Carl Draper:

Magic in the Mix

By PETE HERRERA

&= nbsp; SureBet Racing News (February 1, 2009)= -= - A cheap claimer suddenly sta= rts running and winning in allowance and stakes company.

&= nbsp; A Quarter Horse with a history of gate problems no longer needs a flipping halter and is a picture of poise as he moves into h= is post position.

&= nbsp; In the dead of winter a horse needs to be sponged off in the paddock before a race.

Those, say veteran Quarter Horse trainers Carl Draper and Michael Joiner, are some of the red flags that some horses are running at New Mexico tracks under the influence of performance enhancing drugs.

And those trainers, says Draper, are getting away with it.

Draper, the two-time winner of the All American Futurity this decade, delivered some stunning and troubling allegations dur= ing an open forum held by the State Racing Commission late last month at Sunland Park.

Joiner, with a long resume of success with his stables in New Mexico and California, echoed Draper’s comments in an interview with SureBet.

Draper and Joiner gave voice to the concerns of a growing number of trainers and owners. They suspect that a small, but apparently fearless, number of trainers are givi= ng their horses some type of mixture or mixtures that give their horses a deci= ded edge in a race.

No one knows, or is willing to say, what those mixtures might contain. But Draper says they are potent.<= /p>

“It’s magic,” Draper told the commissioners. “Here’s what the medication they’re runnin= g on does to a horse. It kills the pain. Kills the fear, kills the nervousness a= nd kills exhaustion. He runs like Go Man Go with no mistakes.”

&= nbsp; Draper said it’s up to the Racing Commission to find out what’s being = used and punish the trainers involved.

&= nbsp; “Either that or just open it up, cause we do know how to medicate a horse,” he told the commission. “If that’s what we’ve got to do to c= atch up with what’s being used against us, we need to do that or retire. Q= uit, empty our barn and go home. It’s either got to be fixed or a lot of t= rainers are going to be quitting.”

Draper called the situation “the most seri= ous thing I’ve seen happen in 31 years of racing in New Mexico.”

&= nbsp; Draper said backside talk about the use of illegal chemicals by some trainers, mos= tly with Quarter Horses, has been running rampant for a couple of years.

&= nbsp; Draper, who unquestionably has one of the best stables in the state year after year, said he’s losing thousands of dollars every month because his horses can’t outrun the hopped-up horses.

&= nbsp; “There’s substances being used that take $5,000 (claiming) horses and moves them up = and they win for allowance,” he said. “We run seconds and thirds wi= th pretty nice horses and that don’t pay the bills. You have to win.R= 21;

&= nbsp; Draper didn’t single out any trainers by name, but he said it’s well k= nown around the tracks who’s involved. That knowledge, he said, is reflected in what happens at the betting windows.

&= nbsp; “All of us at the track know who all is running on it,” Draper said. ̶= 0;We know exactly how to bet every trifecta and superfecta. The betting public don’t, but we do.”

&= nbsp; Draper drew laughter and applause from the large crowd of horsemen, trainers and owners who attended the open forum when he offered the commissioners help i= n financing their investigation. “If you need money, I’ll loan you some.= 221;

&= nbsp; Racing Commission Chairman Arnold Rael told Draper the commission is working diligently in its investigation of the allegations.

&= nbsp; “If we could get a vial of that medication, we’ll send it to the best lab= in the nation to see what’s in that vial,” Ra= el said.

&= nbsp; Commission Agency Director Julian Luna said the commission has in recent months sent o= ff for testing several samples of chemicals it has been able to obtain during = its investigation.

&= nbsp; “Quite frankly, some of the stuff we’ve gotten our hands on turned out to be nothing more than vitamins,” Luna said. “But the Racing Commiss= ion is taking it very seriously. Whether there is something there or not, just = the fact that there is that perception of abuse, we have to put a stop to it. We’re going to prove it to be true or prove that it’s not true.= ”

Joiner believes the number of trai= ners hopping up horses is small. &nb= sp; “There’s a few guys that are not playing by the r= ules and have been able to get some kind of medication that’s very performance-enhancing to their horses,” Joiner said.

&= nbsp; So what characteristics does a hopped horse exhibit? Joiner says they can be f= ound from the paddock to the post.

&= nbsp; “You see a lot of these horses in the paddock. It’s fairly cool here (Sunl= and) and those horses are getting sponged off in the paddock. Some of these hors= es that we feel are getting these … drugs were fractious and silly in the gates before. They had a history of being a bad gate horse. All of a sudden, the flipping halter comes off and they just walk in the gate and never make= a bobble. They just stare down the center.”

&= nbsp; Joiner said he too has seen too many lower-end claimers turn into allowance winners overnight.

&= nbsp; “You can look at the form. It does happen on occasion. A horse is seven or eight years old and he’s been running for a cheap price. Every once in a wh= ile a different trainer will claim him and his performance will improve. It can= be a natural process, but when you see several horses go from $6,250 and winni= ng stakes races and making a couple of hundred thousand dollars within a year’s time, that’s a little suspect.”<= /p>

&= nbsp; The biggest purses in Quarter Horse racing are in the futurities and derbys. Joiner said he doesn’t think the cheating trainers have infiltrated that segment of = the industry.

&= nbsp; “Whatever is being used has not reached that area yet, but it can,” he said. “If it does, then you’re talking about serious money. Of course= the purses we’re running for now is pretty serious money. Especially here at Sunland and at Zia Park. There’s a lot of allowance races here that would be stakes races at other places.”

&= nbsp; Magic mixtures wasn’t the only issue of concern = with the horsemen.

&= nbsp; The common practice of letting a suspended trainer transfer his horses to anoth= er trainer – often a family member – is another area where horsemen want to see action.

&= nbsp; “When are you guys going to put a stop to it?” trainer Mariana Harper asked= the Commissioners. “A trainer gets a bad test and they just move the pape= rs to another trainer that you’ve never heard of. When are you going to = hold a horse accountable to a certain trainer, instead of having the horse jump = from trainer to trainer, to trainer in one meet.̶= 1;

&= nbsp; Commissioner Eddie Fowler said it’s a nationwide problem and racing commissions ar= e at a loss on how to deal with it. Fowler said the horse’s owner should h= ave a greater say in what happens to his horse after a positive test.

“That owner is the one who should say wher= e that horse goes, not the trainer,” Fowler said.

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