What else is new. Fellow lurkers, don't ever bet a horse that is pulling a cart.
Doping charges rock top harness racing team at Meadowlands
Driver, veterinarian and employee are arrested
Horse trainer Seldon Ledford has been the talk of the Meadowlands in the last year as his purse
earnings at the nation's premier harness racing track bolted from the middle of the pack to the
top of the leader board.
Fellow trainers and race aficionados have looked with envy as Ledford's winnings went from an
average of $186,556 per year between 1991 and 2003 to $3,071,472 in 2005.
In the first three months of this year alone, the horses Ledford trains have earned him $721,766
.Ledford, who made his name on the Illinois racing circuit, attributes his run of success to
having better horses to work with and more of them.
The State Police's horse racing squad leveled charges yesterday that something more sinister was
behind the rise: illegal blood doping that improved the horses' times by two seconds or more.
State troopers arrested Ledford's son, Eric, a top driver at the Meadowlands who won the famed
Hambletonian in 2002. Eric Ledford was arrested in the drivers' room at the Meadowlands before
last night's races, Detective Sgt. William Shurts said.
Earlier in the day, State Police arrested a veterinarian and a trainer who work for Ledford,
along with the trainer's wife, on charges they rigged races by giving horses endurance-enhancing
drugs that made them run faster.
Doping charges rock top harness racing team at Meadowlands
Driver, veterinarian and employee are arrested
Horse trainer Seldon Ledford has been the talk of the Meadowlands in the last year as his purse
earnings at the nation's premier harness racing track bolted from the middle of the pack to the
top of the leader board.
Fellow trainers and race aficionados have looked with envy as Ledford's winnings went from an
average of $186,556 per year between 1991 and 2003 to $3,071,472 in 2005.
In the first three months of this year alone, the horses Ledford trains have earned him $721,766
.Ledford, who made his name on the Illinois racing circuit, attributes his run of success to
having better horses to work with and more of them.
The State Police's horse racing squad leveled charges yesterday that something more sinister was
behind the rise: illegal blood doping that improved the horses' times by two seconds or more.
State troopers arrested Ledford's son, Eric, a top driver at the Meadowlands who won the famed
Hambletonian in 2002. Eric Ledford was arrested in the drivers' room at the Meadowlands before
last night's races, Detective Sgt. William Shurts said.
Earlier in the day, State Police arrested a veterinarian and a trainer who work for Ledford,
along with the trainer's wife, on charges they rigged races by giving horses endurance-enhancing
drugs that made them run faster.
