Punishing the Wrong Entity

[cjestice]

I proposed this concept many years ago to much resistance. Maybe it\'s time to try again.

If Baffert is found guilty, punish him as you will. But, hit his owner(s) just as hard, if not harder.

Any horse they own is banned for 60-90-120 days, regardless if it tested positive or not. Regardless if another trainer has the horse. The owner gets shut out as long as the trainer.

You could take it one step further. All owners with a horse in that trainers barn get shut out for 30 (or more) days.

I know this is rough and there are many other ways to play this, but until the owners pay a price things won\'t change.

[richiebee]

Strict owner liability and the trainer’s absolute insurer rule should not be mixed or used in conjunction. The absolute insurer rule assumes fairly or not that trainer knows all that is going on in their barn. Maybe Baffert would have noticed his groom urinating on a horse’s hay if BB was not a notorious late riser.

While penalizing owners has its good points, will never happen in places where racing offices struggle to fill races.

If an owner is caught authorizing his trainer to use PEDS, different story. Forget 30/60/90. Five year loss of license, minimum.

What concerns me is that on both coasts there are certain owners who ONLY hire the usual suspects. One would think that these owners would add a mere mortal to their roster of trainers for a better optic.