Management of The Big M and its drivers met Friday to discuss amending the new rules. Trainer Ron Burke and track owner Jeff Gural said both sides are happy with the compromises made that averted a possible strike by the horsepeople.

by Debbie Little

A meeting was held Friday (April 7) at The Meadowlands following morning qualifiers to discuss the enforcement and punishment of specific rules being overseen by judge Lou Haskell.

As reported in this column two weeks ago, Haskell was hired by The Meadowlands’ president/chief executive officer Jeff Gural to enforce four specific rules and dispense strict punishment in a fair and impartial manner.

According to The Meadowlands’ leading trainer Ron Burke, the horsepeople talked amongst themselves a week ago — the day Haskell started — but Burke was not in favor of a pre-emptive strike.

“We had already talked before the races last week, a bunch of us,” Burke said. “Should we do it — even before they were racing — and say, ‘No we’re just not going out.’ And I said, ‘Yannick [Gingras], it’s hard to draw a line in the sand when they haven’t showed you where the line is.’ My thought was go out there, race and then when you see it, we’ll know. If they’re making the correct calls or calls that we can all live with, then you let it go, but when a kid wins a race — and he’s not one of the big kids — and gets called in, no shot.

“As a trainer, if my guy won the race and you’re calling him in, you’re basically telling him to drive [my horse] differently next week and then I lose, no, no, no. If you sit in and you finished fifth locked in, fine. But if you sit in and you get up and win, uh uh, that’s your get out of jail free card. Winning is the number one goal here. End of story. We are a gambling industry. People are betting on you to win. If you won, you did your job.”

Although Haskell’s rulings were not made public yet, the “kid” Buke is referring to, allegedly won a race last weekend yet was still given a warning for a move he made in that race.

“If you won the race, obviously, what you did was the right thing,” Burke said. “You’re not out there to make the racing better, you’re out there to win. That’s your number one thing, win. Will people bet a product when drivers are making moves that are non-winning moves?”

Burke went on to say that he supports Gural regarding “courtesy tucks.”

“I get where Jeff is coming from as far as that,” Burke said. “I’m the one guy that will say that I can’t stand the giving holes and stuff. If it’s a 30-1 guy dropping in a 10-1 guy and neither of them pull, I’ve got no problem [with penalizing them]. We all know it when we see it. But if you drop a person in and you don’t pull until the half and you end up second over and that’s going to get you? No, no. That’s a winning move. I’m not comfortable with [penalizing] that.

“I’m putting the best horse in front of me and when he moves, I’m going to move with him. Or, I’m going to try and get him to move and then he’s going to put me right into the race. I had a problem when horses were asked to give up winning moves.”

Had it come to a strike — unlike other professional sports where strikes have not resulted in the players getting everything they wanted and largely resulted in alienating fans — Burke thinks it could have worked in the favor of The Meadowlands drivers because they are The Meadowlands drivers.

“I always say if the first 10 idiots quit, we’ll get 10 more idiots to drive, but the truth is one thing we all love about The Meadowlands is if you get a bad driver there now, it’s because you wanted one,” Burke said. “Because there are plenty available to pick a good one. You can go 10 guys deep easily where you have total confidence. It’s the only track where if you got a bad driver, it’s because you wanted a bad driver.”

It’s rare when both sides can leave the bargaining table happy, but that is what sources say happened.

“We agreed to use a monetary fining system rather than expulsion and agreed to monitor the use of strategic holes to see if that could work,” Gural said. “Leaning back at a 45-degree angle is permitted but not horizontal and drivers agreed to reduce the half-in, half-out strategy. I consider it a work in progress, but we all have the same goal of putting out a better product. Hopefully, this will work.”

Ultimately, Burke didn’t think it would ever come to a strike, because, as he’s always said, Gural will listen to what you have to say.

“I’m pro Jeff,” Burke said. “I’m not against Jeff. Do I agree with him on everything? No. And I think Yannick is the same way. Jeff is reasonable when you talk to him… Jeff is not an unreasonable person and neither is Yannick and most of the drivers. Sometimes, I think Jeff gets ahead of himself, or maybe loses his way, but he probably thinks the same about us, too. But it’s been a good partnership. It’s the one place where I always feel like it’s a professional game there.

“You can’t tell guys they can’t make moves that they think are winning moves. True gamblers know what they’re watching. It’s a very intricate dance, basically. They agreed on money fines, which $250 probably doesn’t hurt them that bad, but don’t tell me $500 or $1,000 won’t change behavior. It’ll change behavior. I’ve always said we never needed all these new rules. We had the right rules, we just needed to enforce them. Ten years ago, I said, ‘We all know it when we see it. Don’t kid us, we know it when we see it.’”