Barry Irwin

spex4me · Postby **spex4me** » Sat May 21, 2011 2:27 pm

Okay I am scrambling to get ready to go to a Preakness Party, but I have to put it out there that Barry Irwin just impressed the hell out of me with his frankness. When he was interviewed I expected some major politcal type bs about his trainer comment, and he stepped up to the plate. He doesn't take it back, wants changes in the sport, and in breeding practices. I would love to expound on more but gee I am really super impressed right now. Kind of reminds me of a fashion challenged Jess Jackson. :wink:

Oh and Motion deserves his own thread for no drug violations and super humble way but I have cosmetic corrections to do.... on me not my horse!
Have a great race everyone!

Bill from WA · Postby **Bill from WA** » Sat May 21, 2011 3:53 pm

Barry Irwin is a great guy, and Graham Motion is cut from the same piece of cloth (only a little more soft spoken). Both of these guys are great for the sport.

Bill

joanied · Postby **joanied** » Sat May 21, 2011 4:39 pm

Bill from WA wrote:Barry Irwin is a great guy, and Graham Motion is cut from the same piece of cloth (only a little more soft spoken). Both of these guys are great for the sport.

Bill

I agree 110%...one reason it's such a damned shame AK didn't win today...I thought the interview he gave was great... I hope they win the Belmont.
I hope that legislation gos through that he spoke about, and getting the FBI in on things...sounds pretty good to me! It's a shame this is what it's come to...but it is time for these changes to take place...3 strikes and you are out...perfect!!

wilf · Postby **wilf** » Sat May 21, 2011 9:02 pm

Spex ..............cosmetic corrections?? Animal is a stone cold runner ,the ground that he made up would have won most Preakness races,too bad. The Triple Crown is what it is, a test for the horse that overcomes everything or is simply just a phenomenom, Slew,Affirmed, Big Red, it's no secret.

Shammy Davis · Postby **Shammy Davis** » Sun May 22, 2011 1:58 pm

I enjoy Barry Irwin. When he suggested that the FBI start enforcing laws on the backstretch, he definitely got my attention.

Bast · Postby **Bast** » Sun May 22, 2011 2:50 pm

Shammy Davis wrote:I enjoy Barry Irwin. When he suggested that the FBI start enforcing laws on the backstretch, he definitely got my attention.

Mine, too.

"Famous But Incompetent".

These are not the guys I want policing racing. :roll:

Toccet02 · Postby **Toccet02** » Mon May 23, 2011 6:00 am

And let me throw my 2 cents in and say I have no problem whatsoever with him making his "trainers lie" comment right after the Derby.
As long as it's true, he can say it. If it rattles trainers who lied to him, so what. People need to be reminded that they reap what they sow. As for when he said it...well, the world was watching! So the world saw the truth. And the truth hurts.
The good guys have nothing to fear and the cheats got a smackdown. Sounds OK to me.

Sysonby · Postby **Sysonby** » Mon May 23, 2011 6:31 am

Toccet02 wrote:And let me throw my 2 cents in and say I have no problem whatsoever with him making his "trainers lie" comment right after the Derby.
As long as it's true, he can say it. If it rattles trainers who lied to him, so what. People need to be reminded that they reap what they sow. As for when he said it...well, the world was watching! So the world saw the truth. And the truth hurts.
The good guys have nothing to fear and the cheats got a smackdown. Sounds OK to me.

.

But he wasn't talking about cheating. He clarified that in his Preakness interview. He was talking about people not wanting to give him bad news about horses and how they are doing from day to day and how much talent they have. Of course that conversation can go both ways when Barry talks to his investors. There's more to that remark than "They lied to me!"

Toccet02 · Postby **Toccet02** » Mon May 23, 2011 6:58 am

I took that speech about lies of omission to be backtracking a bit.
I'm sure in some cases that's all it amounted to. But from his body language post derby I'd say he was outright lied to before.

madelyn · Postby **madelyn** » Mon May 23, 2011 8:08 am

Actually, when I heard Barry Irwin's comment about trainers lying to him, I said "Hear, Hear!" I have experienced first hand trainers not wanting to tell you if your horse got hurt, or just isn't fast enough to spend the $$ on.

Rather than focusing on the dishonesty factor of lies by omission, I wonder if it stems from some guilty feelings if the horse was hurt, or from a feeling of failure if they can't get the horse to run fast enough?

Sysonby · Postby **Sysonby** » Mon May 23, 2011 8:16 am

Or it could just be a human failing of not wanting to give bad news --- which BTW certain owners can be complicit in because they don't want to hear bad news and they make that plain.

spex4me · Postby **spex4me** » Mon May 23, 2011 1:28 pm

There is that wonderful line from 'A Few Good Men' .... You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!

Well if you can't handle the truth then horse racing is not what you need to be involved in. And as an aside the truth and honesty lingers far from most tracks in my personal experience. I mean when people have to hire security to guard a horse because of others ill intentions and greed it makes me a little nauseated.

I actually found a website that has the transcript from the Costas interview with Irwin that I saw:

http://www.equidaily.com/bestbet/news/2011/0523.html

While I definitely think the drug use needs to be investigated it's not an FBI area, at least not to me. DEA or the USDA needs to be the one to carry out those investigations. Can racing have it's own investigators, yes, but I believe an outside agency has less chance of being corrupted. Not saying it can't be done, but it will lessen the chance.

I am also a tad shocked that no one is attacking Irwin on the breeder comment reference to some making cosmetic corrections to horses to sell. Hence why I used cosmetic correction in my prior post, but alas I need it more than any horse I have seen ! ;+)

I hope that Mr. Irwin is the type of person he portrays down to the bone, as that would truly be a refreshing change of course. I know from first hand experience how hard it is to stick to your convictions in this sport. I sadly started to slide in some aspects especially when all you keep hearing is how the way things are done is the way things are done, and how one person can't do anything to change it. You feel isolated like you are the only one out there and trying to buck the system is fruitless. But there are OTHER ones fighting the same thing you are. You forget that a lot of ones begin to add up, just ask any exotic dancer! :twisted:

Bast · Postby **Bast** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:52 pm

The Federal government is not exactly a paragon of incorruptibility.

Consider the current follies of the Department of Justice giving guys with billy clubs a pass on voter intimidation, or the way in which confidential papers were walked out of archives in somebody's socks.

The key is in the laboratory work. If the laboratories are ethical, and the chain of custody of samples is secure, the system can work. Possibly the thing to do is to post analysis results ONLINE with coded IDs, and only later to post the keys to those IDs.

Government labs VARY in quality. I saw things in the EPA that made me drop my jaw.

You really, really do not want the Feds in charge of this.

reenci · Postby **reenci** » Mon May 23, 2011 4:08 pm

the last thing racing needs is the FBI involved...good grief government does not do anything right for crying out loud...but i agree 110% something needs to be done...its still the majority of the time "who has the best chemist"...so maybe im wrong and the FBI or DEA is needed...but track record shows they always screw things up.

spex4me · Postby **spex4me** » Tue May 24, 2011 11:11 am

The FBI should not deal with this period. Now since we are talking about more than bute overages and branching out into the designer drugs side of things I find it perfectly acceptable for the Drug Enforcement Administration to step in. I guess it's 13 years of law enforcement that makes me want more than a lab saying ooopsie you have some real bad stuff on this test, results being turned over to a racing commission who is then just going to slap a fine/ and or weak suspension on top of someone who has already accumulated a list of violations that should have been deemed unacceptable a long time ago.

I get a kick out of perusing competition weight lifting/body building web sites and reading how much they love clen, epo, lasix, name any equine steroid and a ton of other horse meds for achieving the imo grossed out max massive bulging muscle look. Do I care they treat their bodies like a lab rat trail clinic, nope , but do I care if some vet/owner/trainer is doing that to a horse? Most definitely yes.