http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-horsetest31oct31,1,1845425.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
And on the other hand-- a big drug related story should be breaking in the next couple of days, not the kind you would think. You won\'t f----- believe it.
I\'m letting the press deal with this one.
F.... as in Frank Labocetta pleading guilty to a bevy of lesser charges and taking a reduced sentence for the heroin induced car accident he was invlved in up here in Saratoga county this past summer? Just a guess.
what do these guy\'s do - have a few beers when it\'s time to sober up ?
maybe jerry is hinting about early word on the nevada situation ...
Attention Mr. O\'Neill, your nick name is NOT \"Drug O\'Neill.\"
Sure, it used to be that. But now I hear it has been enhanced to the following:
\"Drug O\'Needle.\"
Just thought you\'d like to know.
Here\'s what I\'d like to see happen.
NO DRUGS OF ANY KIND.
It will contract racing, which is a good thing, because there are no longer enough qualified horsemen to conduct racing on as many fronts as they have in this modern era.
Cut back racing days, have fewer venues and better facilities.
Make it a sport again.
And if racing needs slots to survive, maybe it is not worthy of surviving. If it needs to be propped up, it is not a viable game anymore.
I think racing can be saved, but only if it is conducted as a sport--not a casino and not as a drug testing ground.
The story I thought was going to break was that they have not been doing CO2 (milkshake) testing in Kentucky, and were not going to be doing it for the BC-- I had it from a pretty solid source. I gave it to a couple of press contacts, and have since been told that there will be some testing (not all horses). Don\'t know what is true at this point, and still have not heard whether they have been testing in daily Kentucky races.
TGJB:
I think if the powers that be really cared about this, there would be a
requirement that all BC runners be on the grounds 5-7 days before the big event,
with runners subject to random and intermittent testing during this pre- race
period.
The owners and trainers who complained the loudest would be the ones I would
suspect the most.
Can\'t believe many of the BC guys are \"shakers\". Blood dope and super pain stuff more likely for some, imo.
The people who benefit most from slots are the owners with greatly increased purses. Take a look at a track like Mountaineer Park. The purses are big, the betting handle is small to moderate and ontrack handle is small. Slots were intended to get human beings to physically go to Mountaineer ...and, with them being there, they would bet horseracing. Thats not whats happening. No one who\'s going there for slots is betting horseracing....at least not any kind of real money.
If I were to guess. No testing on Friday, at least the threat of testing on Saturday. Gotta let the locals have some cash!
Jerry,
I looked into milkshake testing 2 weeks ago and was as surprised as you to learn nothing apparently will be done about it. This has all the earmarks of Lone Star take two.
My sense is that when people started asking questions-- some instigated by yours truly-- CD started scrambling, and came up with a half-ass position. Whether a) they will actually test, and b) do anything if they get a positive, is questionable at least.
This appeared today in The Blood-Horse, from Marty Maline, the employee that heads the Kentucky racing board.
Marty Maline, executive director of the Kentucky Horsemen\'s Benevolent and Protective Association, said some horsemen believe having blood drawn from every horse in every race can be inconvenient and detrimental to performance when horses are sent to or retained in test barns.
\"You can get into a situation where some horses won\'t put out their best performance when they\'re put in a different environment,\" Maline said. \"(Milkshakes) to my knowledge haven\'t been an issue with horsemen in Kentucky. Have we even had a positive here in Kentucky?\"
Well, sports fans, there you have it--straight from the horse\'s mouth: Kentucky does not have a milkshake problem.
Next!
Barry,
Just curious, with all that\'s been said and inferred, why do you run any horses in Kentucky then, and subject your horses to an unfair situation?
NC Tony