Bettors vs. Baffert

[dmarkoff]

One more call, looking for anyone who has a losing ticket that would have won if Medina Spirit is placed last (e.g., a show ticket on Elusive Quality, a place ticket on Hot Rod Charlie, etc.,)

The only way this game will change if is the bettors demand it is changed.  We can start doing that by demanding we get paid on wagers that should have won. 

Why is it fair that Churchill makes tens of millions, the correct owners, trainers and jockeys will get paid, everyone will get taken care of except the bettors, who once again will get screwed?

In 2016 a harness bettor in Illinois lost $31k+ when a longshot in NJ won a race and later tested positive.  The bettor sued the trainer and the horse owner in NJ Fed Court alleging a RICO violation and the case was settled last year for $20k. 

Look up the case:  Tretter vs. Bresnahan, Jr.

This is EXACTLY what needs to happen with this Baffert DQ, except it should be a class action instead of individual suits. 

My law firm is ready to bring the case, we just need a plaintiff. 

If you are interested in doing the right thing or know someone else who is, please have them email me immediately:

[e-mail]

Thanks

[gam]

Dan, that's an ambitious undertaking. By any chance, do you have the docket number for that case? Was it state or federal court? If I can track down the complaint, I'd like to take a look at it.

Also, where and which court do you contemplate filing a suit?

[elkurzhal]

Baffert horse ridden by JV wins wire to wire and tests positive.
Other speed horse ridden by Rasario leaves the gate with the riders feet out of the stirrups.
Ron Anderson is the agent for both JV and Rasario.
Ron Anderson cashes $100k win wager on Baffert horse.

What's that smell...

[cherokeescot]

Elk , do you believe the Ron Anderson $100k bet rumor ?

[gam]

May 10, 2021 9:42:59 GMT -5 elkurzhal said:

Baffert horse ridden by JV wins wire to wire and tests positive.
Other speed horse ridden by Rasario leaves the gate with the riders feet out of the stirrups.
Ron Anderson is the agent for both JV and Rasario.
Ron Anderson cashes $100k win wager on Baffert horse.

What's that smell...

ELK, where'd you see that Anderson had that kind of wager?  That'd be about an $8k win wager?  

[elkurzhal]

Gam - twitter rumor is a 100k bet (not win)
Cherokeescot - lean toward believing it, obviouly a good chance it's total BS and a good chance it's sort of right but maybe 100k win or 10k bet or something like that.

[dmarkoff]

Gam, it is an ambitious undertaking, which is why we have teamed up with one of the top class action firms in the country. Our firm is more of a pharma MDL firm.

We would prefer to file in NJ Fed Ct or maybe CA, but right now, we just need some plaintiffs to choose from and then we'll pick the best jurisdiction

The Tretter case is on PACER, but just shoot me your email and I'll email it to you so you don't have to pay for the download.

[e-mail]

[cherokeescot]

I don’t see it . If either of his jockeys wins he gets about 20% of $186k anyway. I don’t think it’s worth his livelihood to do something like that. Twitter also said Jill Baffert had $100k to win on Medina Spirit !

[gam]

Dan, I'll email you before the end of the day. I believe I have a PACER account, but, sure, prefer not to pay for a download. I may be wrong, but TC, even as a Canadian citizen, could be a plaintiff, no?

[elkurzhal]

Dan, just in case you are not aware, Michael Beychok (former NHC winner) is putting somethign together.

from twitter...
Michael Beychok
@beychokracing
Ok this is not a drill people. If you placed a losing wager on Mandaloun or any other combo that COULD be affected by a DQ of Medina - send your name contact info and the bet to [e-mail]. We are just getting started. @swifthitter

[gam]

My 89-year old friend (who is an attorney himself) had a wager with Mandaloun in the win hole (can't recall whether an exacta or trifecta). Will have to call him again to see if the other placements were in place. His wager would've been through NYRABets.

[DoctorDisaster]

I was live with Mandaloun in the Oaks/Derby Double 2.5X and the Oaks/Turf/Derby Pick3 a couple of times.Bet the 1 flat and keyed him with others.

[dmarkoff]

Thanks for the info on what Michael Beychok has been doing. I reached out to him and hopefully we can work together on this.

Doctor, you would be a possible plaintiff with those tickets, what state do you live in and how did you place those wagers?

[reviewer]

I really slowed down following and playing because of what I suspected of not playing fair last year from both the Oaks and Derby winners last year. I will not go into a rant about that here. However, I did go to Vegas to meet with friends for this years Derby weekend.

I see the case mentioned as a precedent above is about 1 player suing and winning a settlement on what looks like may have been a payoff on a pick-6? I think this would be very different.

I played on my twinspires account and was affected albeit on smaller type bets:

I had a $1 DD from Oaks to Manaloun.
I had a $1 DD from Manadloun to the 13-1 winner of the next race.
I has a $10 win bet on Mandaloun (but against that I did cash in a $1 exacta of all with Mandaloun in 2nd).
I had a $1 exacta box that would have won.
I had a $0.50 trifecta that would have won.

My Brother played a decent size win bet on Mandaloun (played at the sports book not online) but he also had at least one trifecta that would have won (he also cashed the trifecta they paid out).

But I do not know why you could not just proceed with your lawsuit based on the fact that we know there was a certain number of dollars bet to win on Mandaloun on all the ADW's out there and there are records that would show that? The same would be true for all of the exotics?

Bernardo

[cherokeescot]

Had a $5 future pool bet on Mandaloun at 42-1 .

[mysaladdays]

Having been part of an actual class action lawsuit, I highly advise people against it unless there are big balloons at stake for you.

I had to go to depositions and such, which required travel and time off from my career and it ate up a few years of my life.  

This would not be like that of course.   Most of these turn out like the Apple class action suit over them slowing down the battery in certain iPhones (when battery technology is not able to keep up with software advances). You will get $25 in the mail after you prove you purchased a certain model phone that had the factory OS on it when you bought it, which subsequent upgrades to the OS made the battery have to slow down in order to accommodate.

Attorneys don't work for free. 

[DoctorDisaster]

May 10, 2021 14:35:43 GMT -5 dmarkoff said:

Thanks for the info on what Michael Beychok has been doing. I reached out to him and hopefully we can work together on this.

Doctor, you would be a possible plaintiff with those tickets, what state do you live in and how did you place those wagers?

Dan I'm in NY.Bets placed through CDROTB on account.Where do I sign?

[gam]

Appears a suit was filed.

www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/horseplayers-sue-baffert-zedan/

[gam]

May 10, 2021 12:54:54 GMT -5 elkurzhal said:

Dan, just in case you are not aware, Michael Beychok (former NHC winner) is putting somethign together.

from twitter...
Michael Beychok
@beychokracing
Ok this is not a drill people. If you placed a losing wager on Mandaloun or any other combo that COULD be affected by a DQ of Medina - send your name contact info and the bet to [e-mail]. We are just getting started. @swifthitter

The suit filed was via Beychok. I’m not real familiar with how class actions work, but there may be a certification process during (or after) which others can join. If it goes that way and a large number of bettors joined, and if the suit prevailed, Baffert could be bankrupted.

[1hooper]

Copy of the suit here. htv-prod-media.s3.amazonaws.com/files/baffert-suit-1621025529.pdf
Green,Federman and our D Markoff as lawyers.
List of infractions goes back to morphine in the late 70's.

[gam]

Thanks for the link, Hooper. Will read with interest. Congrats to Dan for the undertaking. Hope they get this opened up to a large class of bettors. With ADW, many affected wagers can be identified and documented.

[tc]

There should be some kind of rule in horse racing where all purse monies from all DQs emanating from failed drug tests are not awarded to 2nd place finishers.
Instead the purse monies should be returned to the betting public via some TBD mechanism. That would be revolutionary and may even help to break the cone of silence amongst the insiders.
Somebody cheats...they all lose where it really hurts.

[gam]

I do hope Dan gets back to this thread but a couple of other points about this suit. I can't imagine that any insurance carried by Baffert would cover these claims as most policies exclude intentional wrongdoing and knowing criminal behavior. In the event the owner was held financially liable, I'd imagine you just might see a mass wave of horses transferred from certain trainers. The discovery process could be interesting. I wonder if the legal team will try to get copies of the testing reports and even maybe try to obtain some of the samples for independent testing. Do they freeze samples from past winners of TC races and or graded stakes? Imagine if the legal team got actual blood samples and could find an expert that could develop more sophisticated testing protocols.

[gam]

Only watched a portion of the NBC broadcast, did they mention the suit filed against Baffert and Zedan? I know they talked a lot about the positive test and aftermath.

[spiderjohn]

Was on a zoom last night where Mr.Markoff stopped in to explain what he wanted to do. Very well-spoken and logical, and I was somewhat surprised at the mixed reaction and a little push back.
I also wondered exactly who would be getting sued----CD? Baffert? the owner of the Derby winner? If so, why not the same involved with others who have had purses lost to drug disqualifications?
And who would get what and from whom if the judgement favored the class action?

I assume that as bettors, we have all been on the short end of these racing jurisdiction decisions that always ignore the wagering public.
A change somehow seems appropriate, though at this time, I am at a loss to come up with an adequate decision.

In basic theory and logic, supporting Mr.Markoff's effort seems like a natural choice.

Will this play out differently than past efforts(if any)?
Will anything change?

Should the horse have been allowed to run Saturday?
Makes me wonder about last year's Derby winner(where I was heavy in futures on the runner-up) and many others.....

[unusualpete]

May 16, 2021 14:52:08 GMT -5 gam said:

Only watched a portion of the NBC broadcast, did they mention the suit filed against Baffert and Zedan? I know they talked a lot about the positive test and aftermath.

Watched nbcsn coverage between two undercard races and figure I watched what would be later aired on the big show.  They skirted around the gigantic elephant, that designer p.e.d.'s lead to false positives.  False positives for known banned substances, when in fact no test exists for what they're actually doping them with.  If that test did exist, guys like bb would be ordinary.  See Preakness weekend for anecdotal verification.  

[gam]

I'm with ya, Pete, as I've said earlier, that's the Elephant in the room and, while I understand why they probably have to be careful as to what they say without hard proof, listening to what they were saying made me frustrated and led me to turn it off. Heck, I even went for a walk after the turf race since there was more than 45 minutes to the Preakness. For me personally, if they gave the horse an ointment (and I don't believe they actually did) I don't really care if he tested positive. If they injected the horse with it in a sore joint too close to race day, I don't care that much. What I do care about is if it is used to mask a PED or a PED was given that led to a positive for beta. Frankly, that is my suspicion and it is frustrating they won't talk about it or acknowledge it. Maybe if Servis/Navarro end up convicted (via plea or verdict) they'll discuss it more.

[eye123]

What I'd like to see. A test on the sample for betamethasone valerate.(can be done) If that is not detected(different from the injectable,oral beta) then we could assume the ointment was "not" the cause for the positive 21 pica in the blood. Then the question...what was ?

[gam]

May 18, 2021 11:03:47 GMT -5 eye123 said:

What I'd like to see. A test on the sample for betamethasone valerate.(can be done) If that is not detected(different from the injectable,oral beta) then we could assume the ointment was "not" the cause for the positive 21 pica in the blood. Then the question...what was ?

There was an interview with a veterinarian I saw (Paulick Report?) who suggested they could test for the other substances in ottomax to confirm it had been used.  I'd like to see that done too.  If they tested negative, then we'd know that Baffert was lying.