Anyone hear anything yet as to "what really happened" here?
I'm not going to get into the pissing match of who is a good trainer and who is not. I think stats, results, performance, qualified and educates opinions, etc. speak for itself -- when people actually know what they are looking at, talking about, etc. Sure, there are elements that distort stats and facts, and that happens. Not time and time again though. Some trainers overachieve and some underachieve.
As far as West Point pulling their horses from Violette -- I didn't hear anything about it until I read it here. I have no idea why this might have happened. Not that I should either as I have zero connections to either, and I don't just go asking around the backstretch either.
I did always find one thing extremely ironic -- and that was the Violette/Finley/NYTHA/Empire issue. The CliffNotes version -- Rick Violette is a long standing board member of the NYTHA, and as a trainer board member, a vocal one. In the past, and during the entire saga, most often you heard from Bomze, the "in house" counsel" Alan Foreman, or Bob Flynn (then executive director). After Richard Bomze steps downs, Violette takes over as the NYTHA President. At the same time, Terry Finley is also on the board of the NYTHA. However, while he's on the NYHTA board, he also joins FONY and/or Empire. He just didn't join a committee or get nominated to the board -- he becomes a shareholder -- and is then still part of the NYTHA board that decides and throws it's backing behind Empire. The soap opera plays out for a few seasons, and later, the NYTHA pulls its backing from Empire and begins to play ball with NYRA. This might have been an ingredient here, although most of the saga is over -- excluding the VLT's, LOL. The entire situation and how it played out had problems, so it's not just this aspect.
Notwithstanding the specific players, and I am not referring to anyone specific, I felt there were always potential conflicts of interest here. Whether it was incestuous relationships, conflicts, or what, it was just to hard not to have them. There were of course initially factions on the NYHTA Board -- which in reality should not be the case at all. That was compounded and made worse when the NYHTA Board decided to have the entire organization endorse and support Empire. This lead to more animosity and division.
I have no idea what went on here. Maybe we might soon read or hear about what happened. I also don't know about what happened with Cristiano either.
Eric
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