Bryan Langlois

As the legal saga that is HISA continues to be bantered around the courts horse racing fans have heard some common themes develop from those in support of and in opposition of the legislation and regulations. Those in opposition have raised many points they have repeated used as arguments for what is wrong with the entire idea and process. One of the themes that has been made as part of every opposition argument is that there is a better way to go about this, and a better set of uniform...

Over the past few months there have been stories about various State Racing Commissions doing or not doing things for the good of the sport. The Triple Crown season always brings more of a spotlight on the sport and, most times, how there is no progress being made. Quietly, however, one State Racing Commission has been making positive strides in improving the safety, welfare, and integrity of the sport and industry. That state is Pennsylvania. There perhaps has not been a more public vocal critic of the Racing Commission than...

In an amended accusation, the California Veterinary Medical Board has revised its original set of complaints leveled against California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) equine medical director, Jeff Blea. The additional information, however, mostly "fine-tunes" what was included in the original accusation against Blea and doesn't change the "big picture," said George Wallace, Blea's attorney. According to various leading veterinary medical experts, that big picture is one largely of lax record keeping. What the amended accusation does, however, is set the ball rolling on a rough time-table leading to a full...

During the most recent "Let's Talk" Podcast put on by the TDN, Eclipse Award winning trainer Brad Cox stated, "I think there's a lot of negativity around the game and if we want to draw new people in, we should probably try to kill it with the negativity, if we could, and promote the game." I completely agree with this sentiment, and I do think most racing publications do try to promote and showcase the good of the sport along with the bad. I know at ThoroFan we try to...

Given Jeff Blea's high-profile position as equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), news last week that the California Veterinary Medical Board had issued an interim suspension of his veterinary license set the latest alarm bells clanging across the industry. Certainly, the accusations leveled against Blea appear a damning indictment of his veterinary bona-fides. According to the veterinary board, Blea presents a "danger to public health, safety and welfare," due to his oversight of the investigation into the death of the Bob Baffert-trained Medina Spirit (Protonico), the...

I, like everyone else who has seen it, was utterly disgusted with not only the video depicting the actions of trainer Amber Cobb against one of the horses but also the almost complete ignorance of the Delaware Racing Commission in reducing her suspension for those actions. How this industry continues to manage to shoot itself in the foot repeatedly is just mind boggling to me. Actions that are as heinous as those displayed by Ms. Cobb require only one action, and that is immediate revocation of her license to train...

   Time for The Industry to "Stand and Deliver" When it Comes to Accountability, Transparency, and Most Importantly, the Horse "Ganas...all we need is Ganas." --Jaime Escalante Pretty simple words to say, but much harder to truly live by, and the racing industry is at the point now where it needs to truly not only say these words, but to live them. Jerry Brown, in a letter to the editor recently published in the Thoroughbred Daily News, stated his belief that horses running in stakes races were not running true...