruiz is living the good life in Montana.  

...while Baffert continues to file baseless appeals and endless litigation, which so far have been largely unsuccessful.   He should quit while he's {not} ahead, since doing more of the same only serves to remind everyone of the black eye he has given to the US horse racing sport with his drug positives and horse deaths and just puts US racing under more scrutiny........scrutiny that is not deserved by the good actors in the industry.   

I doubt most care that Ruiz is training or not training.   

Speaking for myself (but which appears to be shared by other fans) what they do care about is that horses aren't doped in Derby prep races;  that positive test results aren't covered up; that horses aren't given drugs like Thyro-L when there is no substantiating medical diagnosis;  or seeing successive doping violations, esp. in Kentucky Derby winners.   

I'm also pretty sure most are not interested in listening to endless excuses/stories that are like listening to Big Foot or UFO-Sighting tales, i.e. about grooms eating poppyseed bagels near a horse who tests positive for morphine. 

[merasmag]

he's back into construction and doing affordable housing and a sports bar that may or may knot include an otb

[mysaladdays]

Ruiz finally won his case. It only took 6 years.

www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/275497/agreement-chrb-to-order-justify-dq-pay-ruis-300-000


Hopefullly someone who does such things will update this result in wikipedia, etc.