There is a novel comparison that could be drawn to the tort of “loss of chance” in the failure to diagnose diseases. This is one of the primary concerns for both owners and tracks in the use of medicine or products that can transfer banned substances (or result in unacceptably high levels of the substance).Ĭourts are often faced with a reduction in the opportunity of survival or profits. However, it does not seem so unforeseeable in a heavily regulated and tested industry. While one can hardly predict a win either with the use of such drugs, this is not some attenuated chain of causation or a case where there are many intervening forces or agents.Ĭourts could clearly rule that this is unforeseeable as a consequence, particularly in the negligent use of a rub. It does not seem particularly remote for purposes of proximate or legal causation. If the alleged rub causation is proven, it is the but for cause for the loss of millions through disqualification.
Why isn’t any intentional or negligent act subject to lawsuit under tort? Both factual and legal causation could be claimed. Either way, the owner and managers of Medina Spirit cost a class of gamblers millions. This was either negligence or intentional cheating if the rub account is accurate. If you are a bookie, you clean up on the lost bets on the best horses and pay little on the dark horse. That horse is then disqualified after the race. You do not drug your horse but someone else’s horse which was not expected to win. Forward Pass was declared the winner.Īs a side note, this could be a novel way of rigging a windfall on betting. In 1968, Dancer’s Image won but phenylbutazone was found in a post-race urinalysis of Dancer’s Image. This is not the first such case at the Kentucky Derby. Once the race is called, it can be uncalled for the horse but not the gamblers. The reason is that the rules of Kentucky Horse Racing Commission control and those rules mandate that the bets and payments are final despite a later showing that it was a ripoff for gamblers. However, while the owner has to return the prize money, gamblers are told to take a ride around the track for their troubles. Many people lost a lot of money and a much smaller number won a windfall. So in the 147th Kentucky Derby people put down huge sums not just on the winning horse but horses to place and show. The question is there no one for an honest gambler to sue?Īs may come as a surprise to some, if you lose money on a rigged game or disqualified horse, you are not entitled to a refund. Conversely, those who collected on the longer shot Medina Spirit will be allowed to keep their winnings.
However, that means that thousands of betters were ripped off by betting on Mandaloun to win or betting on combinations of placement of the top horses. That is the anti-inflammatory drug found in the horse’s blood after the race that led to the disqualification and the declaration of Mandaloun as the new winner. Today counsel for Bob Baffert, the trainer of the 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, indicated today that the now disqualified horse may have been treated with an anti-fungal ointment called Otomax, which includes betamethasone.
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