DOWN & DIRTY

Gambling fans now have a forum to "tell their side of the story." Those individuals who have reason to believe they've been cheated, accounts of having observed what they consider to be fraud, or accounts criticizing any aspect of so-called horse racing, to include the lack of quality in horses, trainers and/or jockeys, are strongly encouraged to participate. You might also include a few nice things - as long as the observations are reasonably accurate, a standard that additionally should define, at the very least, your criticisms.

And don’t be bashful or inhibited about expressing your point of view; after all, the game’s purveyors have such little faith in the integrity of their so-called racing representations that no guaranty is offered. In a gambling environment where ANYTHING GOES, irrespective of however ridiculous the Form Reversal, to include the running of injured horses on painkilling drugs, that the game’s shameless propaganda insists on selling such conduct as a so-called (SC) "SPORT" should give rise to serious questions among even the most unsuspecting gambling fans.

Conduct of this nature normally suggests an utter lack of integrity. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who's been around the game for a while knows there's plenty of integrity. It clings to the walls, drips from the ceilings, adding sweetness to radio and TV commercials like hot honey on a country ham, and oozes from every nook and cranny, from every form of traditional and untraditional advertising imaginable. Even commonplace interviews reek with the sticky stuff. And we actually have unconfirmed reports of it backing up in the urinals and toilets at a number of Gambling Tracks (GTs).

It would seem as though the word integrity has been taken over by the advertising department. "That sounds like integrity from the top down," suggested one gambling fan.

For those gambling fans who might harbor concern about how Getting Down defines integrity, a poll was taken and every staff member thought "integrity should be earned by way of conduct - from the bottom up."

In order to protect privacy, the names and addresses of e-mail authors will not be displayed - unless otherwise directed. A nickname is just fine, along with the name of the city and state in which you live. Getting Down reserves the right to edit all material for the purpose of enhancing journalistic value. All submissions to Down and Dirty immediately become the property of Getting Down.

Find submissions to Down and Dirty posted below. Allow 5-8 working days for mounting.

Yo, Getting Down. Love your site. I'm not a member, and I can't say that I will be, as I don't play nearly as much as I used to. But I do play Del Mar pretty regularly every summer. I see what you mean about some of these crummy form reversals. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what's going on. Gimme a break. I was at Del Mar on the 12th of August. I saw this horse (named Wishka) in the 5th race that I thought really looked nice physically. It was on the grass at 1 1/16 miles. The trainer was Roger Stine. Based just on the way the mare looked, I bet $15 to win and $5 to place. After showing modest speed to the 3/4 pole, the jockey made no effort to advance Wishka. He (the jockey) even dropped the horse back. The horse still had plenty of run in her when she crossed the wire - some 12 lengths behind the winner. She finished ninth out of ten horses. The comment made by the Racing Form said that Wishka faltered on the second turn. From where I stood, and I don't claim to be any kind of an expert, it looked like the jockey was doing all of the faltering.

Three weeks later, on 9/6/00, I'm at Del Mar waiting for the first race to begin, a mile on the grass. I even brought my cousin along. And now I got $30 to win and $10 to place on Wishka. I Had seen Roger Stine pull off what I thought were some pretty cheap form reversals over the years and, what with the end of the meet coming up, I had a good feeling. There was another horse in the race (named Undressed) that had already beat Wishka by 8 lengths on 8/12/00.

As the race grew closer, I began to think about maybe hitting the daily double. I grabbed my cousin by the arm and we took off running for the (gambling) window. We thought something was up. We even thought that maybe Stine was looking to hook up with another trainer in the second race. But we didn't know for sure - cause they don't put stuff like that in the Racing Form. We went for it! We bet several daily doubles over to the second race, to two horses that also looked like, if you'll pardon the expression, dog shit . The two horses in the second race were Diditmyway, trained by Barry Abrams, and Gracious lover, trained by Douglas Peterson. Both of these trainers are notorious for popping horses at big odds.

To get to the point, Wishka got her picture taken and paid $48. Diditmyway paid $26. You'd think that with prices like that the double would have paid a lot more than $289 for $2. And the reason it didn't is pretty obvious. We were just lucky.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. I've been on the other end of the stick many times, which is the main reason why I basically quit playing. As good it felt to win the money, I did not forget how many times I had lost money because I had failed to fully understand the name of the game. This story probably won't qualify for your Web site. Just thought you'd find it interesting. Best wishes--------Dave

2/13/01___It's about time somebody gave voice to those players who also know the truth about how the game is played - catch a thief to win big. If you don't know what's happening, you're much better off staying home. It's about the only way most players can make money. Think I'm kidding? It actually works. There's just too many scams to overcome.

Recently I had to travel to Los Angeles. It had been over three years since my last visit and I was looking forward to getting out to Santa Anita Park again. Even though I had heard from other sources what to expect, it was a jolting experience. The parking lot was almost empty. The place looked like a cemetery, what with so few actual players. And I can't remember ever seeing a more desperate crowd. The fact that very few of the people spoke English didn't bother me that much, but then I began to notice that a lot of them were just standing around, sizing each other up and down. It reminded me of being in a smoke-filled pool hall where everybody was on the hustle.

The deplorable conditions in Southern California's racing industry were not just another rumor. I can't remember when I'd seen so many junk horses in one spot. The fields were disgustingly short, and the horses were mostly cheap garbage. And talk about noncompetitive racing! Unbelievable! In almost every race the horses were strung out up and down the track.

I eventually struck up a conversation with a man who was in dire need of dental work. Don't laugh. At least he spoke English. I asked him why the Maiden Special Weight and maiden claiming classes had such lousy horses. He proceeded to tell me that owners of maidens can either take them up to the bay (San Francisco) area and run them for $2,500 maiden claiming, where the competition is really tough, or bring the same horses back down to Southern California and enter them in Maiden Special Weight fields. The guy wasn't kidding.

2/27/01___I thought I would drop you a line after reading an article written by Andy Byer that appeared in the Daily Racing Form on January 25, 2001. It was about a trainer (Allen Iwinski) who struggled for some twenty years before becoming successful. "Whenever a trainer achieves dramatic results," Byer wrote, "his feats will be accompanied by the suspicion that he must be doing something illegal. This is almost inevitable in an era when illicit drug use is widespread at U.S. tracks." Byer was of the opinion that the trainer earned his good reputation through hard work and dedication by further stating that "Iwinski's horses usually don't display the implausible, sudden improvement that is generally a sign of cheating."

The statement about rampant, illegal drug abuse in the horse racing industry is most troubling. The cat is out of the bag. Everybody now knows about the industry's drug problems. What's being done about it? Have all of the in-name-only racing officials lost their balls? It seems to me that if you had an organization that had as many criminally inspired acts as does the racing industry, a major investigation would be conducted immediately. It's no small wonder that so many people have lost faith in the product.

4/19/01___I got the biggest kick out of the Fraud Contest entry from Randy in Kansas City. Apparently he and his dad were pretty shocked by Oaklawn Park's version of horse racing. I've played that same track a number of times in Vegas and I completely agree. Oaklawn Park is not exactly a place where you take the family. They've got more outrageous form reversals there than any place I've ever played. I think Oaklawn and Lone Star must be run by the same Mafia family.

Getting back to my point, I thought the headlines that Randy and his dad expected to find in the newspaper the day following their visit to the track underscored the condition of the whole industry, and would be outrageously funny if they were not so true. Maybe Getting Down should start running a contest for best headline and follow-up story. It's not a bad idea. Well, just in case you ever do, I've got my entry already worked out:

Well, what do you think? My girlfriend bet me $5 you guys would never put it on Getting Down. Don't make me a loser.

4/24/01___It's not difficult to understand why people in the thoroughbred horse racing industry have made a big point of not openly acknowledging Getting Down. I can't say as I blame them. They're just hoping the site will go away and that only a few people will read the material. I know a gentleman who has worked around tracks for years and he says hardly a day goes by that he doesn't hear some talk of the site in the backstretch.

You guys are tough. Ouch! Getting Down should be ashamed. You're not supposed to tell the truth. Shame. Shame. You actually put a face on the beast - and the beast is very upset. Don't you know it's not good for business. A lot of industry jobs are on the line.

I've been regularly tracking your site ever since word about Getting Down got around, as have a number of attorneys. From where I sit, and I have a very good seat, your evaluation of the industry is quite accurate.

In case you haven't noticed, the industry is making some subtle changes to lessen the damage: To counter the term run-slow-run-fast gang (which is catching on quickly), the industry is pushing the form cycle term; to counter Getting Down's explanation about the significance of concussion in a horse's front legs, the industry is blasting away with a flurry of false and misleading comments suggesting horses are actually bred for the sunshine, bred for the dirt, bred for the fog, bred for a cloudy day, bred for the slop, bred for the sand, bred for the grass, bred for a fast track, a windy day, a medium track, plus whatever other type of running surfaces that come to mind. You really got them on that point. In as much as this information is available at the corner library, or can be easily obtained from your local veterinarian, it is puzzling why some players insist on clinging to such falsehoods rather than learn the truth. It's their wallet that pays the price.

I agree with most of what you say about the drugs and the manipulation of horses to build odds. What I disagree with you about is the price you quote for food in Name of The Game. You state that a beer and a hot dog at the track costs 40 cents wholesale, which in turn are sold for 8$. You're wrong. It's actually 23 cents. And I can prove it. Gotcha.

Has anyone had a chance to check out the TVG Network? Once you set up an account, you use your computer to place the bets. Each bet cost only twenty-five cents to make and cannot exceed a total of $20 a month (I think this is right.), no matter how many bets you make. It's actually a pretty good deal, and you get to watch the races unfold on your television screen. Considering it usually costs about $40 a month for cable/satellite television, it could be a bit much for the average player, though. If you are a television buff, in addition to being a gambler, it could be just what the doctor ordered. The actual idea is fairly solid. The way it is being marketed to the general public is misleading.

To begin with, most of the guys on the show are amateurs. You hear a lot of ignorant comments about horses that are utterly ridiculous, even funny. Rarely do any of their short-priced horses even get up for show money. They go to great lengths to convince the public that making money playing trainers and horses is easy. If this were the case, why do these self-styled experts fail so miserably?

They offer a flurry of amateurish reasons why certain short-priced horses will win, an equal number of excuses when they don't, and when a manufactured longshot rolls over the field, offer no practical explanation for the form reversal - moving right along. The show would have a small measure of credibility if a few constructive, critical comments found their way into the soft-sell pitch.

Their only interest is in getting people to open an account. What you can expect to see on their television program amounts to a great deal more "hustle" than actual knowledge or gambling ability.

Truth is, nowadays it's extremely difficult to make money gambling on trainers and horses. Drugs have ruined the game. The increasing number of "manufactured longshots" has made fools - suckers - out of most everyone these days.

I haven't had a chance to check it out yet but I understand there exists an Internet gambling service that basically offers the same service for less money than charged by the TVG Network.

10/15/01___This is the fourth time I've submitted comments to Getting Down. You guys have never used any of my material. And only only once did you respond by way of E-mail. You'd think I have a deadly disease.

I'm surprised Getting Down has not commented on the huge prices at the recent thoroughbred sales. I'm still in a state of shock. A lot of the buyers apparently wouldn't know a horse from a Campbell's soup can - much less a good horse. I guess it's the - Heinz 57 - breeding that impresses them. You guys should do the industry a favor and warn potential buyers about paying such huge prices - if you know as much as you say.

Maybe you should start up a television show similar to TVG, the off-track gambling site that is on channel television. Instead of giving out bad picks and then trying to encourage people to gamble, you could explain about breeding and conformation. It would be a perfectly legitimate show. No scam. Could be a real gold mine.

If that fails, maybe you could even go to work for TVG. Just kidding. Rumor has it that they are looking for a few good people. I bet you didn't know that one of their on-camera employees, a trainer by the name of Frank Lyons, was also accused in your last Fraud Contest of stealing money from the public at Del Mar. The horse's name was Salty Helen.

My cousin is a TVG member - for real. Says she turns off the sound, makes her bets and then watches the horses run. She calls me several times a month. I think she has a crush on one of the guys.

11/28/01___I divide the the gambling industry into two basic groups: the promoters, who stand to gain the most, and the suckers, gamblers who spend much of their time pretending that winning often enough to justify participation is easily within reach. A critical component of the latter is the chronic gambler. The gambling industry identifies these tortured souls as core players, and can be counted on to deposit a sizable chunk of their weekly earnings into the coffers of the nearest gambling establishment. It is the core player who carries the industry through difficult times. The stated role of the gambling industry is to turn everyone into a core player.

What few smart gamblers remaining have either migrated to card games and/or legitimate athletic sporting events - which does not include so-called horse racing. No thanks. I'm one of those old fashioned gamblers who like to keep an eye on the deck at all times. I may be a sucker in the eyes of some, but a least I know I'm not being cheated.

7/17/02___Webster's dictionary defines a "shill" as someone who pretends to be engaging in a certain course of conduct in order to encourage unsuspecting victims to particpate; one who acts like a decoy, as would be true in the case of a duck decoy being used to bring live birds within gun range. The shills at TVG network fit the bill perfectly. There must be some kind of a law that would prosecute such bogus activity.

I followed their shill activity for almost three months. If I had bet a $100 to win on all of their picks, I would have lost thousands of dollars. All they do is pick a short price and hope that it hits the board.

If you're looking to learn how to play the horses, the picks supplied by the phony TVG Network can only lead to bankruptcy, as I'm sure a lot of viewers have discovered.

8/22/02___A buddy of mine turned me on to Getting Down. He wasn't kidding when he said you guys really kick some ass. Talk about coming straight at you - with no bullshit getting in the way. I read the whole site in one setting. You obviously know what you're talking about.

But knowing how the game is played doesn't necessarily make you a good player. There's a lot of people around who are hip to all of the cheating. The problems the industry has are nothing new. That's why they have little success in keeping newcomers around the game very long.

I live within walking distance of Del Mar racetrack. Every summer we have to put up with the horde of dummies who think they can win at the track. Far too many of them are rude and inconsiderate, a disgusting bunch of selfish, greedy assholes who are only interested in cashing a ticket. I've never heard one of them express any concern for the welfare of the horses. And as soon as they get their butts kicked they head for the beach. My beach. Slobs with no sun tans, littering the beach with paper wrappers, bottle tops, and flattened beer cans. I hate them. They deserve to have their money stolen.

I went over to the track the other day with a buddy who thought he had a hot tip. To make a long story short, he didn't. We left just before the last race was run - a little lighter in the wallet, thanks to one of those phony longshots that blew us out of the water.

The quality of the horses was so bad I almost cried. Getting Down was not kidding. The majority of the horses can't cost more than a few hundred dollars each. It's really sad. And then, would you believe it, they have the audacity to pretend they are straight maidens, or $32,000 maidens. And almost every race was for these garbage maidens.

I think the Del Mar crowd should be forced to read Getting Down from start to finish. But the people ushering in the suckers sure wouldn't appreciate it.

10/1/02___When I heard something had happened to Getting Down, I figured somebody made you an offer you couldn't resist - if you know what I mean. My boss is even surprised you lasted as long as you have. Figured something bad might happen for making a lot of people in the horse racing industry mad. A lot of rumors were circulating at the local OTB (off track betting). But I guess you were just taking care of a few problems.

I just returned from my yearly two-week vacation in Las Vegas - me and a couple of my work buddies, along with our wives. Vegas has gotten so big that I'm beginning to lose interest. The place is growing by leaps and bounds every year. More of a family scene now than ever before. It's getting too crowded to go any place by car, so we stayed pretty much inside the MGM Grand.

We played the horses every day. This was the 4th straight year we've had our asses kicked. And it seems like it's getting worse every year - the short fields of rotten horses, all kinds of strange form reversals. Getting Down is right about the game. It sucks. Almost every time we all agreed on a certain horse, and placed a nice bet, some weird horse would suddenly run many lengths faster than it did the week before and win easily, full of run. What kind of stuff are they putting in these horses?

Has the Mafia moved back into Arlington Park? Check out their form reversals. Does anybody ever get arrested there? Where's the police?

My buddies and I have accounted for a combined total of over 60 years of experience playing the ponies. In today's game experienced players have no better chance than new players. The whole thing has turned into sort of a lottery. Don't worry how the horses look, or how they ran the last few times, just pick a number and hope for the best. It's definitely out of control. Maybe it's time the Feds stepped in and took over.

1/12/03____Getting Down is absolutely right in taking the position that gimmick gambling propositions play right into the hands of the cheaters. The run-slow-run-fast gang can now make large sums of money by merely risking a few dollars.

Anybody who thinks trainers and jockeys are not gambling with both hands when horses with big odds suddenly wake up is suffering from the worst kind of stupidity.

I can't tell you how many times I've had winning tickets on combinations involving one or more longshots that paid, due to crooked trainers and jockeys, only a small fraction of what otherwise would have been a normal payoff..

Adding to the unchecked cheating that has become a major part of the game, the average players' chances of having a winning day are further reduced by the huge percentage - up to 27% at some tracks - of money skimmed off the top of every dollar bet. Think about it. You shove a $100 bucks through the window and only about $75 is actually applied to your bet. How is a player supposed to make any money when the odds of doing so are so great as to make fools out of even the smartest players?

The day is quickly approaching when I will be forced to walk away from the game. I apologize for sounding off..

5/19/03____BLATANT FRAUD RUNS RAMPANT IN NEW YORK___ This headline best describes the feelings of race fans at Belmont Park on 5/16/03. I've been around this game for many years and, if you are going to play regularly, you obviously have to get used to a certain amount of lowlife cheating. The scam in the 4th race was one of the worst I've personally witnessed. Why the trainer of "Board Elligible" was not arrested immediately speaks to the corrupt nature of the game.

Is this type of flagrant criminality supposed to encourage new players? I don't think so.

There was also some obvious cheating in the ninth race, but the scam pulled in the fourth blew me away. Board Elligible only had a total of 6 lifetime maiden starts, all of which were on the dirt and had occurred within a 55 day period, prior to 5/16/03. The first outing was against straight maidens going 6 furlongs: the winning time was 1:12 3/5ths. Board Elligible finished twenty lengths back. The 2nd event was at the same distance and against the same level: the winning time was 1:12 1/5th. Board Elligible was only a mere sixteen lengths back. The next so-called race, at a mile-1/16, at the same level and with the anteater winning time of 1:51, resulted in a trail job equaling just over seventeen lengths. Depending on how you look at matters, these are really not bad performances - for a turtle.

For the 4th scam, 7 days later, Board Elligible showed up once again against straight maidens going a new distance of one mile. Experiencing a major form reversal which doubled her most recent Byer rating, the filly, at odds of 57-1, led most of the way, finishing 2nd, a half length back of the winner.

Apparently the trainer, James Ferraro, was neither arrested nor even cautioned about his "fleecing of the public." He goes right to work again on the next scam - which turned out to be the same scam done twice.

The 5th scam occurred 11 days later. The odds were now only 9-1, much to low to be considered. Predictably, Board Elligible labored through the mile-1/8 and finished some 19 lengths out of contention.

By the time the 6th scam was presented for public consumption, approximately 3 weeks later, the trainer had already decided to pop his horse at a mile-1/16th. Just to make sure the odds would be huge, the jockey immediately trailed Board Elligible from the gate, completing the fraudulent 1-mile trip some twenty-five lengths from the top finisher.

On 5/16/03 Board Elligible's trainer and jockey, at a mile-1/16th, asked the filly to run and scored an easy scam. The mutuel payoff was just over $120.

When one considers only a small amount of money was needed to make a huge score, given the wide range of gambling gimmicks, the amount of money stolen by the horse's manipulators can only be estimated. It had to be substantial.

Talk about cheap, unsophisticated fraud. Are we supposed to accept this kind of grade-school-level shit as legitimate horse racing? Unbelievable!

I spent over 25 years working as a criminal investigator in New York. There's no doubt in my mind that if the evidence against Board Elligible's trainer was presented to a grand jury, an investigation would be conducted, culminating in a conviction.

8/5/03____Haven't seen any letters about the California fair circuit, also known as the fraud circuit, so I thought I should take up the slack and give voice to a lot of complaints. I never saw such unbelievable, unsophisticated cheating in my entire life as I saw last Sunday (8/3/03) in the last SCAM (race) at Santa Rosa.

It was so phony I thought a flood of police officers would storm the track at any moment and make numerous arrests. Such cheap corruption.

There's no way I could convey the poignant nature of this flagrant criminal act merely by relating it here in so many words. You have to go there yourself and check it out to fully appreciate what happened.

The racing industry is in the gutter because too many gutter people are involved.

9/10/03____ The current film about Seabiscut is not going to resurrect horse racing. First of all, it is something that occurred over 60 years ago. Secondly, it concerned two great horses: Seabiscuit and War Admiral. The 1938 match race in which Seabiscuit upset War Admiral generated unprecedented public interest. Some claim even more interest was in evidence when the two giants met again in the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap. Seabiscuit easily beat War Admiral.

The "Woodward" of 1967, for example, featured some pretty great horses: DR. Fager, Buckpasser and Damascus. In 1978, the "Triple Crown" races between Affirmed and Alydar, in my opinion, represented the last "curtain call" to great racing with great race horses.

Today's main problem concerns the "racing longevity" of many of the top race horses, most of whom could not be considered great by any definition. You're lucky to see most of them race more than twenty times before their careers are over. Seabiscuit raced 89 times. Another great race horse, Exterminator, raced in 100 races. The unbelievable Imp raced 171 times.

9/15/03____When one considers the shocking ease chronic gamblers have been historically manipulated, gambling promoters at Del Mar, along with a cadre of media hucksters and shills, may have stooped to a new level of jaded arrogance during the recent attempt to sell so-called (thank you, Getting Down) horse racing to a broader audience.

A phony riding contest - billed as the (what else) "Battle of the Sexes" - between Julie Krone, a mediocre rider whose greatest asset lies in her ability to possibly attract the weaker sex to gambling, and Patrick Valenzuela, who brought to the table a spotty riding career plagued with drug abuse, had been contemplated well in advance of the Del Mar meet.

For the scam to work, Krone would have to get a sufficient number of the best rides, also known as the "hot horses," to put herself in early contention and subsequently stay neck-and-neck with Patrick Valenzuela. "Anything to promote the game," as the saying goes. No problem here.

The scam was heavily promoted in every way imaginable. Even the likes of TVG, the Internet gambling network, weighed in heavily in an attempt to convince viewers that a legitimate contest was actually taking place. How they could look into the camera and keep a straight face was remarkable. When the TVG shills weren't tripping over themselves to aggressively verbalize trifecta and superfecta payoffs in every breath, in an attempt to encourage viewers to gamble more money, they pushed the phony "Battle of the Sexes" scam with unabashed cheap hype and rehearsed praise.

The crowning jewel of the stinking mess had to be the phony two-horse match race between Krone and Valenzuela. I can't remember when I've seen something so patently fraudulent. Good Grief! They're lucky they didn't go to jail. If you weren't sophisticated enough to spot this scam, you should put your money in your pocket and never go near a track again.

Since all eyes would be on just the two horses, the potential for screwing up matters was rather high if both jockeys had to make certain moves at any number of predetermined points. Wisely taking this matter into consideration, it was rightfully determined that Krone, not exactly known for her mental prowess, would gun her horse the whole distance and let Valenzuela take care of the theatrics. And so it was: After going head-and-head until the turn for home, Valenzuela unconvincingly eased his horse and dropped back several lengths, only to get back up again and win by a nose.

Good thing Patrick never decided to go into acting. He would have failed miserably.

The 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, as some of you may recall, was also billed as the "Battle of the Sexes." Though a promoters dream come true, it was nevertheless a legitimate contest in which both individuals played to the best of their ability, with Billie Jean King prevailing.

12/08/03_____Your piece on the "Odds of Probability" fully exposed the "true odds" of winning at the track. It's right on target.

And the "usual suspects" - trainers and jockeys - remain patently obvious in almost every instance, particularly when cheating is involved.

Media promoters are some of the most rotten participants in the overall scheme. A tremendous amount of effort is devoted to taking unfavorable facts and images and then attempting to somehow make them more acceptable to gullible patrons.

For example, how many times has the horse gambler heard that the win-rate for favorites is around 30 percent? The media has always postulated this stupid percentage as being an advantage to the bettors. This inference is totally absurd. The same "hype" is used when they extol the win percentage in the range of 20-30 percent for above average trainers. Track promoters love to stress percentages; 20 percent sounds a lot better than 1 out of five.

Even struggling grade-school students know they won't pass their math tests if they embrace this absurd logic.

I checked the winning trainers' stats several years ago when I was visiting at Hollywood Park. Nearly two-thirds of these so-called trainers failed to win even one race the entire meet.

The moral of this "fraud investigation" is simple: When you bet on a "cast of morons and thieves," the result cannot be in doubt.

6/16/04___ Even if the current version of so-called horse racing, by some loose definition, could qualify as legitimate horse racing, what true sport allows its members to gamble on the very outcome? It's a common gambling game, whose promoters would have us believe is a sport.

The Racing Form, which is loaded with misrepresentations, makes no effort to separate the lies from the truth before printing their so-called racing form. Its publishers know perfectly well that a lot of cheating is being conducted at tracks all across the country. That's why they aren't about to guarantee their material.

Stable gambling has ruined the game. Cheating is out of control. This is one gambling game - oh, I forgot to say sport - where players are unknowingly cheated on a daily basis. No attempt is made to control these guys. Getting Down is way ahead of the curve.

8/14/04___ It is every handicapper's dream to catch a big price. No other factor drives the mind of the gambler more. In spite of this simple truth, the game's shills and promoters continue to gloss over horses and jockeys that pop at big odds. Instead of going into plausible detail in order to excuse away the form reversal, they hasten to move on to more mundane things, but not before using the big-price results as a brief teaser to remind players of all the money they could have won had they been on the right horse.

Legitimate longshots are easy to explain away. Manufactured longshots are extremely implausible and have been known to insult the intelligence of even the most unsuspecting players. Manufactured longshots insult everyone. When will the game's purveyors quit hiding behind their phony integrity and come to grips with the simple fact that race fans are not all stupid. I guess legitimate racing is just about finished.

My uncle said it would eventually come to this. The whole game is imploding. One of the biggest scams perpetrated against the public is the mindless notion that bettors are playing against each other. Wake up and smell the coffee, guys. It's the public against the stables. And the stables got the big edge. They control how the game is played. You can bet your last dollar that the information they use to pop a horse has very little to do with actual racing.

A lot of people are complaining about the inferior stock at Del Mar. The horses are so bad they have to be drugged in order to get them to run. The whole stinking game is like "Alice in Wonderland," where a lot of desperate people are pretending that everything is just fine. They've just about run off all of the old-time players and now must rely on new victims.

12/8/04___I keep hearing about the Mexican Mafia? A friend of mine who works in the racing industry - or should I say, what's left of it - in Northern California is very concerned, along with other horsemen, that the Mexican Mafia has successfully extended its influence among some trainers and jockeys. I understand even tracks like Santa Anita and Hollywood Park also have a problem.

I went back over some of my records and was amazed at how many horses Mexican trainers pop at huge odds. They poop their horses along a few times to build odds and then come at you when the price is right, or whenever they manage to hook up with one of their buddies.

I'm also told that this is a real "taboo" subject among racetrack officials. They are afraid to say anything for fear of driving away fans.

Even if the Mexican Mafia is not involved, and I have good reason to to believe it is, all a person has to do is take a look at the abundance of phony form reversals delivered by Mexican trainers to know that something is badly wrong in "River City."

1/20/05___A lot of money has been spent by the gambling industry in order to convince television viewers that so-called horse racing is an environment worthy of the family experience. No matter how much white paint is used, as we have seen, or how many staged TV commercials involving small children are displayed, arrogant cheating continues.

Even the disappointingly small number of new faces, after having "just another wonderful day playing the sport of kings," is discovering that the odds of showing a profit, contrary to the bust-the-sucker propaganda, may be one of the greatest lies ever told, second only to the notion that "Winning Big" - you know, the mythical town just south of Cleveland - is easily within reach.

Sure, the trainers and jockeys do just fine at the gambling window with their run-slow-run-fast horses, but the public gets its face slapped on a daily basis.

The industry is in dire straits. Gross receipts overall have dropped considerably in the last couple of years.

And dwindling gambling pools invariably translate to an irreversible sign of cancer - a marked decline in both the number and the type of individuals who once supported the game. The days of garnering broad support from colorful crowds of upscale patrons have forever disappeared. Now the game is looked down upon by most everyone except for insiders and chronic gamblers.

Just the other day I was seated at the counter of my favorite restaurant and happened to overhear one of the customers tell a waitress that he played the horses. The guy looked like he had been sleeping in his car. The waitress wasn't impressed. She approached me and quietly asked if I would keep an eye on the guy. She thought he might not be able to pay for his breakfast and might try to run out on the tab. He finished his meal and, after fumbling through his pockets for several moments, finally came up with the correct amount and left.

The day of the "chronic" gambler has arrived. Check it out. Taking into consideration the steady decline in gambling pools, no matter which tracks are running, the total amount of money gambled at all tracks is roughly about the same every day, give or take a few percentage points. For instance, if none of the big tracks is running on any given day, chronic gamblers pour their daily cash allotment into a host of smaller tracks, sometimes driving interstate (out of state) pools as high as 6/1 over the intrastate take (in state).

If you really want to get an eye opener, head out to your local track. Don't be surprised if you are confronted with a colorful mixture of destitute and desperate characters, a surprising number being in need of dental attention. You'll see more vacant expressions than in Central Park, out of work muggers and hustlers, some of whom, heads bowed, rarely look up as they scan the floor for discarded winning tickets. This is one tacky, seedy bunch of dudes.

Running true to form, the transportation of the destitute and desperate is what one might expect. Old cars and bald tires seem to be standard fare. And there are plenty of aged dents and scratches - here and there a cracked window.

8/15/05__I just returned from spending my last two-week vacation at Del Mar. The place is out of control. Just when you think you got a race figured pretty good, based on recent performance representations, out of the woodwork comes a manufactured longshot that wins easily. The stables are raping everyone.

I'm finished with gambling on what jockeys and trainers may or may not be doing. It's difficult enough to find a winner even when no cheating is involved - next to impossible when you get several cheaters in the same race.

And I'm not a sore loser. In fact, I'm one of the few gamblers who is actually ahead of the game, thanks to legitimate sports like professional football. So-called horse racing does nothing but line the pockets of the dishonest.

Getting Down certainly cuts through all of the bullshit and false representations.

And by the way, Mister Getting Down, I know who you are. A friend of mine pointed you out recently at Sam's Town, your Las Vegas haunt.

11/7/05__What the hell is going on with horse racing? Nothing figures anymore. You might as well throw the form away and make your selections using the numbers on bubble gum wrappers. An experienced handicapper has no better chance than a raw beginner. One thing for sure, the stables are making tons of tax-free money at the gambling window.

The game is so unstable that you don't dare bet any kind of real money on the nose. So you have to bet the gimmick stuff. And you can expect almost any kind of finish. Don't worry about logic. Play every horse that doesn't figure. Just how long you can bet like that before going broke is the issue. If you're like me, not long at all.

5/19/06__ Larry in Atlanta left out one extremely important problem with today's game -- FILLERS. Fillers are horses that have no chance of winning but are entered in order to hopefully convince players that the outcome is contested by a large number of legitimate contenders. Such ugly fraud. When will the average player wake up and smell the coffee. So in addition to Larry's list of complaints that are echoed throughout the industry, I hereby submit a full list: Cheap Crooks, short fields, an abundance of fillers, and junk horses.

And before I forget, there is no shortage of thoroughbreds. This is quite a big lie, one that is repeated often by the game's propaganda department. Some 30,000 thoroughbred fillies and colts are foaled each year for the specific purpose of eventually going to the races. Well, then, what's the problem? Since there is no shortage of thoroughbreds, the real problem is a shortage of owners, many of whom have learned the hard way that owning a race horse leads to financial disaster. And with today's junk horses, who could blame them?

9/20/06__Anybody with any brains knows there is a lot of cheating in the horse racing industry. It's just too easy. And the probability of getting caught is next to nothing. It's quite possibly the only remaining gambling game where you can rob the public blind and not have to worry about going to jail. Can you really blame the trainers and jockeys? All you have to do is run a horse slow a few times, get the odds up, and then let the horse run fast to make your money - tax free - at the gambling window.

The Los Angeles Times actually carries the entries and the results of this gambling activity in the paper's sporting section. Some sport. By no definition does this gambling activity qualify as a sport. I tried to contact the sport's editor of the Times in order to have this matter intelligently explained. The newspaper - predictably - did not return the call. I did manage to find out that tracks pay a lot of money to the local papers to have their gambling game listed in the sporting section.

I thought the purpose of a newspaper was to keep the public posted on potentially fraudulent matters, you know, promote the best interest of the community at large.

If this isn't bad enough, how about using the American flag to convince the dwindling numbers of chronic players that the game is a noble undertaking. I thought this old trick was the exclusive domain of used car lots.

Imagine yourself in Las Vegas and you decide to pop into a gambling casino for a little action. But before you can gamble on blackjack you have to stand as the American flag is slowly raised - in conjunction with the playing of the national anthem.

It's dragging the American flag through the gutter like this that really pisses me off.

4/20/07__What does the game of craps, blackjack (21), Texas hold'em and horse racing in have in common? All four games - to name but a few that come to mind - require gambling in order to survive. Therefore, and in pursuit of age old art of proper indentifying matters at hand, they must be gambling games.

And here the whole time I've been telling my wife that I've only been wagering, you know, participating in a sport. But you gotta admit that it makes things a lot more palatable to use the words sport and wagering.

9/21/07___Are you guys at getting Down asleep? This is the tenth time I've written and still no response. Maybe you fell ill because of all of the outrageous junk horses at California gambling tracks. What a pile of shit. Never thought I'd see the day when the horses became so inferior.

And the cheating? You are totally right about the Mexican Mafia. These guys are easy to see coming. One of their favorites is to stiff a first-time starter by some 20 lengths, then, showing no improvement of any kind, bring the same horse back4-6 weeks later and deliver a whopping form reversal.

It seems like cheating has become standard mode of operation for many trainers today. Manufactured longshots are a common occurence.