POMONA - Mel Stute, Fairplex Park's all-time leading trainer, was sitting in his private box this week and thinking back to the good ol' days.
He remembers a time when the industry was united and trainers and owners worked together to get things done.
He recalls a time when people actually showed up at the track to bet, rather than firing up their computers.
He thinks back to the days when there were no synthetic race tracks and bettors weren't left shaking their heads at some impossible long shot finding the winner's circle.
He also remembers back to the days when a trainer got caught cheating and had to pay a real price.
But as discouraged as Stute is about the state of the game, he still finds time to interject a little humor.
Stute, who's saddled a record 187 winners at Fairplex and was the first inductee into the track's Hall of Fame in 2003, likes to talk about the time he offered encouragement to a disconsolate John Sadler.
Sadler was just breaking into the game and had only seven horses. His brother was a successful lawyer and his father didn't want him in the sport. It was long before Sadler became one of the Southland's most successful trainers.
"I come back after about the eighth race and there he is, laying on the couch in my office," Stute said. "I said, `John, what are you doing?' He said, `Mel, how do you take this? How do you take all this losing? I ran three favorites today, and one

of them was fourth. I just can't take it.' "So I told him, `John, I'm going to give you a little advice. Your father wants you to quit, but my advice to you is quit drinking sarsaparilla. Go to scotch, and you won't give a (bleep) where they finish.' "
Leave it to Stute, who turned 83 last month, to find something to laugh about when he's down to eight horses and isn't sure how much longer he wants to stay in the game.
"John's got 146 horses now and I've got (eight), so maybe I oughta go to the sarsaparilla," he joked.
From the synthetics to the off-track betting and the political correctness that has invaded the sport, Stute's at wit's end and, like Bruce Headley, is debating whether he ever wants to purchase another horse.
"These new (synthetic) tracks, they've practically broke me and my wife," he said. "I mean, we just lose horse after horse after horse. Del Mar says, `Boy, we had a big meeting compared to Santa Anita and everywhere.' Well I know why. I think they had nine (pick-six) carryovers. That's because that track, the handicappers, nobody can handicap on it.
"I mean, I won a race here (Fairplex) 60 years ago. This is my life, and to see what they're doing to it ... I'm like Bruce Headley, as long as these tracks are around I can't buy any more horses."
Stute doesn't see the climate changing anytime soon, either.
"It's going to take stronger leadership than what we have now," he said. "It's going to take leadership that's more interested in horse racing than making money. That's going to be hard to find."
Stute offered other candid opinions about some of the areas of the sport that concern him the most, including:
Off-track betting: "We had a guy that worked for the California breeders named Brian Sweeney. He was way ahead of everybody and he said, `Please don't allow that. It will be a big kick for a while, but it won't be long before people will all be staying home and not coming to the races.' And I think that's what's happening now."
Horse advocacy groups: "About five years ago at Del Mar, this group of ladies and young kids were all marching with signs, `Cruelty to Animals,' and everything. So as I was turning to go into the track, this lady comes out and hits my car with her little sign and I said to her, `Ma'am, what are you doing?' She says, `I want to tell you what you guys are doing to horses. We've been checking the breakdowns.' I said, `Do you have children?' She said, `Yes, I have children.' And I asked her what her kid's temperature was that morning. She said, `I didn't take it.' I told her, `Well, those horses over there, their temperatures are taken every morning. They're taken better care of than your own kid.' "
Thoroughbred Owners of California: "In my opinion, I think the TOC in a few more years will actually kill horse racing in California. We don't have no strength now because we as trainers, if we want to fight something, they (TOC) don't want to fight it. If they want to fight it, we don't want to fight it. We've got to be together to get anything done."
Drug positives: "I was ruled off (suspended) once in my life, 1957 or so, and in those days it was different. The stewards said, `You're ruled off,' and I was ruled off the next day. I couldn't get no stay, no nothing like they have nowadays. I got 14 days, which was the shortest (suspension) they had back then."
Legislation passed Aug. 31 that raises the takeout on exotic wagers in California: "I'm not afraid to admit I'm a gambler, and I don't like (the legislation). You can't just keep taking from those guys (bettors) and expect them to keep coming back."
Mel Stute might not be saddling Grade 1 winners any more, but he's got a firm grasp on much of what's ailing a fledgling industry.