Cheaters have no place in horse racing
Cycling and horse racing have much in common.
Both are plagued by the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Both are being spoiled by public cynicism; fans suspect that any brilliant or extraordinary achievement might be the result of cheating.
Whenever horses start improving dramatically for a particular trainer, bettors say, “He’s got the juice.” But while cycling unions are making a serious effort to confront illegal drug use and punish cheaters, horse racing tends to sweep its problems under the rug.
All too often, suspending a horse trainer is like taking a snow shovel away from a Floridian.
Suspend Trainer A, and he merely enters the horses under the name of his assistant Trainer B. So what if Trainer B was a groom last week? Now he’s got his license, and he’s the trainer of record.
Or if a trainer gets a suspension, he can merely appeal it and go about his business. What if he gets another suspension? Appeal that one, too. The lawyers get rich, and the trainer gets to stay in business.
Clean horse trainers realize how unfair it seems and how downright stupid it appears when Hall-of-Fame and award-winning trainers received race bans left and right for using banned drugs to their horses but just walk away with meaningless suspensions.
There is only one way that horse racing can prove that it is serious about stopping the use of illegal drugs. When a trainer is caught – irrespective of his status – engaging in a blatantly illegal practice, he/she should have the book thrown at them, run them out of the sport and castigate them as cheaters and a disgrace to society.
The tarnished image of horse racing can only be rectified with the support of those who believe implicitly in its integrity. Let us become more proactive in our treatment of cheaters.
Cheaters like Todd Pletcher, Scott Lake and Steve Asmussen have no place in our sport.
Place your bets now in the Bodog Racebook! Be a part of a socially fashionable celebration of drama, excitement and high stakes betting, be a part of something exclusive. Bet in the Bodog Racebook.
Comments
