Jerry Brown

It was back in 2004 that Brent Sumja made a career decision. He was among the leading trainers in Northern California, but wasn't following his true passion. That was playing the horses. So he disbanded his stable and set out to be a professional handicapper. It went well. He played the races regularly and also focused on the handicapping tournaments. In 2014, Sumja won five tournaments in a four-month span from May to September to clinch the title of 2013 Daily Racing Form NHC Tour Champion and the first prize...

There have been several stories recently in the TDN about Computer Assisted Wagering (CAW), and many of them have contained accurate and useful information. But what those articles have failed to do is convey what CAW really is and does, why it matters, and most of all, how dire and urgent the situation they have created is. Hence this letter. 1-First, the basics. Betting handle is the lifeblood of our industry. It directly funds purses, creates all the jobs in our business, and indirectly funds the commercial bloodstock industry—no (or...

A business partnership between performance-figure provider Thoro-Graph, Inc., and the New York Racing Association (NYRA) that had been billed as a "win-win-win" deal for the two parties and advance-deposit wagering (ADW) customers when it first launched in 2017 has gone sour, resulting in a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court. According to the civil complaint, Thoro-Graph is suing both NYRA and its NYRA Bets ADW platform over the alleged non-payment of at least $333,000 that Thoro-Graph believes is its rightful cut for incentivizing horseplayers to become NYRA Bets...

Thoro-Graph, which has been computing speed figures for 35 years, gave Flightline (Tapit) a negative 8 1/2 for his win in the GI TVG Pacific Classic, the fastest number it has ever assigned to a horse. The previous record was a negative 8, the figure Frosted (Tapit) ran when winning the 2016 GI Metropolitan H. Flightline was given a 126 Beyer figure. That is the second fastest Beyer number ever, trailing only the 128 that team gave to Ghostzapper (Awesome Again) when he won the GIII Philip H. Iselin H....

I read with interest the article about using speed figures to "flag" trainers who may be using performance enhancing drugs. Whereas it may be a useful tool to focus on which trainers to keep an eye on, we should not jump to conclusions too hastily : there are plenty of other reasons a trainer might frequently improve a horse he has received. He may have treated the horse for ulcers, any physical discomfort ranging from the cervicals to the sacro iliac, improved his shoeing, or just given him more work...

When it comes to figuring out which trainers are taking an illegal edge it usually comes down to guesswork and innuendo, hardly the best way to police the sport. That's why The Jockey Club put Jerry Brown of Thoro-Graph and consultants McKinsey & Company to work and asked them to formulate an algorithm that uses speed-figure data to identify trainers that may be using performance-enhancing drugs. The program, which was announced at the recent Jockey Club Round Table, is being made available to tracks through The Jockey Club's In Compass...

First off, let me say that I have been fighting against the use of performance enhancers in racing longer than anyone reading this. When The Jockey Club took up the fight in 2008 I was one of the people they talked to, for that very reason. So, I'm not very happy being told that if I oppose a misguided piece of legislation, I'm somehow pro-drug (link to Bill Finley's Mar. 17 Op Ed). I disagree with Victoria Keith's Op-Ed (link) on one point-- horseplayers, not owners, fund purses, which ultimately...

Editor's Note: Tuesday, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission will hold a hearing before the Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, regarding the proposed amended regulation which would partially ban the use of Lasix at Kentucky tracks. The proposed ban would include all 2-year-old horses racing in Kentucky this year and be extended to stakes races in 2021, and is being advanced by a national coalition of racetracks and other racing organizations that includes all of Kentucky's racetrack operators. On June 1, Franklin (Ky) Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate denied a motion...

When the horses in the fourth race at Del Mar Aug. 1 crossed the wire, the final time for the mile-and-a-sixteenth turf race was posted as 1:41.18. There was no reason to believe the race was mistimed and no announcements to that effect were made, but when the official chart was released by Equibase the time was listed as 1:40.80. It happened again in the next race on the card, a mile dirt race originally timed in 1:38.60, but changed to 1:38.53 in the official chart. It didn't stop there....