Do you know Scott Blasi?

[njcurveball]

*** Seems very strange to me that someone who can state that NO ONE in his employment did it, would just sit back and take a 6 month suspension. Maybe he is going to concentrate on qualifying for the NTRA Handicapping Championship. ;-)


*** the story is below.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Steve Asmussen, North America's leading trainer in 2004 and 2005, has been suspended for six months by the Louisiana Racing Commission, a decision he decided not to appeal.

Asmussen's suspension starts Monday and runs through Jan. 10, 2007, leaving his lead assistant, Scott Blasi, to run the Texas-based trainer's operation.
"Six months may seem like a long time, but it will go by fast," Blasi said Sunday from Churchill Downs, where he was working with three horses in the day's racing.

The racing commission suspended and fined Asmussen last month, after a horse he trained, No End in Sight, tested positive for mepivicane, a local anesthetic, after a March 24 race at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La.

The racing commission upheld Asmussen's suspension June 23, giving Asmussen 30 days to appeal the action in court. Asmussen declined to pursue an appeal and took the suspension.

Asmussen has said he wasn't in Louisiana at the time and denied giving any medication to the horse, but said the positive test result is the responsibility of the trainer.

"I'm not going to appeal it. The pending days weigh pretty heavily on you," Asmussen told the Daily Racing Form. "I didn't, nor did anyone in my employment administer mepivicaine to No End in Sight."

Asmussen has training operations at Arlington Park, Belmont Park, Churchill Downs, Lone Star Park, and Louisiana Downs. Blasi said the business will continue to run under the trainer's name.

"I expect things to go as they've always gone," Blasi said. "We've always won in the past, and I expect we'll keep on winning."

Asmussen also faces a separate six-month suspension for an acepromizine positive in New Mexico. That case is pending before the New Mexico Racing Commission, which has not yet held a hearing.

Asmussen is currently the second-leading trainer in North America. His horses have won 237 races and $7,520,468 in purses this year.

[Victor]

I kinda knew he wasn't exactly a choir boy. Maybe your're the greatest trainer ever and I'm just plain wrong, but I doubt it. Look, you got caught so here's hoping you NEVER get back.

[DanG]

Good point NJ…

It’s funny how no one EVER does it, from Steve Asmussen to Rafael Palmeiro.:rolleyes:

If the suspension is only “superficial” in that he can’t step on the grounds and his name does not appear in the program then there will be virtually no drop off in performance.

Assmussen runs his massive 200+ head operation via the cell phone and computerized condition books. His operation won’t miss a beat in my opinion.

[OPM]

Dan: this leads to the question of how you can trust 10 people or so to do something illegal such as giving prohibited meds. Maybe the common thread is a vet or couple of vets but I doubt it since he has horses running at 7 different tracks every day. I just hate it when people make assumptions without strong evidence. Mepicaine in a horse that finished 7th, come on, you've got to be kidding. Those stewards just fined BAffert when his horse tested positive for Clenbuterol couple of years ago.
There has to be uniformed rules and back testing to get all the cheaters out. I would start with back testing Silver Charm in the 97 derby. Barry Irwin has stated on another board that Charm was given clenbuterol into the trachea on race day by good ole Doc Harthill.

[DanG]

Your right OPM,

I have no proof that any trainer or Barry Bond's for that matter is taking / administering anything stronger than Flintstone vitamins.

However, (just in my personal view) when Barry Bonds head started to resemble a piñata and Lady’s Secret arrived in Kentucky with a liver the size of Buick…Something has changed on the American landscape.

Your 100% correct though…I have zero proof and I really try to avoid the whole ‘drugging’ discussion as I’ve found it only creates unnecessary doubt in my job. In addition, there are many reasons that a guy like Asmussen (for example) is great at his profession…Incredible work ethic being among them.

My brother worked for 4 different trainers and I have the utmost respect for the lives they have chosen. The work is unusually difficult. Long stressful hours with virtually zero down time. It points to the greatness of our sport that more don’t get out of the game by their own choice.

The point I was trying to make was the black market designer drug industry is booming and of course no one admits to using them. I found it ironic that when Jose Censeco turned ‘rat’ he came across as the only honest one in the senate hearings.

In closing…You make a good point in the fact that so many individuals would have to be involved. It’s hard to keep something private after telling one person much less the massive operation Steve is running.

[OPM]

Dan: in regards to Barry Bond's: first steriods were not illegal at the time he took it, second steroids does not improve hand/eye coordinations and third, there are more pitchers than hittlers taking steriods. Steriods help you recover in the short term quicker from starts. I don't know if you follow baseball at all but Roger Clemens was definitely going to retire if they had taken Vioxx off the market(unless he found something else:D :D )because he said these drugs really help him recover after starts.
Now to horse racing, I think the one drug that is killing racing more than any other is anabolic steroids and it is completely legal!!! Young horses are getting these drugs to build up their muscle and their bones can't keep up with the muscle strenght. I think this is most likely the big reason for the success of Drug Oneil, Mullins, Lake, Asmussen, Norman, etc. Guys like Jack Van Berg who only use hay and oats don't stand a chance. Horse racing is the perfect sport for anabolic steriods because you get the benefit, horse wins a couple of races, some good purses, hurts himself and retires, no questions asked:D Now, if you had a zero tolerance policy, we would not be able to race 7days a weeks but we would have better racing. However, there's too much money to be lost for this to happen.

[DanG]

OPM,

I think were in a discussion that would be better suited to a good pub and a cold one than something involving my typing skills…:D

I can’t separate Baseball, Racing & Music as to which I love more. Baseball is a subject that I will forever discuss long into the night, but I think we will have to somewhat agree to disagree on a few points and leave it for another day.

As far as your points on racing I agree 100%.

[njcurveball]

Mr. OPM,

You are a good advocate for the honest trainers and professionals in sports. Let me just present a counter point on some the speculation you wrote about. I suggest the book "Game of Shadows", it is a great read and much more detailed than anything I could ever write about Bonds.

Far as I know, Steroids have been illegal in this country for a long time. Like most other designer drugs they are legal with a prescription. Bonds has never said he had a prescription for them, so if he had them, they were illegal. Perhaps, not AS illegal as cocaine or heroin, but still against the law.

Second, you have a point about improving hand/eye coordination. But you fail to point out the documented improvement in eyesight while taking them. There is also evidence HGH improves eyesight. In a game decided by fractions of inches, even a slight improvement in eyesight can translate to a noticable improvement at the plate.

Third, more pitchers than hitters taking them? I guess it is a chemical question here, since pitchers wouldn't take the same kind. But if we say that 10% of hitters and 10% of pitchers are taking them, that leaves 90% of pitchers to face Bonds, who is taking them 100% of the time.

It is has been proven that steroids can improve speed, Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, etc. have proved this. But it hasn't been proven if there can be a large gain in throwing velocity.

Perhaps a pitcher can go from 89 to 95 with steroids, but I would doubt a pitcher could go from 70 to 95 with them.

Recovery time is important and if steroids can just help pitchers with that, I am sure they pay Grimsley his $3,200 per year.

As for horses, if you have followed anything at the Meadowlands this year, you have heard about EPO and older harness horses improving their lifetime mark by 3 or 4 seconds.

You also make a great point about bones not being able to keep up with muscle. That is how Bo Jackson can literally rip his hip out of the socket and Mark Mcguire can bench press a ton and cannot run to first.

I think you are a lil naive in saying guys like Jack Van Berg only use hay and oats. He has a crafty vet who has done some amazing things. The guy got Gunslick to the winners circle at 6 after an operation to actually split a tendon. I hope he paid his vet this time, so he doesn't face another suspension for that. ;-)

Jim

[OPM]

You misunderstood my point about pitchers, I was point out more to a recovery in between starts in the short term until the deleterious of long-term use of steriods take effect. We can argue about Barry for a long time. However, THERE IS NO CLINICAL STUDIES IN A SCIENTIFIC MANNER THAT STATES THAT EITHER HGH OR ANABOLIC IMPROVE EYE SIGHT OR EYE/HAND COORDINATION. I know, I'm an Eye M.D.

[njcurveball]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh,

An eye doctor looking for clinical studies on HGH to affirm it improves eyesight. I wonder if they would interview baseball players for this study?

If a major drug company doesn't sponsor a study to say what they want, I guess the public needs to ignore what these guys are saying.

I am not personally taking HGH, but have improved my eyesight with eye exercises and vitamins. I visited a number of doctors who told me this was impossible. I can only tell them that my prescription was close to a -3 and it improved to seeing 20/20 (almost 20/15) after these exercises.

If baseball players are saying it improves their eyesight and they get paid millions, I tend to believe them. There are literally hundreds of articles on the web. I chose the one below since it is from Newsweek. I hope we can agree Newsweek is reputable?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7286234/site/newsweek/page/2/

I also can tell you that I had a rash recently and was prescribed steroids for it. After taking them for 4 days, I noticed an improvement in my eyesight. Unfortunately, it was only a 6 day dose. :-(

Pitching in the majors has went downhill since they started drafting using the radar gun. A perfect example is the Orioles Daniel Cabrera. He can throw in the upper 90s and now has the "jedi master" Leo Mazzone for a pitching coach. But the guy just never learned how to play baseball as a kid.

His ERA will be around 5 for the rest of his career. If not higher. The Orioles probably passed over hundreds of guys who KNEW how to pitch to get him to the Majors. Some were just as good as Kenny Rogers who started the All Star Game. But if the scouts today saw Kenny Rogers at a tryout, they wouldn't even give him a 2nd look.

You make a lot of good points about integrity in sports. You sound like a very honest and professional guy. I am sure you are doing well.

Jim

[OPM]

Steroids don’t improve eyesight: that’s true. But steroids bolster strength and speed of muscle response, enabling the batter to wield the bat more quickly. He can wait longer on pitches and, thus, be fooled less. So steroids can help a hitter get his bat on the ball. More importantly, steroids weren’t the only drug in the BALCO arsenal. Jason Giambi, according to the Chronicle, told the grand jury he injected human growth hormone along with his steroids regimen. There is anecdotal evidence that HGH does, in fact, improve eyesight. So the combination of HGH and steroids might impact batting average every bit as much as much as power stats.

This is a paragraph from the Newsweek article.

It's hogwash to say that HGH improves your eyesight. What the hell is anecdotal evidence, it basically saying there may be 1 in a million chance, this is not scientific proof. There are certain tumors that produce an excess of HGH and if HGH helped your eyesight, then these people would have supervison, they don't. There are also condition where there is a lack of HGH and then "anecdotally" these patients should be blind, they are not!!

There are a lot of things that occur randomly. That's why horseracing and HTR is so great, we are using data that we can test to make sure our results are not random( I still have found the magic formula yet)
However, drugs in horseracing(legal and illegal) and sports in general is bad news. It actually hurts racing more than most sports since no one really cares about racing anymore. If they did, they would stop running horses 7days/week for 52 weeks.
Anyway, I digress. Good luck if your going to Vegas and good luck this weekend.

[tomcat]

You guys are into a great discussion that transends horse racing.
My old anatomy prof used to say that you cannot run faster than you can run. So, the arguement is that steroids can make you run as fast you can, not faster. An asprin might releive some pain so that you can run as fast as you can.

A zero policy would take many horses and athletes out of competition.

We, perhaps most, take different drugs and sometimes steroids, legally prescribed by Drs, just to get to the next day.

Tough problems.

Good luck.

[OPM]

Ay, and there's the rub, laddie. Legal drugs being used for illegal purposes. I had always wanted to get an independent testing of all NFL lineman but....

[njcurveball]

In science, anecdotal evidence has been defined as:

"information that is not based on facts or careful study" [1]
"non-scientific observations or studies, which do not provide proof but may assist research efforts" [2]
"reports or observations of usually unscientific observers" [3]
"casual observations or indications rather than rigorous or scientific analysis" [4]
"information passed along by word-of-mouth but not documented scientifically"


The funny thing about this definition is that anything biological can be described as anecdotal. Todays scientific evidence is tomorrow's hogwash.

The doctors who killed George Washington thought that leaches were going to be a good cure for his throat infection. If you had offered them penicillin, they would have declared you as insane back then.

And it is funny that an eye doctor talks about anecdotal when the cornerstone of the profession is the Snellen chart.

This chart was developed in 1862 by a Dutch Opthamologist, Herman Snellen. He basically did this with the print type of the day and the lighting of the day. He also did it with his assistant who was anecdotally diagnosed as having normal vision.

I think we can agree the lighting of today, the printing fonts, the darkness of the ink, the color of the paper, etc. etc. are much different than when this chart was developed. In fact, most eye doctors know that they basically can make a patient fail this test simply by reducing the lighting.

I don't think there is anything more anecdotal in medicine comparing people in 2006 against Snellens assistant from 1862.

Jim

[Snagaltooth]

AP 3rd on Sat 7/15

New Trainer Scott Blasi.........

Can you say winner paying $59.

[njcurveball]

Thanks for posting that Mr. Snagaltooth.

I wasn't even looking until I popped in and read your post. A similar play was in the 9th at Lone Star today.

A short field, a horse off a layoff that Asmussen had ready. Bonus dollars on the win since his name wasn't in the program. The horse was buried on the rail and then swung out and blew by the favorite like Barbaro.

Blasi is live and the prices are going to be there for awhile, since the crowd only knows the name Asmussen!

Keep em coming Scott!

Lone Star Race: 9 Win Place Show
1st 2 WILL'S WONDER 20.80 9.60 6.00