The Blood-Horse has several areas of reporting that I don't agree with, but it's all a matter of personal opinion - like not listing every horse that's racing each day in its on-line Upcoming Races section because it's a cheap claimer. It's my opinion if you are going to add a victory to a stallion's record after the race, along with what purse money was earned, it shouldn't matter that he or she did it in a cheapie.

    But the magazine is usually right on the money in its features and news reporting, whether it be written under a person's by-line or by the Blood-Horse Staff. However, there's an article in today's Blood-Horse Now where somebody on that staff seriously missed the boat.

    Under the headline "Report: Testing Delays Stall Monmouth Purse Payouts," with a sub-title of "Monmouth connections owed about $7 million in purses," there's a major disparity concerning the money in question. It's the result of delayed testing results from the Truesdail Laboratories based in Irvine, California. 

    The report states that, according to the Asbury Park Press, owners have earned nearly $10 million since the opening of the meeting on July 3, but that about $7 million has yet to be paid out and horsemen and vendors, especially feed companies, are struggling because of it. Furthermore, it states that according to the Press, the only purse money that has been released to owners of tested horses is from Monmouth's opening day. 

    But, there were just six races run on opening day, and the six purses offered added up to $278,025. Subtracted from the nearly $10 million figure, that leaves well over $9 million not paid out - not $7 million.  

    According to Monmouth's chairman and CEO Dennis Drazin the track has a contract with Truesdail that provides for preliminary results in three days and final results in eight, which means there's something very wrong for a meeting that began on July 3. For a magazine that gets quotes from every angle in most of its articles, even if it's "there has been no response," there's not one word in the report detailing any effort to find out what has happened from Truesdail itself.

    Donald Trump's having the U. S. Post Office slow down on its deliveries can't be helping, but this situation appears to have preceded that moronic White House move.    

 

comments powered by Disqus