“Ganas…all we need is ganas.”
-Jaime Escalante, Stand and Deliver
Pretty simple words to say, but much harder to truly live by, and the racing industry is at the point now where it needs to truly not only say these words, but to live them.
(The Spanish word “ganas” translates in English to “desire.”)
If we look around rulings made by stewards and/or racing commissions, we often see cases that are overturned on appeal (either at the commission level of the public court level). Many times it can all be due to a technicality or a lack of proper work being done on the part of the investigators.
Sometimes rulings or decisions are made with no obvious basis in legal reasoning (as many have argued in the ongoing saga of the “Justify” positive case that is on its way to the courts). More baffling is when we see no proper investigative work being done at all. Look no further than the bizarre case out of Louisiana, where a groom was sanctioned for stealing a prohibited compounded medication from a trainers barn, yet the stewards never even decided to do a search of the trainer's barn to look for possible other illegal substances. No action was ever even taken against the trainer in the case.
(Read more about the Louisiana case here.)
We cannot blame defense attorneys for getting their clients' cases dismissed on these premises, for that is their job. You can, however, hold the investigators and stewards more accountable for not thoroughly investigating and prosecuting cases. Do the job right and the loopholes disappear. (Yes, I know this will not be true in every single case, but it will be for a vast majority of them.) No fan, new or old, will tolerate such incompetence at times when their gambling dollars are on the line.
I will admit I do not have all the answers to fix this problem, but routine requirements such as a mandatory level of training and continuing education are an easy basic start. Perhaps all those who are stewards, investigators, and commission members should be held to the “Kranz Dictum” that went out from NASA flight director Gene Kranz after the tragic Apollo 1 launchpad fire that killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee in 1967:
“From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: “Tough” and “Competent.” Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write “Tough and Competent” on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.”
Simply replace some of those space related terms with racing locations, and the names of the astronauts with the names of the horses and humans who have died because of lack of giving 100%, and the dictum more than fits for racing.
It should be mandatory that all stewards, investigators, and commission members to have “Tough” and “Competent” written in places where they can always see it, shouldn't it? It probably should be mandatory for all participants in the racing industry. All it takes to make this happen is “ganas.”
–Dr. Bryan Langlois, past president of the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association, board of directors of Animal Care PA and Thorofan
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