Convicted drug offenders have now swept racing's Holy Grail

[rosewood]

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/triplecrown08/columns/story?columnist=plonk_jeremy&id=3384622

[smalltimer]

I find myself rooting for Asmussen, Pletcher, and Dick Dutrow in the same fashion as rooting for Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa.
What will McGwire, Sosa and Bonds legacy be?  The same as the other big three?
Once public opinion has been formed, all the p.r. in the world won\'t change it.

[Uncle Buck]

Well written article. But what does it tell us that we don\'t already know? I would rather read about clear cut solutions to move the game forward.

[Lost Cause]

Of all of the breakdowns mentioned in the article...George Washington\'s made me ill..It seemed that the connections wanted that horse to break down to collect insurance money because he was a dud as a stud..He had no business in that race..

[rosewood]

Buck,

It\'s kinda like the poker analogy that if your sitting at the table and you don\'t know who the sucker is; your probably it.

What good does it do to lock the derby horses up for 24 hours and then not test them after the race. What all did they test for? It was in Kentucky you know.

As JB likes to think that we can just get the new people from poker on line players, the difference is that poker on line gives you are square shot.

It would be interesting to see JB\'s milkshake study if he could show the horses that should have run first from the figs and were beat by horses with high TCO2 levels and bad figs. That is assuming that if you taught all the poker players what their true chance should be if they correctly read the TG figs and PP\'s they could cash accordingly.

Milkshakes are at the lower end of the drug fixing and minor in comparison to designer steroids. Does Lasix mask other drugs or is every horse in the U.S. a bleeder?

Some on this board who have lots of disposable income to throw away should buy some horses and pay some feed bills and run them against Mullins,O\'Neil,Lake,Dutrow,etc for a few years and then they could really enjoy the game.

I think Richibee has pointed out forever that until they start taking stalls away nothing will change. A $500 fine and 15 day suspension which is usually suspended for a year is a joke. Biancobra banned everywhere in the world and I guess he will have his stalls back in a few more days.

When the top 2% is the total pool, I wonder what the toteboard will look like?

Baseball and football had national organizations and craz\'s long before steroids were exposed by a jealous coach who\'s juice wasn\'t as good as the stuff he was getting beat by. Who gives a shit that Barry Bonds can\'t get it up and some assholes who pumped up have big tits?

Please excuse all the ramblings. All you have to do is follow the money.

[jma11473]

Not defending the trainers who have had drug violations, but I\'ll point out that baseball is filled with people who have had drug violations or are suspected to (the same way we suspect a bunch of trainers). Despite this and the poor economy, attendance continues to boom---at record levels so far this season in fact. Is the difference that the horses don\'t have a choice in the matter? Maybe so.