California Drug Meeting

[TGJB]

As mentioned in the article I attached to the \"Progress, Maybe\" post, there is a meeting scheduled for 10:00 a.m Tuesday Pacific time in the Baldwin Room at Santa Anita to discuss proposed changes in the drug rules in California. I urge any of you that might be in the area to attend and make yourselves heard. I know of one TG poster so far that will be there.

I have been in contact with some of the local powers-that-be, suggesting that it is not only horsemen that have a dog in this fight, and they have been much more responsive than those in their positions usually are. Specifically, I have been pushing 3 things-- listing a vet of record in the program, freezing of blood samples, and publishing of C02 results on a daily basis. The last is significant because it tells us that a) the samples really are being taken, b) the tests are really being done, and c) the results are not being sat on. Yes, they could falsify the results-- but that would make the tracks active participants in what might very well be criminal activity, and I don\'t think they would risk it.

Just to make the scope of the problem clear, I have reason to believe that one major racing jurisdiction, which has rules against milkshakes, was not testing at their most recent meet. Possibly not even on a very big day. The problem is not that the cheaters are ahead in technology-- it\'s that there is little or no serious enforcement.

[Dana666]

Wish I could be there in person.

I can tell you whatever testing they were doing at the recently concluded Hollywood Park meet was either ineffective or non-existent, and,interestingly, certain smoking-hot trainers at the Hollywood Park meet have gone ice cold -- perhaps it\'s just a coincidence???

My guess is they must have already stepped up the testing at Santa Anita because I\'ve seen far fewer (but still a few) \"suspicious\" races.

Your suggestions mentioned in your post would be an excellent start.

I hope someone at the meeting mentions the plight of gamblers who wager large sums of money on a regular basis and their growing discontent at the obvious cheating going on. If they keep this up, they are going to lose us to other racing circuits.

[ditz]

Geez,So it\'s not just in N.Y.  !!!

[TGJB]

Dana-- I have been told that someone is going to make EXACTLY that point at the meeting. If others show up and do it it will be even better.

[fkach]

I don\'t know anything about the drug situation in CA, but couldn\'t the switch to an artificial surface at Hollywood and now back to real dirt have something to do with the results at Hollywood vs. SA.  Perhaps training over it, training for a certain running style, or other factors were at work. If I recall, they were actually having difficulty stabilizing the Hollywood track early on. They were adding water and reducing and increasing the work on the track for awhile.

[TGJB]

fkach-- look, I\'m trying to be polite, but you are completely uninformed about this stuff when you talk about contamination of samples, unpredictable results, track conditions, etc. Serious handicappers-- who use serious data-- can see that certain trainers REPEATEDLY are getting horses\' performances to improve DRAMATICALLY overnight. On top of that, some of us within the industry are privy to FACTUAL information about non-published positives, vets who are making things happen, high CO2 readings, and other things. We\'re having a completely different conversation than you are.

[fkach]

\"certain trainers REPEATEDLY are getting horses\' performances to improve DRAMATICALLY overnight.\"

Oh, I wholeheartedly agree with that. A few trainers are almost obviously cheating.

However, I have also seen many strange form reversals at the artificial tracks outside CA. There was a tendency for early speed to be disadvantaged relative to normal, deep closers to do better than expected, and turfers to do better than you would typically expect on dirt.

So if we are talking about the last two meets specifically, I think that\'s going to make it difficult to the make the case against any of the trainers in question without clear cut positives as evidence. I hope they have them. Otherwise, they\'ll just claim their horse liked one surface and didn\'t like the other.

[basket777]

comon  this last few moths have been the greatest.have you ever seen better prices in ca?  there are big fields and horse that have wonderful form on dirt that are paying big big numbers.  the switch back and forth from astro dirt to dirt has been wonderful

[marcus]

I\'m not seeing as many wire jobs on the new surfaces , although in recent months , I do notice more of them . My big question is not amplitude or degree of a given track bias , but rather the duration of the cycle ( if indeed there is one  ) .

 I can\'t say too much more about poly/synth surfaces except that it\'s still so new and initial results are barely in ...  Jerry has mentioned that the new suface\'s are no problem to work with in terms of making speed figures , so there must be some trends evolving in how to bet it as well .

Tommorrow\'s meeting in Ca will have a bigger impact on racing than the new surfaces , and it looks like anything less than what Jerry has proposed is not real refrorm - so if doesn\'t happen tomorrow , it might never happen ...

[Ron G.]

For those of us that can\'t make the meeting, is there an e-mail address we can send comments to?

[marcus]

if you dial in a live search , you can get to the CHRB web site . i\'m going to contact them in the morning and pass along on Jerry\'s recomendations with the added suggestion or two - including ,  where they can go by not doing anything now ... and also , in all seriousness - the creation a \" med web site \" to be used in addition to the track program for disemination of info and disclosure  ...

[TGJB]

As Marcus says, the CHRB is probably the place. I would focus on horseplayers being irate and unwilling to bet on races unless we get proper info and something is done about the cheating, rather than on specific recommendations.

I should know something about the meeting by late afternoon eastern time.

[TGJB]

First reports are that the meeting lasted 4 hours (just broke up), and went as well as possibly could have been expected. Don\'t have full details yet, but there is some very radical stuff on the table, with a follow-up meeting two weeks from today. More to follow, we\'ll see what happens.

[fkach]

From the DRF:

\"The medication committee of the California Horse Racing Board on Tuesday recommended that California adopt stricter penalties for drug infractions..... and begin to draft rules banning the use of anabolic steroids.\"

I can think of a bunch of very famous trainers that have have been using this \"legal\" advantage that are going to be impacted negatively if this ever gets implemented nationally at some point in the future!

[miff]

Anabolic steroids are used by many outfits big and small and is a non issue in the real illegal performance enhancer problem.

Mike