Seamy Side of a Sport: Prodding Horses With Shocks

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By Joe Drape

It is called a buzzer, a battery or a machine: It is a device the size of a lighter that conducts electrical current and shocks a racehorse into running faster. It is prohibited at American racetracks but has long been a part of the sport's seamier lore.

Last week it was brought out of the shadows when the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed multiple complaints to state and federal authorities accusing a prominent thoroughbred trainer, Steve Asmussen, and his top assistant, Scott Blasi, of subjecting their horses to cruel and injurious treatments, including having one of their jockeys use a buzzer on their horses.

Asmussen, who ranks second in career victories (6,729) and has won $214.8 million in purses, and Blasi declined to comment through their lawyer, Clark Brewster.

Asmussen's name was removed from the Hall of Fame ballot on March 21, a day before he fired Blasi, his assistant of 18 years.

The animal rights group also named three of thoroughbred racing's biggest stars in the complaints and posted videotape of two of them — jockey Gary Stevens and the trainer D. Wayne Lukas — laughing and exchanging stories about their experiences with electrical devices earlier in their careers.

At that same dinner in Louisville in the week before the 2013 Kentucky Derby, Blasi discussed how Roman Chapa, another jockey the Asmussen barn has used frequently over the years, hid the buzzer in his mouth.

To authorities, it provided another clip — viewed by The New York Times — of two Asmussen employees speaking about how the Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel frequently employs a buzzer to work out horses and to condition them to run close to the rail, including the 2010 Kentucky Derby winner, Super Saver.

Jerry Hissam, the longtime agent for Borel, said the allegations were "ridiculous."

"It's absolutely untrue," Hissam said. "Why would a guy who's broken 43 bones in his body run a horse into a fence at 35 miles per hour?"

On the videotape, Stevens, 51, discussed using buzzers years ago, and talked about how he managed to shock himself while riding a quarter horse named Rocky Bandit as a teenager.

"It's extremely embarrassing and humiliating," Stevens said Wednesday. "Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about the sport, and how much I love it. It was campfire talk about something that happened 35 years ago. I was 16 years old at the time."

The use of electrical devices in horse racing has been well documented, and since 1974 there have been nearly 300 instances in which racing commissions have investigated and taken action against jockeys, trainers, grooms or escort riders for infractions involving the devices, according to documents obtained from the Association of Racing Commissioners International.

In the 2000s alone, there have been 53 buzzer cases at racetracks ranging from Lone Star Park in Texas and Suffolk Downs in Massachusetts to Delaware Park in Delaware and Penn National in Pennsylvania.

On the PETA video, Lukas told of watching an unidentified jockey hiding an electrical device in the blinkers — or eyewear — of a horse before being searched. He also said that the use of the devices at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico was so common that it often sounded "like a full-blown orchestra" behind the starting gate.

Lukas did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The winner of a record 14 Triple Crown races, Lukas is also a commissioner on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, which is investigating PETA's allegations. The commission has the power to suspend or revoke a license to work in the state.

PETA's accusations do not represent the first time Asmussen's name has come up in a buzzer investigation.

On Feb. 17, 2007, Roman Chapa was caught with an electrical device after the sixth race at Sunland Park in New Mexico. Asmussen trained the horse, Right Place N Time, and was a co-owner. In 1993, Chapa had been suspended 19 months for using a buzzer in Texas.

Since 2000, Chapa has ridden 961 races for Asmussen, winning 244 of them and earning more than $4.8 million in purses. Chapa won a race for Asmussen last month at Sam Houston Race Park. He is scheduled to ride another horse trained by Asmussen on Saturday at the Fairgrounds in New Orleans.

Asmussen was not accused of being complicit. Chapa did not respond to messages and could not be reached for comment.

Last fall, the New York Gaming Commission cleared jockey Luis Saez of using a buzzer when riding Will Take Charge to victory in the 2013 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Eric Guillot, the trainer of runner-up Moreno, had accused Saez of shocking the colt to the win. Lukas trained Will Take Charge.

After Stevens and Thunder Gulch won the 1995 Kentucky Derby, stewards reviewed the race when viewers said they thought they had seen equipment change hands when Pat Day, on Timber Country, reached out to Stevens. Officials found no evidence of an electrical device changing hands.

In 1999, however, Billy Patin was barred from the sport for five years for using a buzzer to win the Arkansas Derby — an important prep race for the Kentucky Derby — aboard the colt Valhol.

Now, PETA has accused the current leading rider in Arkansas, Ricardo Santana Jr., of using an electrical device. In a conversation, recorded Aug. 13, Blasi described Santana as a good "machine rider."

Blasi recounted a conversation he said he had had with Santana. "You got the máquina?" Blasi said he asked, referring to the Spanish word for machine. "Boss, I got the máquina," was Santana's reply, according to Blasi.

Santana has denied the allegation through his agent.

Stevens said he had not yet been contacted by racing authorities in Kentucky and New York who have opened investigations into the allegations against Asmussen and Blasi. But he said he intended to cooperate fully with any and all probes.

"I have nothing to hide," he said.

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