The problem of backstretch security

Sponging incident at Gulstream Park
raises questions for the entire industry

It is only about a year ago that an elaborate contraption was found to have been hidden beneath the turf at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong designed to fire small injections of tranquilizer as horses left the barrier at the beginning of a 1200-meter race. The intent of the ingenious perpetrators was stop most of the horses with drugs – a dozen or more starters is commonplace in Hong Kong – make the score of a lifetime and cash the tickets before authorities discovered the device.

Fortunately, the apparatus was found before the plan was executed but the perpetrators were never apprehended. The prison sentence would have been severe.

Late Monday, Gulfstream Park officials announced that an attempt to compromise a five-year-old mare, Golden Velvet, by inserting a piece of sponge in the nasal passage, had failed when she finished in a dead heat for win in the Jan. 6 Sabin Handicap. The competency of the felons in this incident may have come up short and they were ultimately their own victims, but questions linger about the security in place at Gulfstream and ultimately every racetrack.

The botched if otherwise successfully executed attempt to stop Golden Velvet notwithstanding, there has not been a high-profile race-fixing scandal in this country in a very long time. American racing has not suffered what qualifies as a true fixing scandal in 30 years, since Fat Tony Ciulla talked himself out of prison and into the federal witness protection program by providing details of his race fixing activity in New York and five other states on behalf of Boston-based Irish mobsters.

Wherever there is money there will be thieves and scoundrels. This is basic to human nature. People steal from churches and charitable organizations. Within the system of pari-mutuel wagering larceny in any form amounts to stealing from horseplayers, a groups that commands little public empathy.

Nevertheless, recognition of the potential for and inevitability of larceny makes the act no less reprehensible and along with steroids and medication thresholds and the integrity of pari-mutuel security – brought to light in the wake of an almost-successful attempt by three former Drexel University fraternity brothers to steal a share of the Breeders’ Cup pick-six in 2002 – backstretch security, particularly at night, is apparently a problem at some, if not most, racetracks.

Given the curious timing of the announcement by Gulfstream officials there has been no industry reaction to the sponging of Golden Velvet. It will be interesting to observe the outrage of racing leaders and the resolve of Florida law enforcement. Hopefully, the felons responsible will be brought to justice and ideally the incident will shed light on the often shirked responsibility of racing associations to protect the animals in residence.

As in the case of the Breeders' Cup pick-six, those responsible for the sponge in Golden Velvet's nasal passage were undone by their own incompetence. This is not something that racing authorities can count on forever.