When the 11 horses in this year's Preakness enter this year's gate, 3 of them will be overshadowed by their trainers. Zetterholm, Daddy Nose Best and the Derby winner I'll Have Another have three of the many bad apples in horse racing. Rick Dutrow Jr., Steve Asmussen and Doug O'Neill have numerous drug positives in their careers.
With Rick Dutrow, he is currently battling a 10 year suspension thanks to his numerous positives especially in New York where he is based. Even with that, he "thinks" that he is "good for the sport". However, the truth is that he's not. Many people don't like him (myself included), because of his brashness. The 2008 Derby and Preakness winner also last year had a horse put on the Steward's List in New York for running a horse within a 12 day period 4 times. He also admittedly gave Big Brown steroids and called out another trainer for being a cheater.
In Steve Asmussen's case, his positives have been almost forgotten about thanks to his popular runners Curlin and Rachel Alexandra. However, he's gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar as well. In July of 2006 to January 2007, he was suspended. In May of 2008, he had another positive which he promised to fight. Still he was given a 6 month suspension (however I'm not sure if he ever served that). On top of it, in 2007 Curlin was running steroids, but was taken off them after his owner the late Jess Jackson asked them to be removed.
Finally, there is this year's Derby winner. Doug O'Neill currently has as many as 15 horses on the vets list in California. It doesn't help that the week before the Derby, I'll Have Another was automatically put on the vets list when he was given a controversial treatment called Shock Wave therapy. However, this NY Times article takes the cake. Not only does it talking about his history of milkshakes (not the kind you or I would want to drink), but the story of him dumping a filly by the name of Burna Dette at Los Alamitos where she sadly broke down and was euthanized. While his history isn't brushed under the carpet as much as Asmussen's, many people overlook his history as well. Why? Lava Man. He was so popular during his career, that I think many people root for him to well as a stable pony.
There are certinally more bad apples out there that we know of, but right now these three are the most high profile trainers out there.
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