Team Valor's Irwin on online chat Friday

[P-Dub]

cubfan0316 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> barry bonds says he didnt know what his trainer
> was giving him, hes innocent? somebody listed as
> trainer is liable, he has to make sure the horse
> is drug free. simple.

That is a completely different argument.

To make the same analogy.......if Bonds\' trainer gave him legal supplements, then another trainer (off the record) gave him illegal supplements, would you arrest his trainer of record for giving him illegal supplements?? Sorry, but  not simple as you think.

[bobphilo]

Hallelujah HP!!! I have long held that "juicers" should be prosecuted as the animal abusers they are. You are definitely not alone in your feelings on this.
First of all it would be another way of getting to these cheats when the tracks will not. Furthermore ignoring this aspect of drug use plays right into the hands of the anti-racing people who contend that the racing establishment heartlessly views horses as mere betting icons – in the words of Bill Maher. It also happens to be he right thing to do.
I personally feel that every horse who suffers a catastrophic breakdown in a race should be tested and the trainer charged if it comes back positive.

The excuse that someone else must have snuck in and injected the horse has never stood up in the courts when trainers with positives (Pletcher) have used it as a defense. The good reason for this is that the trainer who collects fees for taking control of the horse must also assume responsibility for the animal. The buck stops with the guy in charge.

Bob

[imallin]

What needs to be done is this. Every racetrack needs to have enough \'holding barns\' at the track. As soon as entries are drawn, each entrant is to be quarantined in the 48-72 hour barn (depending on when entries are drawn).

There needs to be heavy security there, security cameras and the like. Vets are not allowed to touch the racehorse in any capacity unless their name appears on the program as a person who came in contact with the racehorse. You are betting on horses and there are mysterious people running around with little black bags and no one knows their names...thats got to stop.

Also,if a vet has to attend ANY racehorse, the record of his visit needs to be recorded and made public. If the vet does throat surgery, that needs to be in the program. If a blacksmith changes the shoes, that needs to be in the program.

At each racetrack, there should be a video monitor with a running grid of information. When each horse gets to the paddock, there needs to be a slip of paper listing all that horses latest treatments. That slip of paper gets entered asap into a computer program and appears instantly on the scroll all around the track on select tv monitors that just relay late information on that days runners.

There\'s a million things racing can do and guess what? They aren\'t doing any of them and do you know why? Because racetracks are independents...they are not part of a \'racing league\' like the NBA or the NFL....so, what incentive would each individual racetrack have to implement things that cost money, yet, at the same time, DONT increase handle?

Imagine sending my proposal to a racetrack and say, \"hey,here\'s a good idea\" The racetrack will say, \"is this step you are recommending going to COST us money or MAKE us money?\"

Would you bet more money if you knew that every horse was under lock and key for 48-72 hours before the race under intense security? Racetracks don\'t think you\'ll raise your betting...thats probably why nothing ever gets done.

[HP]

Good ideas there Imallin.  Thanks for the positive feedback Bobphilo.  Imallin -- the types of situations you described in your first response to my post are faced by folks across MANY industries.  All kinds of skullduggery COULD take place, but then you proceeded to list some good ideas to make it work and you also did a good job of outlining the obstacles...  I think there must be SOME work-able solution to protect horses and horsemen alike while bringing the long arm of the law to bear when necessary...

HP

[imallin]

Thanks HP for the kudos.

You are right, something HAS to get done. Enough of the lip service, the horseplayers want ACTION.

Racing is SO far behind the times its amazing.

Racing needs a governmental agency like the FDA, for example. If there was a body that was government run in racing, they can force tracks to pay for better testing or detention barns or anything they deemed that would make the sport more honest. What about the IOC, international Olympic committee? Why can\'t racing have the NRC (national racing committee) that tells people to jump and they say, \"how high?\"

We need an agency that says to Magna or Churchill, \"you have to have every horse in every race under intense scrutiny, 48-72 hours before the race\" and if they don\'t comply, that agency can shut down that racetrack.

Until that happens, Magna and Churchill don\'t have to do anything they don\'t want to do. Its all lipservice.