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Precursor, like many people in the industry, I know Gural. Long before he took over the Meadowlands. We are not friends. We've both been in the game a long time, I've seen him at numerous tracks, the sales, Harrisburg, Lexington, and so on. I had breakfast with him once and dinner once, and both were circumstantial, not planned. That's it. We are not friends. So, my take, Gural has done more than anyone else to clean up the sport and the industry. Period. If you don't believe that, please, if for whatever reason I forget, please remind me not to respond to you. Thanks. Gural has done a great deal and has given tremendous service to this sport and industry. Right up front, I don't give a damn about his motives, he wants a casino, all the other defections and aspersions, ad BS. He has personally contributed to major, industry-wide investigations, cases, indictments, and so on.
However, and I have said this from day one, moment one.....I do not agree with his lack of a universal standard for barring people. Consistency is certainly not a word that would be used to describe his actions. Lack of, yes. I view this as a major fault. I have seen him at the track, at several events, etc. However, none have been the proper or appropriate forum to question him on this. I have emailed him on this specific subject, not with a calling him out approach, but I did make my points very clear and explicitly asked the question. I received a lengthy, detailed reply. He provided a great deal of information. He brought up some valid points. He went into some specifics. However, none of which resolved what I proposed was a problem. That's OK. I saw Gural at a sale about a month later and he approached me, was pleasant, polite, and treated me the same way he always has going back to when I first met him around 35 years ago.
So while I don't like what may appear to be a pick and choose on who can play and who can't, that doesn't negate everything else that's taken place. It's not perfect. It's not yet ideal. Even ideal is not consistent. People can say this started out, or perhaps became personal. Of course. These two guys were taking jabs at each other back in 2017 on some issues. But the issue, is still the issue. Track ownership may want one thing. The race office may want something else. Throw out a cheating trainer and in no time you will have 3 to 5 more replace him, and you'll have horses from 3 to 5 barns, not one. Everyone said the industry would not survive Brooks being thrown out if his brother wasn't allowed to buy the horses and continue the operation. Brooks had far more horses than Taylor. Simply put.....no one person or operation is bigger than the sport or industry. If one gets to be.....then you have a far bigger problem than the one.
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