Midnite Moon Equine

The Graded stakes-winning Coal Front mare is the highest earning accredited Arkansas-bred money winner in history, surpassing icon Nodouble. More ➡️ tinyurl.com/yvywnypp

‡ When Will the Denial End? In two of my most recent posts, I demonstrated Mike's @RepoleStable inability, at least in our exchanges, to admit that he is wrong when faced with serious, well-supported criticism, and his tendency to resort to dishonest argumentation. His most recent response, embedded below, helps to illustrate the depth of his denial, and how far he is willing to go in efforts to keep it intact. I recall, as most readers likely do, a simple, formative experience that I had as a child. Having thrown something, probably a candy wrapper, on the ground, my mother scolded me. I responded by noting, probably thinking that I was being clever, that "everyone" litters. She patiently explained that even if other people display dubious behavior, it isn't a valid excuse, and elaborated on why. The lesson stuck with me, as similar lessons undoubtedly have for the vast majority of people. So, how did Mike choose to respond to my recent, critical post? Not by attempting to refute any of the fact-based points or arguments that I had laid out. Not with a belated, and refreshing admission that he had made some mistakes, and that he would try to do better. But rather with yet another dubious attempt at playing the Gotcha! game. In other words, he chose to resort to what boils down to the same type of childish impulse as the one illustrated above: "He did it too!" His aim was presumably to embarrass me by exposing dishonesty on my part, in order to rationalize his own behavior, but he missed the target. I could play the same game, and respond by asking him a number of questions that I am certain he would prefer not to answer, but I don't want to do that, as I believe that it would lead us further down a destructive, rather than constructive path. I will, instead, answer his question, and it is not uncomfortable for me to do so. I was a "subject-matter expert (SME)" consultant for roughly a year and a half, leading up to the implementation of HISA. To my knowledge, no one from 5 Stones (5Si), including myself, went on to work for HIWU, after HISA took the reins. Mike likely asked the question in hopes that I either wouldn't answer, or, if I did, that he might be able to make some related claims of dishonest behavior. The problem, if that was his goal, is that there was no associated dishonesty. Any suggestion that I was somehow dishonest because I never volunteered the connection publicly, or any argument that I might have been dishonest when I "defended" TJC publicly, given that they sponsored 5Si, would fall flat for the reasons below. While I have occasionally noted that hiring 5Si was to TJC's credit, as the company was involved in laying the foundation for the Servis and Navarro, et al, indictments and prosecutions, I was making that point well before I ever worked for 5Si, and the facts underpinning the simple, straightforward point, have long been publicly available. There were never any nuanced conflicts of interest, either, as I have never said, or written anything publicly that was related to the private, and by definition confidential information that I was privy to while working for 5Si. How would readers know that? Because I support my opinions and arguments with publicly available facts. I don't say just trust me (wink wink), implying special knowledge. Any suggestion that my various comments relating to TJC were connected to my association with 5Si would be entirely unsupportable. Not only did I write both positively and negatively about TJC for decades prior to that relatively brief overlap, but as I have noted many times, any of my perceived "defenses" of TJC have, in fact, been efforts to set the record straight, and/or remind readers that it is silly to paint the organization in a solely negative light, as if it hasn't also done many positive things for the industry. Finally, I found the work that I did for 5Si to be both interesting and challenging, and have no reason whatsoever to feel embarrassed by anything relating to the experience. Regarding the underlying exchange, I have never claimed to be a saint, nor that I have always been honest. But I can say that I have tried to recognize my mistakes, learn from them, and do better. And that, in a nutshell, is all that I am asking of you, Mike.

Interesting development. It’s telling that even the Paulick Report and @raypaulick the Dinosaur had to cover this. A multi-billion-dollar public company like Churchill Downs gets zero notice, yet HISA and their multi-million-dollar forgiven-loan partner, The @JockeyClub, somehow seem perfectly aligned with Joe Dope who suddenly drops a hit piece. That doesn’t look random. It looks coordinated. HISA. The Jockey Club. Joe Dope. Same messaging. Same timing. Same playbook. Transparency matters. Accountability matters. We all deserve better. Do you guys believe this was intentionally coordinated by these bad actors???