NBC faces an unusual dynamic in covering the Belmont Stakes this week: A run for the Triple Crown with a trainer who some think is tainted.
The hoopla over I’ll Have Another’s bid for history comes with the large shadow of trainer Doug O’Neill facing a 45-day suspension in California for giving horses illegal performance enhancers.
Everyone will be watching to see how NBC handles these conflicting stories. We got a preview Monday when Bob Costas had an exclusive interview with O’Neill on Costas Tonight.
The first part of the interview focused on I’ll Have Another and O’Neill’s view of the race Saturday. Then after a break, Costas dealt with O’Neill about the controversy.
As expected, Costas asked some tough questions, which O’Neill handled. As the week goes along, the saga should evolve further with O’Neill facing tough scrutiny from the national media at Belmont. There could be a different story Saturday.
Here are some of the excerpts of the Costas interview:
Costas: We mentioned he was to have been with us in studio but today is the day that they’re inspecting the so-called “detention barn” and by the middle of the week, all the horses – not just I’ll Have Another – but all the horses competing in the Belmont will all be stabled together and the feed and all the medications will be closely monitored, the trainers, the vets who tend to the horses will all be closely watched. Now some say this is just about you, I think a fair appraisal though is that the racing industry, knowing what a Triple Crown can mean, wants to assure the public that all of this is on the up and up. True?
O’Neill: I agree, Bob. As much as it’s uncomfortable for a lot of horses to switch settings and have split staff and all that stuff, I think it’s a good move. It’s truly all about the horse and I think by doing what we’re doing, it’ll just show how brilliant these horses are cared for and there won’t be any rumors or speculations after the race.
Costas: Before we talk about specific allegations and violations from the past, let’s get this on the record. Speaking now only of I’ll Have Another, is he 100 percent clean, never been tampered with, never had elevated TCO2 levels artificially raised, never been given any improper medications or performance enhancers at any time?
O’Neill: Yes, Bob, I’ll Have Another is a pure horse. He’s clean. Every race he’s run in, he’s gone through physical examinations and blood work and he’s never been tampered with, never had any medications given to him by me or no one that I’ve ever requested to give him anything. So he’s clean and he’s been through every drug test and physical exam known to man and he’s just a natural champ.
Costas: Ok, you say that you run a clean operation, you’re an affable guy with an interesting life story and people want to like you and want to latch onto the story but these are at least part of the facts: You’ve had three warnings and four violations that you’ve been cited for – at least that many over the years and they have been, generally speaking, for elevated TCO2 levels. What’s the reason for that? If you haven’t done something that you shouldn’t have done, how did that occur?
O’Neill: Well through our vigorous contesting of these allegations, we’ve learned that there are numerous issues that can raise a horse’s TCO2 levels be it the weather that day, be it the gender of the horse, be it the sweat, if the horse sweats too much. It’s not a drug and that’s something that gets tossed around a lot in the media that high TCO2 is that a horse has a drug in it but it’s all a natural reading that every horse has. California put in a rule four or five years ago that if a horse had a high TCO2 he’s was deemed to have been milkshaked and then some of the other parts of the country followed suit and just through running a lot of horses, we’ve kind of fallen into a couple pickles but we run a clean barn and through all this extra examination we’ve been able to show how much we love the horses, what a great staff we have, what a great owner we have of I’ll Have Another; and though it’s been uncomfortable and difficult at times, it’s been kind of nice to show people backstage and be transparent and show people how well all of our horses are cared for.
Costas: The process of milkshaking as I understand it is a combination of bicarbonate of soda, sugar, and electrolytes that reduces the buildup of lactic acid in a horse which can lead to fatigue. Now some people who are very close to the horse racing industry and understand it much better than I do, have told me that there is a suspicion that you and the people you work with have developed a process by which you can raise the TCO2 levels of a horse without resorting to milkshaking. And that a lot of your horses have been taken right up to the legal limit and only a few have tripped the test but many of them are right on the border line. In fact, on one occasion in Del Mar when you were cited for having a horse over the level, the next two highest readings that day of all the horses that ran in all the races that day in Del Mar were also Doug O’Neill horses. So the top three all belonged to you and according to one member of the California Racing Board, the odds against that were astronomical unless something nefarious was going on.
O’Neill: Yeah, Bob, you’re right. It definitely needs to be addressed and one of the things we found out and we weren’t told is that Lasix can affect a horse’s TCO2 levels and prior to finding that out, we had all the horses at the highest level of permitted Lasix and we found out that this is a serious issue. We’re playing with fire by doing that. We have scaled back on the use of Lasix pre-race.
Costas: Last thing, we can’t possibly get into all the ills of horse racing but there are medications that are legal here in the United States that are banned in much of the rest of the world. The fatality rates are much lower in Europe – a lot of this has to do with how they regulate medications and some of it has to do with racing on more forgiving surfaces. There are a lot of things that could be done to reform the racing industry. In fact, the Belmont is run in a state where the governor, Andrew Cuomo, has basically disbanded the governing body and appointed his own panel to oversee it because there’s been too much going on that’s troubling including a disproportionate number of deaths of race horses at Aqueduct and other tracks. If in fact, you win the Belmont on Saturday and you’re the reigning Triple Crown trainer, you’ll be in a unique position to advocate for reform of the sport, would you do it?
O’Neill: I would love to. I would love to be part of that. It’s such a great sport and I think we’re such in dire need of having a commissioner to kind of nationalize and to get all the medications uniform so everyone knows what the therapeutic medications you can use and when to stop. I’d love to have pre-race testing. I mean every time these horses walk in a paddock, every vet or every owner, every jockey knows that all these horses have passed a strict pre-race test so any way I can help a sport that I absolutely love, I’m in. You know one thing too, Bob, I forgot to mention that people talk about all my drug violations and I never had an illegal medication violation. My violations have been therapeutic medications that have been in excess; and that doesn’t make them right but I’ve never had an illegal drug found in any of my horses and that’s something that I’d like to make clear.
Costas: Fair enough and in summation here, you would like to see a national commission and, in effect, a commissioner like other sports have, with uniform rules and regulations instead of a hodge podge from state to state.
O’Neill: Correct. And pre-race testing.