THOROUGHBRED RACING : ‘Just Say No’ Doesn’t Do Job, so Horsemen Make Own Video

The message that comes from the videotape couldn’t be clearer.

“Superman can’t control cocaine,” says Gary Jones, now one of the leading trainers in the country but more than 10 years ago a horseman whose alcohol problem was exceeded only by his addiction to cocaine.

There are high-profile reminders of rehabilitation all over the backstretch--trainer Rodney Rash’s gold medal, symbolic of how long he has been sober; jockey Pat Valenzuela’s persistent battle to overcome cocaine addiction. But the California Horse Racing Board, aware that the sport has a problem that isn’t going away, has made a film and drafted a cross-section of the industry in a commando approach to drug and alcohol abuse.

The 15-minute video, entitled “Drugs and Alcohol: Racing’s Bad Bets,” was done in cooperation with the Winners Foundation, a backstretch support group. The film industry’s Howard W. Koch and John Forsythe, sometime horse owners who have been board members at Hollywood Park, also participated, with Koch directing and Forsythe narrating. English- and Spanish-language versions of the video are being offered to racing groups outside California.

A meeting of the Human Substance Abuse Program Committee is scheduled for July 30 at Del Mar, where a chairman is expected to be named.

Ralph Scurfield, chairman of the CHRB, said at the substance-abuse committee’s first meeting, in June, that he was willing to serve on the committee, but he declined the chairmanship, for fear that the committee’s identity would be misinterpreted as an arm of the racing board rather than an industry-wide group.

Scurfield has speculated that the rash of horses that tested positive for cocaine in California over the last several years might have been the result of inadvertent contamination.

“The trace amounts of cocaine that the labs were detecting in the horses’ urine samples were so small that it didn’t seem reasonable to believe that the cocaine was being intentionally administered,” Scurfield said. “This got me to thinking that it might really be more of a human than an equine drug problem.”

Besides Jones, others who discuss their dependence problems on the video are trainer Doug Peterson, who once had Seattle Slew; jockeys Pat Day and Joy Scott, blacksmith Buzz Fermin and other backstretch workers.

Day says that he got sober in 1984. Seven years later, he was voted into the Racing Hall of Fame.

“When I was doing drugs and alcohol, it gave me a superhuman feeling about myself,” Day said. “The success that I’ve had since ’84 bears testimony to the fact that I’ve done a whole lot better without drugs. In my opinion, to use is to abuse. You might think you’re in control, but you’re so far off that I don’t even know how to express it strong enough, the way that it creeps up on you and gets a hold of you.”

The racing board would like the video to be mandatory viewing at the time anyone applies for a track license.

“We’re going to ask all of the tracks if they could supply a room to do this,” Scurfield said. “We’re going to see if that’s workable.”

Harness drivers have been submitting to random tests for alcohol for years. In the paddock at Los Alamitos, they can be seen by the public as they breathe into a detector between races.

“In the private sector it’s different, but California laws prevent us from testing for drugs before a state employee is licensed,” Scurfield said. “The (track) stewards, of course, can call for a licensee to be tested if they feel there is probable cause. Our goal is to have random testing throughout the industry, but we’re going slowly. Officials of the Jockeys’ Guild, for instance, don’t want their members singled out for tests unless the entire industry is subjected to the same policy.

“Our program has three facets: education, the testing and then the rehabilitation, bringing people back to the game after they run into trouble. Besides looking out for people that work in the industry, racing has extra considerations. The whole cornerstone of our game is that it’s supposed to be fair. And it can’t be 100% fair if there are substance abusers participating. And it can’t be safe, for the jockeys, exercise riders and pony riders on the track, if there are substance abusers.”

Scurfield said he’s not aware of industry statistics that tell whether racing’s problem is greater than the general population’s.

“But it has been shown that there’s a relationship between spare time and alcohol and drug use,” Scurfield said. “And there’s a lot of spare time on the backstretch.”

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The two races in which Devil His Due has been beaten this year were run over 1 1/8 miles, and that’s the distance the eight-horse field will be running Saturday in the $500,000 Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park.

Of Devil His Due’s four victories this year, three have been in 1 1/4-mile races and the other at 1 3/16 miles. He’s still the 9-5 Iselin favorite over the 2-1 Bertrando, the speed-favoring colt who has been first or second in 10 of his 12 starts and was shipped to New Jersey after a second-place finish in the Hollywood Gold Cup.

Third on the morning line at 4-1 is Pistols And Roses, who has had a rest since running third, behind Devil His Due and Valley Crossing, in the Pimlico Special more than two months ago. Pistols And Roses, with 20 points, is four behind Devil His Due in the American Championship Racing Series bonus standings, with $550,000 going to the winner. Both horses have earned midseason bonuses, $150,000 going to Devil His Due and $100,000 to Pistols And Roses.

The championship series, which is being discontinued after this year, winds up with the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 21 and the Woodward at Belmont Park on Sept. 18.

There will be betting at Hollywood Park on the Iselin as well as the $150,000 Top Flight Handicap for fillies and mares at Belmont Park.

Scudan drew the rail for the Iselin. Outside him are Bertrando, Berkley Fitz, Valley Crossing, Devil His Due, Snappy Landing, Pistols And Roses and Stalwars. Devil His Due is the high weight, at 123 pounds, with Bertrando next at 119.

Horse Racing Notes

Hollywood Park’s season ends with four stakes--tonight’s $150,000 Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap for turf sprinters, Saturday’s $200,000 Swaps for 3-year-olds, Sunday’s $250,000 Sunset Handicap for distance grass horses and Monday’s $100,000 Hollywood Juvenile for 2-year-olds. . . . Because of the simulcast program on ESPN, the Swaps will be the second live race Saturday.

What effect Friday night racing had on the rest of the weekend’s business is arguable, but the cold figures show that Hollywood’s season wouldn’t have been as successful without the 12 night cards, the last of which is tonight. Counting off-track business, the Friday nights averaged just under 35,000 in attendance and about $7 million in handle. About 40% of those totals were on-track.

Beyton, who will try to beat favored Bien Bien on Sunday in the Sunset, will race with Lasix after bleeding while running second in the Jim Murray Handicap. Toulon, winner of the Murray, is also expected to run in the Sunset. . . . Earl Of Barking, a double stakes winner at Hollywood, runs Sunday in the $300,000 American Derby on grass at Arlington International. Also running is Kissin Kris, making his first start since finishing second to Colonial Affair in the Belmont Stakes.

Charlie Whittingham is expected to train the Mr. Prospector colt that John Gaines bought for $1.05 million at the Keeneland yearling sale this week. . . . Casual Lies’ comeback, which was to have brought the 1992 Kentucky Derby runner-up to Del Mar this summer, has been derailed because of a large abscess in the horse’s neck. . . . Super May, winless since 1991 and unraced for more than four months, was a three-quarter-length winner at Hollywood Thursday, shoving his earnings past the $800,000 mark. . . . Gary Stevens rode three winners.