Alysheba Drug Tests Are Negative; Van Berg Negative on Whole Affair

The post-race tests given to Alysheba showed Tuesday that the colt raced with no medication in his system in last Saturday’s $1.1-million Travers Stakes at Saratoga, but that finding didn’t make trainer Jack Van Berg a happy man.

Van Berg criticized New York racing officials, contending that they had overreacted to a pre-race rumor that Alysheba might be drugged.

The son of Alydar, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and a distant fourth in the Belmont, was then second in the Haskell Invitational and sixth as the favorite on a sloppy track in the Travers. Alysheba was under heavy guard by track security men all day Saturday, was tested twice before the race--once more than is required--and was also given blood and urine tests after the race.

“That was a drastic thing that they did to this horse,” Van Berg said Tuesday from Del Mar, where he has a division of horses. “Whoever heard of hearing about a bank robbery and then putting 100 guards outside the bank where everybody can see them? What you do is wait until the bank is robbed and then move in.

“I didn’t win 5,000 races by hopping horses, and I’ve run horses in states where the testing is a lot tougher than it is in New York. I had people come up to me Saturday and ask me if I was hopping horses. My reputation suffered.”

The first four finishers in the Travers--Java Gold, Cryptoclearance, Polish Navy and Gulch--also tested negative. But their testing was routine. They were not linked to the Alysheba rumors that started with the New Jersey state police at Monmouth Park--where Alysheba was stabled for the Haskell--and Van Berg’s colt was the only Travers starter tested twice before the race.

Asked about the investigation, which apparently is over, Pete Lang, a security official at Monmouth Park, declined to comment.

Said Manny Gilman, the steward for the Jockey Club at Saratoga: “I think we did a good job of protecting the (betting) public. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, but the fire was put out.”

Van Berg learned from a reporter that Alysheba had tested negative.

“You didn’t have to tell me that,” he said. “I knew that the horse wasn’t given anything. I think that somebody who was jealous of this horse started those rumors. But we had nothing to hide.”

By his remarks, Van Berg implied that New York testing isn’t as thorough as it is in other states. New York prides itself in being the only major racing state that doesn’t allow horses to run with medication.

Van Berg said: “They race year-round in New York, but you can’t tell me that they’re any different than anyplace else. They’ve got to have horses that bleed, and sore horses.”

Van Berg said that Alysheba’s reputation has also been hurt by his earlier treatment with Lasix for a bleeding condition and the suggestion that he can’t win without medication. After winning the Derby and Preakness with Lasix, Alysheba ran without medication in the next three races--in the Belmont and the Travers because of New York rules, and in the Haskell because Van Berg didn’t believe he needed it.

“There are 9 million horses in the country running on Lasix, and yet everybody keeps writing about this horse,” Van Berg said. “He should just be given credit for what he’s done, which is plenty.

“Since he won the Derby and Preakness, he got knocked sideways in the stretch of the Belmont, and there should have been a stewards’ inquiry but there wasn’t.

“Then in the Haskell he gets beat by a neck and almost breaks a track record that’s been there for years. Then he runs in the Travers, which I think should be a throw-out race because of the track condition.

“The only reason we got beat in the Haskell was because of Craig Perret (who rode the victorious Bet Twice). I told him the other day that he should have got the jockey fees for all three horses, because he rode all three of ‘em.”

Perret kept Lost Code, who finished third, pinned to the rail, forcing Alysheba to leave the rail and swing to the outside, a move that cost Van Berg’s horse one or two lengths.

Alysheba will remain here with some of Van Berg’s other horses until it is determined where to run him next. Van Berg will discuss the options with Clarence Scharbauer Jr., one of the owners of the horse, later this week. The possibilities include the Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park Sept. 5 and the $1-million Super Derby at Louisiana Downs on Sept. 27.

The heel injury to Alysheba’s right back leg, suffered in the Travers, is not serious.

“This horse has been through a lot,” Van Berg said. “He had that real bad rash before the Haskell and I could have scratched him, but I didn’t. I could have scratched him because of the slop in the Travers, but I didn’t.”