The New York Times’ Joe Drape reports, in 2007, Kentucky racing officials found cobra venom, a powerful painkiller, in the barn of Patrick Biancone, a horse trainer with prestigious victories from Hong Kong to France. He was barred from the sport for a year. Steve Asmussen, the nation’s leading trainer, served a six-month suspension in 2006 after one of his horses failed a drug test in Louisiana, and is appealing another six-month ban handed down in Texas for another medication violation.

     Both, however, will saddle horses in the Breeders’ Cup, which begins Friday here at Santa Anita Park and will bring together horses from around the globe to compete in 14 races worth more than $25.5 million in purse money.

     Biancone and Asmussen are not alone: more than a half-dozen other trainers with multiple and serious drug violations will have contenders in the starting gate of one of thoroughbred racing’s greatest events.

      In fact, of the top 10 American-based trainers in purse winnings this year, only one, Christophe Clement, has never been cited for a medication violation, according to industry records.

     “Ten years ago, you were embarrassed to get a medication suspension,” said Clement, whose Gio Ponti will compete in the $5 million Classic. “Now trainers get suspended and go away and when they come back they get more horses and more owners than they had before they left.”

      It is part of an evolving culture in horse racing that ultimately rewards those who seek any means, legal and otherwise, to get an edge. When illegal drug use goes undetected, trainers walk away with the winnings and an enhanced reputation. But when they are caught, they are all too often handed punishment that is in name only. Their horses still run and their stables still operate, usually under the name of a trusted assistant.

      “It seems like we’re handing out speeding tickets instead of arresting people for dealing drugs,” said Tom Ludt, a member of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, which regulates the sport in the commonwealth and handed down the ban on Biancone.

      In 2006, for example, when Asmussen was suspended by Louisiana authorities when a filly he trained tested 750 times over the legal limit for the local anesthetic mepivacaine, which can deaden pain in a horse’s legs, he turned his horses over to Scott Blasi, his longtime assistant. Blasi won 198 races in 2006 as the Asmussen stable finished the year with more than $14 million in earnings.

        Soon after his return, Asmussen was given Curlin, who went on to win the Preakness Stakes in 2007 and then became a two-time Horse of the Year for Jess Jackson, the founder of Kendall Jackson Wines.

      Asmussen and Jackson are very likely to win a Horse of the Year title for a third time this year with the filly Rachel Alexandra. She is skipping the Breeders’ Cup after going eight for eight this year, including beating 3-year-old colts in the Preakness and the Haskell as well as older male horses in the Woodward Stakes.

     In July, shortly after Texas announced its suspension of Asmussen, Ludt, who also is general manager of Vinery Stable, took 21 horses away from him. But his decision lasted only so long. He has returned six horses to Asmussen — including the multiple stakes winner Kodiak Kowboy, who was supposed to compete in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Saturday but was scratched this week because of illness.

      Ludt acknowledges that his words and actions are often in conflict over the subject of  drugs in horse racing. He admits that he returned to Asmussen because “it’s a tough, brutal sport, and you want to win.”

      Ludt says he has grown so frustrated by his sport’s drug problem that last week at a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission meeting he said: “Why do we even waste the money drug-testing horses?” Ludt is also a board member of the Breeders’ Cup, which is among a few organizations that have taken unilateral steps in trying to stem the flow of drugs. In 2007, the Breeders’ Cup implemented stiff penalties for drug cheats and has been aggressive in aligning the championships with the regulations in place in Europe and most of the rest of the world, where performance-enhancing drugs are vigilantly policed. Biancone, for one, has been barred from tracks in Hong Kong.

    “I’ve been down the road of thinking that everyone cheats, and I’ve been down the road of thinking that no one cheats,” he said. “Until we come up with universal rules that everyone wants to enforce, it’s going to be complicated.”

     Asmussen, who trains hundreds of horses stabled from Kentucky to Canada, denied wrongdoing in both the Louisiana and Texas cases. There is little doubt he is a skilled trainer: he grew up on a ranch in Laredo, Tex., the son of a horseman, and is far and away the nation’s leading trainer with his sprawling stable.

      Some of his numerous medication violations have been minor — a product of what Asmussen and other trainers with multiple strings of horses say are attributable to the differing rules from state to state and the fact that they cannot be everywhere and must rely on staff.

WIN OR LOSE, TEAM ZENYATTA WILL HAVE NO REGRETS

     According to Drape (NYT),  Team Zenyatta got together the other night: the mare’s owners, Jerry and Ann Moss; her trainer, John Shirreffs, and his wife, Dottie, who manages the Mosses’ stables; and her rider, Mike Smith. They asked each other if they really wanted to do this, to throw their undefeated girl into the deepest end of the pool to take on the most accomplished boys in the thoroughbred world in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

    The ground rules were clear — if anyone had the slightest doubt that Zenyatta, an Amazonian creature in both size and persona, was not up to the task, they would run her against many of the same ladies she has been thumping and defend her title Friday in the $2 million Ladies Classic at Santa Anita Park.

    No one spoke up.

     “She deserves it — no, she’s earned it,” said Jerry Moss, sounding like a man confident his horse can win her 14th race in a row facing the big boys and going a mile and a quarter for the first time. Jon White, the oddsmaker here, agrees. He made Zenyatta the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the field of 13.

     What was not discussed at the night’s skull session, according to Moss, but was certainly on the tip of most folks’ tongues at the draw Tuesday, was horse racing’s other, more famous diva: Rachel Alexandra.

     She is not racing here. Her principal owner, Jess Jackson, does not like synthetic tracks like the one at Santa Anita.

     Besides, what does a filly like Rachel Alexandra have left to prove? She has won all eight races she has run this year, beating the boys not once but three times. Rachel Alexandra began her dominance of the opposite sex amid the glamour of the Triple Crown by thumping the Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird, in the Preakness. She finished by turning back older horses in the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga, the sport’s most hallowed of grounds.

      That sounds like a Horse of the Year campaign. Case closed, right?

     Moss did not take the bait — almost.

     “Her owners mapped out a courageous campaign and they did fantastic,” Moss said, “but all but one of Rachel Alexandra’s wins were against her own age group, 3 years old. Zenyatta’s 5 — it just didn’t work out that we could face each other.”

     Moss is a former record executive. He founded A&M Records with the trumpeter and bandleader Herb Alpert. He thinks the world of Zenyatta, as do her fans, a large and loyal bunch, especially in California, where she has won 12 of her 13 races.

    That Rachel Alexandra has overshadowed Zenyatta does not sit well with many here. In music parlance, it is as if Zenyatta is like Madonna with a string of hits and is being diminished by an upstart like Lady Gaga.

     This is partly because of a perceived East Coast bias against California horsemen. Even though Jackson is a California winemaker, he campaigns his horses in Kentucky and quite a bit in New York.

    It is also because Jackson is a better showman than Moss. He not only took some calculated risks with his very talented filly, but he also made sure they were on big stages like the Triple Crown.

     Now it is the Mosses’ turn, and they have chosen not only a big race but a far better field than Rachel Alexandra ever faced. The European colt Rip Van Winkle (7-2) is entered after back-to-back Group I victories and gave the recently retired Sea the Stars — widely considered the best horse in the world on the strength of six Group I victories in 2009 — a run in the Eclipse Stakes in England, finishing second.

     Gio Ponti (12-1) is the best turf horse in America, whose connections were emboldened by his four Grade I victories this year and the tendency of grass horses to take to the synthetic surface to try the Classic. Last year, two turf regulars, Raven’s Pass and Henrythenavigator, finished one-two in the Classic, the Breeders’ Cup’s marquee race. Einstein (12-1) has won graded races on turf, dirt and synthetics.

     Then there is Summer Bird, the Belmont, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, as well as Mine That Bird. Rachel Alexandra has beaten them already, but colts tend to improve throughout their 3-year-old growth.

    The Mosses did not have to try Zenyatta in the Classic. Even if she wins, it probably will not make her Horse of the Year. Other than for pride, the title does not mean much for Zenyatta or Rachel Alexandra. The honor only enhances the value of stallions in the breeding shed.

    “Rachel Alexandra has put together a more impressive body of work,” said Terry Finley, president of West Point Thoroughbreds, whose Macho Again nearly ran down Rachel Alexandra in the Woodward. “That said, I’d like to own both of them, and if Zenyatta wins on Saturday, she will have beaten everyone she lined up against in her career.”

     Moss will not say if this is the last race for Zenyatta.

     Shirreffs, her trainer, said that if this is the mare’s last race and she loses, there will be no regrets.

     “She can never set foot on a racetrack again and I’ll know I’ve been blessed,” he said.

     Horseplayers and enthusiasts alike should count themselves lucky Saturday when Zenyatta pulls into the starting gate for the Classic. She is a great horse and will be elevating the Classic into a great race.

     Thank Team Zenyatta for that.

NO RESPECT FOR HOLLENDORFER

    David Grening (DRF) reports, he is one of only four trainers who have won at least 5,000 races, and he ranks 10th all-time in purse money won. Those accomplishments have not been good enough to merit Jerry Hollendorfer a spot in Thoroughbred racing’s Hall of Fame.

     “It’s really a joke,” said Dan Ward, who has worked as an assistant to Hollendorfer for two years after serving in a similar capacity for Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel for two decades. “His work ethic is just unmatched. He puts all his effort into every horse, even if it’s running for $4,000. You’ve got to respect that, and I think that’s overlooked.”

     “I don’t really think about it much,” said Hollendorfer, who has 5,505 victories and whose horses have won $107,946,311 in purse money. “I’ve been nominated to the Hall of Fame, and I’m very appreciative of that. So far I haven’t been voted in, but that’s something that other people decide.”

    Three years ago, Hollendorfer, the dominant trainer in Northern California for two decades, decided to move some of his horses to Southern California, and that has opened opportunities that may not have previously existed. In 2008, he got to train Heatseeker, who won three graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. He has 35 horses based at Santa Anita to go along with the 100 he trains in Northern California.

     “Had I not come down here, I would have never been presented with the opportunity to train Heatseeker, which was a great experience,” Hollendorfer said.

     While he has won over 100 graded stakes since his training career began in 1979, none has come in a Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup race. Hollendorfer, 63, has had three starters in the Breeders’ Cup and came close to victory in 2007 with Hystericalady, who was beaten a neck by Ginger Punch in the Distaff, now the Ladies’ Classic, at Monmouth Park.

     This year, Hollendorfer has two horses in the Breeders’ Cup. Friday, he will send out Blind Luck as the probable favorite in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Saturday, he’ll send out live longshot Chocolate Candy in the $1 million Dirt Mile.

     If Blind Luck runs Friday the way she galloped over Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride surface Wednesday morning, chances are that Hollendorfer will have that signature win.

     “I and the rest of my barn have a lot of confidence in her,” Hollendorfer said Wednesday. “If she stays the way she is and has some good fortune in the race, we think that she has a great chance to win.”

     Blind Luck was a private purchase after a debut victory in a claiming race at Calder. She has won two of three starts for Hollendorfer, including the Grade 1 Oak Leaf.

    Chocolate Candy is a three-time stakes winner who finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby and ninth in the Belmont Stakes. He has shown the ability to handle a mile and did run second in the Santa Anita Derby over this track in April. On Wednesday, Chocolate Candy worked five furlongs in 1:00.41, with a final quarter in 23.55 seconds.

     “He is a decent miler,” Hollendorfer said. “He does really like the racetrack and had a very nice breeze over the racetrack today. I thought that set him up pretty good for that race.”

     Away from the national stage, Hollendorfer has been the dominant force for two decades in the small racing pond that is Northern California, winning every trainer’s title at Golden Gate Fields or Bay Meadows from 1986 to 2008. Among his biggest victories nationally are two Kentucky Oaks, with Lite Light and Pike Place Dancer; the Haskell with King Glorious; and the Coaching Club American Oaks with Lite Light.

     “He’s probably got the credentials,” said Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. “What hurts him is he’s been stuck out in Northern California. If he’ll start to venture east a little bit more, he’ll get the exposure that he needs.”

     “Jerry will get in there,” said Bob Baffert, the most recent of the 84 trainers inducted into the Hall of Fame. “He’s a great horsemen, great trainer. Definitely belongs. You’ve got to do something back East.”

    Hollendorfer has only ventured east for an occasional stakes race. For two years, he set up a division at Arlington Park in Chicago. Despite the uncertainty of the California racing circuit – specifically the long-term viability of Hollywood Park – Hollendorfer said he plans to stay on the West Coast.

     “I really don’t know how things are going to shake out in California,” Hollendorfer said. “Obviously, I’d like to keep upgrading my stable and run in the better races like I’m trying to do down here in Southern California. Our win percentage isn’t as good down here as I’d like. We have won quite a bit of money at all the meets. If I had to do something different, then I’d rather cut down a little bit and concentrate on more quality.”

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