Life at Ten

[Linny]

I see more passing of the buck than anyplace but Washington. Pletcher knew clearly that the horse wasn't right when she was in the paddock. He still chose to pass her along to Johnny. Johnny's works for TAP who works for the owner and thus is low on the employment food chain. He doesn't want to "out" TAP so instead he tells Jery Bailey that the mare is not right.
ESPN producer, hearing the conversation alerts the stewards but honestly, what "standing" has she to call for an inquiry? Now, by speaking to Jerry (and the millions of viewers) JV feels he has "alerted" the world of a problem, he too has passed the buck.

Now the owner jumps into the fray. She's miffed, wants her $60k starting fee back, but she jumps in at the level of the stewards. I would presume (and here I don't know for certain) that she was in the paddock before the Distaff and observing the mare and aware of Todd's concerns. Funny, she wasn't so worried about her $60k when she thought the mare might "warm up" out of her funk and win her share of $2 million! She feels the stewards committed malpractice (as do I) but places no blame on her trainer who was aware that LAT was not right. When it comes to meds, the trainer is the "ultimate insurer." What about unhealthy horses? Who is responsible for them?

Clearly the stewards dropped the buck once it was passed to them (by Amy Zimmerman of ESPN!) and they took no action. They clearly feel that getting caught in their inaction was a bigger problem than their inaction.