So, young and dedicated student, you want to be a veterinarian. A horse doctor, no less. Maybe even work with performance horses, the cream of the crop, caring for Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, or Quarter Horses right there at the racetrack. Well, you may have heard the profession is making news.
Racetrack veterinarians in California are currently under scrutiny from the state's Veterinary Medical Board. The VMB has particularly targeted Dr. Jeff Blea, who is not a practicing vet right now because he serves in the important advisory position of equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board. The VMB is trying to have Blea's veterinary license suspended before they have made their case that he has transgressed certain rules of record keeping, diagnostics, and authorized medication administration, violations which, if proven, normally result in a fine.
In an administrative hearing Jan. 21, attorney George Wallace insisted that the VMB has not made the case that anything in either the complaints against Blea or his actions presents cause for an emergency suspension of his license. Wallace noted that such an emergency suspension has been historically reserved for veterinarians who present a clear and present danger to animals and their owners, such as "drunken veterinarians or substance abusing veterinarians you would not trust in a surgical suite."
"Dr. Blea is apparently the most dangerous veterinarian in existence in California," Wallace said, cloaking his sarcasm, "and the board has not articulated a remotely likely danger that is posed by letting this process go to the hearing on the merits."
Logic and legal argument appeared to be on Wallace's side. But now Blea's immediate fate is in the lap of the administrative law judge, who did little to tip her hand other than to narrowly define her jurisdiction. Blea's sterling reputation has been attested to in documents submitted to the law judge. But in the meantime he has been put on administrative leave by the veterinary school of the University of California-Davis, which means his work as the racing board's equine medical director is on hold.
As a sideshow, counsel for the CHRB stepped up to question the VMB's meddling with the vital role of its equine medical director at all. The point was valid, but the judge determined that her hearing was neither the time nor place for such an argument. For his part, counsel for the VMB suggested that replacing the equine medical director, if necessary, presented no particular "inconvenience" for the CHRB. Such a dumbfounding mindset is what horse racing is up against.
***
The trial in New York of a race horse veterinarian and his associate on federal charges of drug mislabeling and illegal marketing is a lose-lose proposition for the sport.
On the one hand, the prosecution is maintaining that Dr. Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli have been doing their terrible deeds for two decades, flying above or below the radar of the testing protocols in place at racetracks across the country. On the other, defense counsel is trying to paint the accused as angels of mercy, merely delivering the comfort of effective drugs to equine patients physically compromised by a tough game. The fact that those drugs were not detectable by racing labs was a bonus for the customers and an embarrassment for horse racing regulators.
Still, the trial can have a cleansing effect for racing. Call it a necessary colonic irrigation. When vulnerabilities are exposed, there is chance for repair. At the same time, it does not say much for the self-policing ability of the veterinary profession that a borderline sociopath like Fishman would be allowed anywhere near a race horse, a plow horse, or even a backyard pony. As a self-proclaimed former drug addict who says he is dying from cancer, Fishman comes across as a pathological liar who ran a crooked game for a select group of clients who kept him in business.
It's a shame those clients aren't in the dock by his side.
***
There is only one veterinarian present in the cast of Jockey, the award-winning independent movie that is now making its way into regional theaters. The character is played by Vincent Francia, the long-serving general manager of Turf Paradise, where Jockey was filmed on a shoestring budget. Francia has a scene with the movie's lead, Clifton Collins Jr., and does nothing to damage the reputation of the veterinary discipline, unless you have a problem with a vet giving a human athlete advice to go see a real doctor.
A temporary relationship with the firm promoting Jockey precludes me from offering a full-blown review. As far as that goes, most of the major film critics already have weighed in with high marks, including those writing for the Wall Street Journal, Variety, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times. If it matters, the movie is getting a 90% Tomatometer rating based on the aggregate of reviews collected by RottenTomatoes.com.
Viewers should know that Jockey is a far cry from myth-making movies like Seabiscuit, Secretariat, and Dreamer. The characters are admirable only in their familiarity. They have bad habits and make bad choices. Their salvation, if it comes, comes only by the grace of the natural world and its most inspiring ambassador—the horse. Reality beats mythology any day.
