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Originally Posted by Dunbar
I don't buy this assumption that EVERY owner must have known. There's a bit of grab the pitchforks and storm the castle mentality going on.
If the owners HAD to know, did the tracks HAVE to know also? Should we suspend/shut down every track that allowed these guys to run their horses?
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I think you’re right. There are definitely owners who knew (Rockingham Ranch, for example). There are some who maybe should have known but never asked questions. And there are probably some who genuinely believed a guy like Servis was just that good.
Take the Wests. How long have they been in the business? 40 years? How much money do they have? I don’t think they’d be on board with what Servis was doing. Again...maybe they should have asked questions. But it’s hard for me to imagine that they intentionally sent a horse to Servis knowing the details of what he was doing. For successful, wealthy owners, I think Servis had a built in excuse and it resonated with owners. A lot of these people are used to people resenting their success and assuming they haven’t completely earned what they’ve got. Even if we assume they might have been aware of the rumors, they also may have been skeptical of them. Success breeds contempt and nobody knows that better than the super wealthy. Just a thought.