http://www.paulickreport.com/features/the-breeders-cup-forum/the-breeders-cup-forum-strong-national-anti-doping-policy-good-for-business/
i think it\'s a good idea, and would be miles better for the horses than what exists now, but in all fairness to tygart and USADA, without floyd landis, lance would still be cheating to win (iron man competitions) and would still be the untouchable-cancer-god he was up until 2 years ago.
tygart was only able to bring down lance because lance is a world class d!ck who gleefully ruined a lot of people, most whom were too powerless to retaliate and the rest of whom, like tyler, were sufferring from a pathetic form of lance-armstrong-stockholm-syndrome. but floyd is a fearless, stubborn BAMF former mennonite, with nothing to lose...you don\'t cross those...i mean even with marion jones, USADA only got her on perjury charges in the end...
so yeah, for the horses it would definitely be better then now, i think (i hope), but...in the end...it might actually be even worse for the bettors, since it will create a false sense of integrity in the sport (at least now, you live and breathe caveat emptor; or at least you should).
i\'ve said it before here, but it bears repeating--horse racing has too many people with real power or with direct access to those with real power to ever be effectively regulated. and anyway, it doesn\'t need to be regulated like a sport, it needs to be regulated like vegas. USADA isn\'t going to make the things you need to know available--they aren\'t going to release vet files and horse weights before a race; and the glacial pace of publication of doping positives will make the daisy-divine-two months-thing look like light speed: if it follows the human doping positive releases, it will be more like 2 years, barring court cases. plus USADA no means or experience in handling gaming fraud, which doping in racing is--the loosing bettor is still out his bet, whether the horse turns up positive or not.
lance\'s case is actually very constructive--before USADA got involved, the DOJ was investigating him and putting together a RICO and international drug trafficking case against him. and that\'s the only reason guys like tyler and george caved, they were facing real time in real prison if they refused to cooperate with the investigation--but lance had some very powerful friends, like a certain senator from california, who \"encouraged\" the DOJ to drop the case...and the case was dropped (though partially revived in floyd\'s qui tam suit against lance which the DOJ joined)...
and even after USADA picked up and ran with the doping case against him, the public perception was that USADA was an out of control organization with an ax to grind. the only thing that changed that was lance, being the sociopathic megalomaniacal jerk that he is, needed to have the last word and so he let oprah and 150 million other people see what everyone in cycling had seen since he was a punk kid riding in the ms150 in texas. and only then did everything go sour...and yet doping is alive and well in cycling and cycling is still as dirty as ever...
something tells me people like todd pletcher and ken and sarah ramsey aren\'t going to make that mistake.
kekomi, great post. Especially the line about it needing to be regulated like vegas. Exactly. All info (vets/weights/test results) out in the open.
Hopefully this kind of pressure, even if it does not result in USADA taking it over, at least pushes the present industry to change/regulate themselves.
Regarding your last sentence, I\'d say the latter are just brazen and lacking in self awareness enough to do it. The former though...no way. He is not stupid and not unaware of how things look.