Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasept
You want to admonish him and set up a set of ground rules he's required to follow going forward, fine. That's fair. But the way this is being gerrymandered isn't right and won't hold up legally. Even Allday, who has had a very public breakup and fight with Dutrow, said that you better apply the same standards to EVERYONE if you're going to go down this road.
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The "same standard" argument is really weak in this case. Even if you believe that there are several other top outfits that "push the envelope," aside from a guy like Asmussen, how many other trainers have a laundry list of infractions as long as Dutrow? In this regard alone, a harsher penalty may justifiably be imposed upon him.
You are also confusing the "rules" from the "penalties" here. The states already have set the ground rules that he's required to follow, and he's repeatedly shown that he's incapable (or unwilling) of following them. That racing has been lax on the penalties in the past doesn't mean that it is unfair to come to a point, even without providing notice of such intent, to impose harsher penalties. This argument essentially becomes: if I really knew that you were going to be tough on me, then I might have decided to follow the rules, but since I didn't fully appreciate what could be the consequences of my actions, it's unfair if you don't slap me on the wrist for the umpteenth time.
All that being said, from a purely legal perspective, NYSRWB may be making a mistake in joining the recent Fastus Cactus/syringe infractions with the broader eligibility issue at this time. If they waited until it was time for him to renew his license in August and simply declined to do so, he'd be hard-pressed to get such a determination overturned, given the very deferential "arbitrary and capricious" (agency decision would be upheld so long as there is a rational basis for denying the license, and with his history, such a denial would likely stick) standard of review that would apply to a legal challenge to that administrative determination.