Meadowlands Requests Training Info

Published: November 14, 2015 05:10 pm EST

The Meadowlands Racetrack has issued a press release indicating that a hearing has been scheduled for later today (Saturday, Nov. 14) regarding the drive of Bee A Magician in the second race on Friday night, and a new policy has been implemented requiring all trainers to submit updates on their entered horses to the race office.

Bee A Magician finished fourth as the 1-2 race favourite in the $25,000 leg of the TVG Mares Open Trot, which was won by Shake It Cerry in 1:53.3. Bee A Magician was driven by Brian Sears for trainer Richard "Nifty" Norman.

The release states that Meadowlands Chairman Jeff Gural believes "the effort put forth on the racetrack was unacceptable" and he was "flabbergasted by what transpired and believes the betting public needs to be protected."

A hearing will be held with Sears today and The Meadowlands will release an update on the results of the investigation.

The release also explains a new policy, effective immediately, that requires all trainers that have entered horses to race at The Meadowlands to supply a comment regarding how their horse trained a minimum of 72 hours prior to the race day. The report will be included in the live race program and will be accessible in the “race review” portion of The Meadowlands website.

The full release from The Meadowlands can be read below.


A hearing has been scheduled for Saturday, regarding the drive of Bee A Magician in the second race at The Meadowlands on Friday night. Meadowlands Chairman Jeff Gural was flabbergasted by what transpired and believes the betting public needs to be protected. The matter will be investigated and a course of action regarding this race will proceed accordingly. A hearing has been scheduled with Brian Sears for later today. After the conclusion of the hearing, an update will be offered to our customers and the industry. In addition, a meeting of the drivers and trainers has been scheduled for 6:15 this evening where this matter will most certainly be spoken about.

Mr. Gural made it clear to Bee A Magician’s trainer Richard “Nifty” Norman that the effort put forth on the racetrack was unacceptable and to Mr. Norman’s credit he understood and agreed that it was a mistake for Brian Sears to drive the horse so conservatively although because the horse had been tying up he did tell Brian to try not to race her on the front end.

After consulting with and at the suggestion of several trainers that Mr. Gural spoke with, it has been decided that going forward every trainer will be obligated to give the race office an update on how the horse they are entering has been training so that information can be provided to our customers, who are the betting public. Without them, we would not exist and they must be protected. The information will be printed in our live program and will be available on our website as well.

Effective immediately, all trainers that have entered horses to race at The Meadowlands will be required to supply a comment regarding how their horse trained a minimum of 72 hours prior to the race day and that report will be included in the live race program and will be accessible in the “race review” portion of The Meadowlands website. It is expected that all trainers with horses racing on Friday will submit an update on how their horse trained no later than 5:00 p.m. Tuesday and horses entered for Saturday are required to have their update submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. Wednesday.

All trainers are to submit the update on how their horse trained to the email address [email protected].

In the event a trainer does not have e-mail access, he is asked to provide the update over the phone to The Meadowlands race office.

If a trainer does not provide the necessary information, the race office will call the trainer until he/she is reached.

This policy is being implemented to protect the betting public as they are the reason we are all here. We thank the horsemen for their anticipated cooperation in this matter.


(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)

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