Bet:
So you are saying that you weren't implying they were cheating, but maybe
implying that they were relators/whistleblowers aka "Rats"?
I think the only coincidence is that the two trainers announced their
retirement at about the same time. Gary Contessa's wife is sick. Gary has been
a perennial 10% winning trainer for decades now. He's profited from some sales
of horses where he has acted as agent. Reading the article about his
retirement, it also seems as if he would welcome the opportunity to work on the
"frontside", in a racing office, and I am sure as always, there are plenty of
openings in the Stronach Organization. I do not know if Gary Contessa would
voluntarily come forward as a whistleblower. If anything, if he knew that some
dominoes were about to fall, Gary might have hung on to his license a bit
longer, thinking that he might be able to pick up some owners whose trainers
are headed for the penitentiary.
As to KMac, I first met him in 1983 when we were both grooming horses for Del
Carroll III at Churchill Downs. We actually lived in the same "Manufactured
Housing Complex" (aka "trailer park") near Standiford Airport. Not sure that
anyone has had the success as both a trainer and jock's agent (Chris Antley)
that Kiaran has. KMac is a Lexington kid who grew up loving the sport, but can
not be certain that he would come forward with information. I'm thinking one of
the compounders/distributors or the mother/daughter smuggling/sales team
supplied the information that lead to the "big fish" (Servis/Navarro) getting caught in the net.
To me, most heinous is the fact that Servis/Navarro felt secure enough in their
teflon coating that they openly talked about PEDs on the phone. I guess they
never watched "Goodfellas"?
Servis/Navarro won plenty of races. Predicting that soon there will be
civil/criminal actions to "claw back" purse monies won by runners trained by
"Servarro" (if this endeavor is not undertaken by stewards at various tracks,
based on the aforementioned (prior post) retroactive testing of frozen
samples), and there will of course be the inevitable class action by
horseplayers who can document losses in races which were, for lack of a better
word, "rigged".
