Paulick blocks comments of anyone disputing position of his advertisers

[Ray Paulick]

Jon Cohen,

First, thank you for spelling my name right and for mentioning http://www.paulickreport.com. It's much appreciated.

Second, the Paulick Report welcomes all points of view, provided the writers remain civil (and that admittedly is a tough word to define). If we blocked comments by people criticizing advertisers, as you insist we do, why would we have permitted you to post upwards of 50 public comments, many of them repetitive insults at people, some of whom are advertisers and some of whom are not?

Take a look at a story on today's home page, written by former assistant trainer and current bloodstock agent Lincoln Collins ( http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ra...d-s-integrity/) , opposing the use of race-day medication. There are people commenting who are very critical of his position. Tonight, we will be posting a counterpoint to Mr. Collins, written by trainer Dale Romans, an advocate of race-day medication (primarily Lasix).

Third, we have more than 40 advertisers, and I can say with confidence that I don't know what position the vast majority of those people/businesses have on issues. If it's like anything else in this industry, it's 1000-1 they all take the same position on whether the sun rises in the east.

I'm afraid your final comment was akin to dancing on the grave of a dead horse to further your position. I found it to be uncivil, in poor taste, and, as someone in this thread stated, it's Paulick's site. I made a deisicion to block you, not because of your point of view, but because of the way you state it.

[Jon Cohen]

Originally Posted by Ray Paulick

I'm afraid your final comment was akin to dancing on the grave of a dead horse to further your position. I found it to be uncivil, in poor taste, and, as someone in this thread stated, it's Paulick's site. I made a deisicion to block you, not because of your point of view, but because of the way you state it.

The "final comment"..............

"Another high profile horse in a high profile race in Europe breaks down. It must've been all the raceday medication and lasix. Oh wait, they don't use raceday medication and lasix there, Now who will people blame for this ?"


This was not "dancing on the grave of a dead horse" nor was it uncivil or in poor taste. It merely rebutted the ridiculous conclusion that some of your most prolific posters state, and restate ad nauseum; that raceday medication is the cause of breakdowns.

I was not impressed in the least with what Lincoln Collins had to say, and I look forward to reading Dale Romans' perspective on this subject.

[Calzone Lord]

In the good old days of horse racing in America... the major racetracks would bar the entry of horses who bled:

The rules would look like this:




Going one step further -- they could also suspend horses who have "raced inconsistently" for no other reason at all.


This is when the racing associations actually had power.

The idea was to protect the bettor and the image of the sport.

Politicians never got involved with anything. It was simply a matter of the individual racing associations doing what they felt was in the best interest of the bettors and the overall image of the sport.

This topic hasn't helped the image of the sport (NY Times coverage) and no one with even a morsel of power in this industry ever asks or cares to ask 'what is in the best interest of the bettor?'

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

In the good old days of horse racing in America... the major racetracks would bar the entry of horses who bled:

The rules would look like this:




Going one step further -- they could also suspend horses who have "raced inconsistently" for no other reason at all.


This is when the racing associations actually had power.

The idea was to protect the bettor and the image of the sport.

Politicians never got involved with anything. It was simply a matter of the individual racing associations doing what they felt was in the best interest of the bettors and the overall image of the sport.

This topic hasn't helped the image of the sport (NY Times coverage) and no one with even a morsel of power in this industry ever asks or cares to ask 'what is in the best interest of the bettor?'

This was still pretty much the case up until the 80's when people started taking to the courts to dispute stewards rulings and other matters. Politicians didnt bother much with racing because there wasn't much money at stake for them and when they did have anything to do with the track it was getting some free publicity handing out the Preakness trophy or something like that.

Your last sentence is completely correct and what the naysayers on Paulick and the high profile people who continue to harp on lasix and use that topic to drag the sport down dont seem to understand is that the negative image that they are portraying wont change if and when lasix is banned. As I have said so many times before for the vast majority of people it wont mean anything but an L missing in the program. There is no bump in handle or horse ownership coming from a raceday lasix ban and not a single person who disagrees with this has provided a single shred of evidence that supports their position. The irony of Lincoln Collins giving his position is that his entire message is more or less using a ban on lasix to try to protect the international status of American BRED horses so that the sales market can continue to be propped up with foreign money. That the bloodstock market and the advisors in Lexington, KY have more or less ruined the "sport" at the top of the game by selling so many of our top pedigrees to foreign interests, prematurely retiring our best horses, railed against handicap racing to the point where our formerly most important races are a shell of themselves, advising clients to send horses only to supertrainers in hopes to curry favor from them when selling horses to their clients, etc. The ultimate irony is that they have used the lasix argument to curry pretty horse PR, rally PETA types against us, encourage Joe Drape and company to continue to lob potshots at us, prodded politicians to threaten us and the real goal of the cause is to protect the very thing that has probably hurt the racing game as much as anything at least in the publics eyes, the breeding/broodmare/yearling sales market.

[freddymo]

I can see My Miss Storm Cat crying with such a post Mr Cohen. Yu really are a killer.

Seems like Ole Ray was pissed that you were jerking his advertisers and hence canned you I suggest you cut him a check and all will be ok.