Randi Persaud

[TheBull]

Again, you are generalizing racing vs. the entire population. It isn\'t a school or practicing/enforcing law, or medicine. This is a sport...one that is contested for millions of dollars daily, via purse money, gambling, and breeding/selling. The health of the sport does not depend on closing your eyes real hard, and hoping everyone acts with integrity because they are SUPPOSED to do so. It comes from governing bodies punishing and removing those that don\'t. And as immature or sad or pathetic as you think my position is, it is a position based in reality, not in a philosophy textbook or ethics classroom.

I own horses, I breed horses, I race and sell horses, and I can promise you no trainer or owner is saying \"Man, I wish that Jorge Navarro would change his ways and have some integrity.\" The complaints are to the racing officials and powers that be, to punish and get rid of such criminals. Anytime you have so much money at stake, people are going to try to cheat. When the governing bodies who oversee the sport KNOW the cheating is going on and do little or nothing about it, you\'re damn right that display of a lack of integrity is the problem. Any other way you slice it would be, like I said, naive.

[billk5300s]

What makes me crazy about this stuff is that they\'re hurting themselves in the long run.  Illinois is the prototype example of where this will go.  Harness racing is almost completely gone and Arlimgton Park which is by far the nicest race track in the US runs a summer meet that makes Finger Lakes look like Saratoga.