California Drug Meeting

[fkach]

Steroids are performance enhancers. If they aren\'t being used by everyone all the time or no one any of the time then some people have an advantage. It\'s bad enough people are doing illegal things, why in the world would an industry allow an obvious performance enhancer like steriods to be used legally. They should be banned from top to bottom including and maybe especially by breeders looking to inflate yearling prices at the expense of owners.

In addition, when they are used by some outfits, it makes it more difficult to tell why a horse improved sharply after a few months in the hands of a new trainer.

Did it improve because of legal activity or illegal activity?

They sometimes get lumped together.

[miff]

Fkach,

Anabolic steroids have been used on horses for over 20 years that I am aware of.There has never been too much of an issue about them since they are legal. Some trainers are concerned about higher risks of bleeding and other side issues.Breeding has been affected imo since no one really knows what the long term effect of steroid use does to a stud or their offspring.Many blame pure speed breeding but I think there are other factors too.

Giving a horse steroids for the first time is probably not going to do much, performance wise, since they are usually administered in \"program\" fashion over time(like gym guys/athletes sometimes use them)

There seems to be far too many people taking their eye off the \"real\" ball re the drug thing. For two years I have followed this detention barn, shake test thing and I see the same usual suspects winning at their normal rate at all the major tracks, for the most part.This is a bandaid on an gunshot wound and talk to 10 honest trainers in NY and they will tell you the same thing.

Guys gotta have their money forefeited as ill gotten gains, go to jail, and be banned for life if caught deliberately administering a performing enhancing substance. Short of that, all players are being jerked o-- by the people who run racing in this country.There is an expensive promising solution on the table, a serious super test,and yet no venue will move on it.How come?,if they are serious about doing away with illegal stuff.In fairness to NYRA, they can just make payroll at this time.

Instead of some of these bullshit positives for nano contaminations, let them freeze samples and let all the trainers know that super testing is here along with possible jail, banishment and loss of their money.Wanna bet things change in a new york minute.

Incidentally, in California, not surprisinly,they speak of making the owners liable and changing barns during suspension etc.They are smoking good stuff out there to think that the multi-millionaire owners won\'t have that killed in court in a heartbeat or just tell them to shove it.Can\'t you just see Sheik Mohammed,e.g. being told he is going to be held responsible for a drug infraction, BRILLIANT!!

Mike

[fkach]

Miff,

I agree with everything you said. I just also believe that steroids are a problem. In fact, I think you did a very good job of creating a list of the potential problems even though you don\'t seem equally concerned.

I don\'t think it\'s a good thing when a mediocre horse is taken over by a high percentage trainer, sent to a farm for 2 months, and returns a wonder horse. I think that makes it more difficult for cencerned parties to tell if he\'s a great horseman, used legal high octane steroids to turn the horse around, or used illegal drugs.

As I mentioned before, I just bet the damn horses if I can find a subset of them that are profitable over the long haul. So it has no impact on me personally. I no longer own horses and never trained. I just can\'t see how it can be a good thing overall. I\'d prefer 100% clean racing other than treatment for physical problems with a long enough timeframe between treatment and racing to ensure the horse is clean for race day.

F.Kach

[sighthound]

check out today\'s DRF online - interesting comments by Baffert and Knapp.

And check out, \"LaBocetta pleads guilty\"

[marcus]

interesting drf ca med article\'s that seem to ( perhaps inadvertantly ) advance the case and need for national standards ...