you\'re so very wrong about drugs not overcoming genetics.
the favorite line back in he 90s by the doping deniers in cycling was, \"you can\'t turn a mule into a thoroughbred.\" but that is exactly what happened--fat cyclists who couldn\'t even finish the tour de france before EPO (like one recently exposed fraud), were flying up mountains, making the tiny columbians--the best climbers in the world before EPO-- look like out of shape non-atheletes trying to get their bikes over speed bumps.
greg lemond, who was probably the most genetically gifted person to ever pedal a bike, couldn\'t even hold the wheels of domestiques in the early 90s; and andy hampsted, the best natural climber america has ever produced (and one of the best climbers of all time, dropped out in the middle of race, walking away from the sport forever in the early 90s, and all he said when asked why, and he only said it once, was\"what\'s the use?\"
just like in cycling, you\'ll never know which horses are the natural talents now. but unlike in cycling, these artificial talents are creating whole generations of untalented horses, who will dominate the sport due to chemists, not genetics.
the thing i\'ve tried to stress in my posts about this here is that doping does not confer its benefits equally. the benefits for the genetically superior are almost non-existent; but for the genetically unfit, the benefits are astronomical, because there is a ceiling to improvement. if you are born near or at that ceiling, you have no where to go, and doping only keeps you in the race, plus the lack of results, reduces the incentive to dope. where as with he mules, the incredible results turns you into a fiend who dopes year long, thus reaping the benefits of doping during training (which are significant).
the belmont woke shug up--he knew what his horse could do against this crop in a field closely monitored for doping, and he saw what his horse couldn\'t do, but almost did, against this crop in field where he was only one of two clean horses in the race. that\'s why orb has been at fairhill all summer--hyperbaric treatments do promote healing, but more than that they increase the body\'s ability to process oxygen--just like EPO. he\'s trying to give his horse a fighting chance.
orb\'s belmont should be heralded as one of, if not the, best perfomances all year--instead he\'s mocked for it. it sickens me--but i applaud shug. he\'s too classy to call out those he knows are cheating, but he\'s trying to level the playing field in the only way he can without actually resorting to doping himself. i don\'t know if it will be enough; after watching the whitney yesterday, i\'ve started to think i have to walk away from this sport too.
make no mistake doping--any kind of doping, no matter how small--is cheating. and like andy said, in sport dominated by cheating, what\'s the use?
