Found this deja-vu tidbit in a search on the New Yorker magazine website while looking for a recent feature article on trainer Larry Jones..
G. F. T. Ryall, The Race Track, "THE RACE TRACK," The New Yorker, June 4, 1949, p. 82
Read the full text of this article. (Registration required.)
June 4, 1949 Issue
Keywords
Horse Racing
ABSTRACT: Tells about the speed of different tracks and on what it depends on. Garden State Park at Camden, N. J. is considered the fastest Eastern track, and Belmont next The recent addition to the Rules of Racing outlaws even bringing a hypodermic needle onto a track. There was one known case last year of stimulating a horse with drugs; there is concern regarding the use of hormones; these will make a horse frisky. The authorities have not yet caught up with people who chain horses. They beat the horse with chains after shutting him up. Then, just before the race a water bucket or something is rattled - the noise scares the horse and is supposed to stir him up to win.