COLUMN: Richard Eng
Eng's selections for Saturday's Preakness are Peace Rules, Funny Cide, Cherokee's Boy and long shot Foufa's Warrior.
Bad journalism led to controversy
On Monday, I was interviewed by Leon Harris of CNN about Jose Santos, the jockey for Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide. Santos came under scrutiny for possibly cheating in the Derby after a story that ran two days earlier in The Miami Herald.
I told CNN, "I think the question is about the integrity of the journalism, rather than the integrity of horse racing."
Later that day, the Churchill Downs stewards found Santos innocent of any wrongdoing.
How the Santos story became front-page news in Miami is a bigger issue than the charge itself.
The evidence was based on a kernel of truth and a 30-second interview. The kernel of truth was one photo during the stretch run of the Derby. It showed a dark area in Santos' right hand that some thought could have been an electrical device. It turned out to be nothing more than the silks on jockey Jerry Bailey and the ear of his mount Empire Maker on the other side of Santos' hand.
The 30-second interview was of Santos by Miami Herald writer Frank Carlson, who misquoted the jockey. Santos talked about a Q-ray copper bracelet that his wife, Rita, bought him to treat his arthritis. Carlson wrote that Santos held a "cue ring" to alert the outriders.
There is no such thing in racing as a cue ring.
When Santos realized that the writer had just accused him of cheating in the Kentucky Derby, he hung up the phone on him.
How the Santos story made front-page news is not so implausible considering the next day The New York Times ran an expose on one of its own reporters, Jayson Blair. Blair had embellished, and in some cases fabricated, stories that ran in the Times.
Tom Durkin, the track announcer for the New York Racing Association, may have summed up the Santos story best. He told USA Today "the story has as much credibility as 'Man gives birth to a 3-headed Martian.' "
A contrary view is that the Santos affair could spike public interest in Saturday's Preakness. But even horse racing, a sport that begs for more publicity, didn't want to get it this way.
Richard Eng's horse racing column is published Friday. He can be reached at
rich_eng@hotmail.com.
BETCRIS 
05-17-2003, 02:05 AM
Bad journalism led to controversy, LVRJ horse writer Richard Eng speaks out on Santos 
