Will MLB drug suspensions send a message to Horse Racing?

[Track Phantom]

Do these MLB drug suspensions have any affect on horse racing at all?

Why is it that when I read and watch the information coming out about these significant suspensions from MLB that I feel most major league sports are trying to eradicate the drug issue but hose racing continues as if nothing is happening?

[Cannon shell]

Do these MLB drug suspensions have any affect on horse racing at all?

Why is it that when I read and watch the information coming out about these significant suspensions from MLB that I feel most major league sports are trying to eradicate the drug issue but hose racing continues as if nothing is happening?
You are kidding right? MLB stumbled onto these guys because of a disgruntled employee of Biogenesis and people act as though MLB did some great job. Significant suspensions? Hardly. The MLB PED's used are the equivalent of a class 1 penalty in horseracing which now carries a penalty far greater than 1/3 of a season.

But of course you can believe whatever you would like...

[Tom]

Probably, A Rod will get a job working for some well known stable in the metropolitan area.

[LottaKash]

Do these MLB drug suspensions have any affect on horse racing at all?

Why is it that when I read and watch the information coming out about these significant suspensions from MLB that I feel most major league sports are trying to eradicate the drug issue but hose racing continues as if nothing is happening?

I laughed out very loud when I first read this thread title....It startled my dog...:jump:

[horses4courses]

Probably, A Rod will get a job working for some well known stable in the metropolitan area.

How about going into a partnership on a pharmacy with some currently suspended NY trainer?

[wiffleball whizz]

It was funny....I think it's old news already....

Only way to stop drugs is to suspend the horse

[Chris Longshot]

Probably, A Rod will get a job working for some well known stable in the metropolitan area.

Ironically there was a report here in NY that A-Rod recieved steroids from a horse trainer in Miami a while back...no joke..

[Stillriledup]

It was funny....I think it's old news already....

Only way to stop drugs is to suspend the horse

Or permit horse bettors to sue the connections for money they lost betting on the runner up to the drugged horse. That might stop some of these guys too if they got dragged into court and had to answer to a horsebettor who wanted his money.

You could also put the cuffs on them and toss them in jail for tampering with a sporting contest. Catch some trainer who has multiple violations and charge him with x counts of fixing horse races, toss the book at him.

You could also charge trainers for malpractice and animal cruelty, Paragallo went to jail (or was close to going to jail, don't know the ins and outs of his case) for starving horses yet some trainers have multiple dead bodies on their hands and nobody says a word or cares. If it was Michael Vick you get tossed in jail, if you're a horse trainer with dead bodies in your barn, nobody seems to mind, maybe Vick should have been having "horse fights" and could have just said he has a license to be a horse trainer, he could have avoided jail.

I've wondered why horse racing seems largely "Exempt" from real life laws, if you want to commit a crime, get into horse racing, outside authorities won't arrest you or charge you with a real life crime, your penalty will just be handled "in house" under the idea that you broke a 'racing rule'.

[wiffleball whizz]

I think what gets lost in the shuffle with drug suspensions is the animal cruelty aspect.....that's what get lost

[grant miller]

If horse rcing were honest about drugs & gassed up horses we would see 3-4 horse fields, (esp. harness racing)

[burnsy]

I laughed out very loud when I first read this thread title....It startled my dog...:jump:

Me too...............are you kidding me? Baseball has been turning a blind eye for DECADES. They are WORSE than horse racing and ANY other sport. Its hilarious how the media runs around turning the spotlight from one thing to another and people follow it like moths on a summer night. Yeah ok, if horse racing was to be like major league baseball the drug problem would go away......:lol: :lol: :lol:
The truth: If horse racing operated like baseball with the players union....there would barely be any teasting at all!........wake up and think....stop listening to that idiot box!.....FOX NEWS, MSNBC AND CNN...even ESPN...try thinking about things logically for yourself...take the blinkers off.....the sunlight feels good......:lol: BASESBALL IS THE WORST DRUG OFFENDER OF ALL PROFESSIONAL SPORTS COMBINED !

[TheEdge07]

Me too...............are you kidding me? Baseball has been turning a blind eye for DECADES. They are WORSE than horse racing and ANY other sport. Its hilarious how the media runs around turning the spotlight from one thing to another and people follow it like moths on a summer night. Yeah ok, if horse racing was to be like major league baseball the drug problem would go away......:lol: :lol: :lol:
The truth: If horse racing operated like baseball with the players union....there would barely be any teasting at all!........wake up and think....stop listening to that idiot box!.....FOX NEWS, MSNBC AND CNN...even ESPN...try thinking about things logically for yourself...take the blinkers off.....the sunlight feels good......:lol: BASESBALL IS THE WORST DRUG OFFENDER OF ALL PROFESSIONAL SPORTS COMBINED !


Horse racing has also turned a blind eye..

[thaskalos]

Drug use is much more damaging in horse racing...because this "sport" relies solely on the wagers of its fans for its existence. Every time a race outcome has been altered as a result of drug use, an injustice has occurred which has caused wrongful financial loss for the unsuspecting fan.

An industry that ruthlessly collects an onerous takeout while at the same time allowing the drug problem within the sport to reach the epic proportions we see today clearly demonstrates the utter disregard and disrespect that this industry has for the fans who have supported this game for all these decades. Such an industry deserves no fans...and such a game must, inevitably, end up in dire straits and struggling for its survival...having to beg for outside help. This is exactly where the game finds itself today.

This industry has raped their loyal fans for as long as they could without the slightest remorse...and they are now on the lookout for an entire different game to offer to an entirely different fan base.

This is what heartless, thoughtless businesses call "business expansion"... :rolleyes:

[rastajenk]

Has there ever been a race that was "proven" to have an altered outcome due to drug use? Wouldn't one need to know what the should-have-been result is to prove any alterations? And the only way to know that is dangerously close to race-fixing. A positive for an overage of a permissable drug is not proof.

[thaskalos]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/sports/horse-racing-discovers-new-drug-problem-one-linked-to-frogs.html?_r=0

[JimG]

A-Rod should do fine taking over the Richard Dutrow stable.

[Stillriledup]

R-Rod should do fine taking over the Richard Dutrow stable.


FTFY. ;)

[tucker6]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/sports/horse-racing-discovers-new-drug-problem-one-linked-to-frogs.html?_r=0
From the article you posted:

Ms. Hartmann said she did not believe the use of dermorphin was widespread. “The vast majority of horsemen would never subject their horse to this kind of chemical experimentation,” she said.


What do all of you feel is the percentage of owners/trainers that knowingly allow their horses to be drugged?? Honest question because I don't know the answer. "Vast majority" to me means 90% don't use illegal drugs of any type. And yet, I sense the numbers to be much higher. What say you??

Edit to add that even though she specifically says that horsemen wouldn't subject their horses to this kind of experimentation, the fact is that once you start down the road of drug use, there is no more lines that one needs to cross to get to frog juice. Once you're into drugs, you're into drugs.

[BillW]

Do these MLB drug suspensions have any affect on horse racing at all?

Why is it that when I read and watch the information coming out about these significant suspensions from MLB that I feel most major league sports are trying to eradicate the drug issue but hose racing continues as if nothing is happening?

MLB just sent the message that cheating is worth the risk. Juice up and possible add $10MM to your lifetime salary (Who knows, $50MM???) and risk a 51 game suspension oooh scary. Same is true in horseracing, maybe on a different scale.

[Stillriledup]

MLB just sent the message that cheating is worth the risk. Juice up and possible add $10MM to your lifetime salary (Who knows, $50MM???) and risk a 51 game suspension oooh scary. Same is true in horseracing, maybe on a different scale.

No doubt. The penalties are very light. Its like telling a bank robber if you rob a bank and get away with millions and get caught, not only will we let you keep the millions, but the punishment will be either 51 days on Manhattan Beach sipping Pina Coladas (horse trainer) or a suspension where you can't rob any other banks for 51 days. (baseball player).

[Valuist]

Me too...............are you kidding me? Baseball has been turning a blind eye for DECADES. They are WORSE than horse racing and ANY other sport. Its hilarious how the media runs around turning the spotlight from one thing to another and people follow it like moths on a summer night. Yeah ok, if horse racing was to be like major league baseball the drug problem would go away......:lol: :lol: :lol:
The truth: If horse racing operated like baseball with the players union....there would barely be any teasting at all!........wake up and think....stop listening to that idiot box!.....FOX NEWS, MSNBC AND CNN...even ESPN...try thinking about things logically for yourself...take the blinkers off.....the sunlight feels good......:lol: BASESBALL IS THE WORST DRUG OFFENDER OF ALL PROFESSIONAL SPORTS COMBINED !

Lets not kid ourselves. If the NFL wanted to crack down, there would be nobody left to play. I think everyone knows it, but the records in the game aren't held to as lofty heights as baseball. Its no surprise the average life expectancy for an NFL player is about 54, 55 years of age.

[thaskalos]

From the article you posted:

Ms. Hartmann said she did not believe the use of dermorphin was widespread. “The vast majority of horsemen would never subject their horse to this kind of chemical experimentation,” she said.


What do all of you feel is the percentage of owners/trainers that knowingly allow their horses to be drugged?? Honest question because I don't know the answer. "Vast majority" to me means 90% don't use illegal drugs of any type. And yet, I sense the numbers to be much higher. What say you??

Edit to add that even though she specifically says that horsemen wouldn't subject their horses to this kind of experimentation, the fact is that once you start down the road of drug use, there is no more lines that one needs to cross to get to frog juice. Once you're into drugs, you're into drugs.

What surprised me most was how many of those horses who were found to be racing under the effects of the frog juice had actually won the last race that they had raced in. It was a remarkable percentage...something like 80%, I think.

A drug that proves to be this effective is not likely to remain seldom-used for long...

[Tom]

MLB just sent the message that cheating is worth the risk. Juice up and possible add $10MM to your lifetime salary (Who knows, $50MM???) and risk a 51 game suspension oooh scary. Same is true in horseracing, maybe on a different scale.

Exactly!

If the ban is not for life, it is not effective.
Anyone who thinks a lifetime ban is excessive, it is really simply to avoid - don't do it.

Zero tolerance.
At least in Baseball, it dosen't matter what damage the drugs do to the idiots who use them. In racing, horses have no say in the matter.

[Stillriledup]

Exactly!

If the ban is not for life, it is not effective.
Anyone who thinks a lifetime ban is excessive, it is really simply to avoid - don't do it.

Zero tolerance.
At least in Baseball, it dosen't matter what damage the drugs do to the idiots who use them. In racing, horses have no say in the matter.

Baseball, in a way, are like horse owners...they "secretly" want their players and trainers to cheat, but when the idea of cheating is brought up to them, they'll say "i'm against cheating".

Its funny how they're all "against" cheating while at the same time, profiting off of it.

[Cannon shell]

What surprised me most was how many of those horses who were found to be racing under the effects of the frog juice had actually won the last race that they had raced in. It was a remarkable percentage...something like 80%, I think.
.
Probably because only the winners and maybe a random horse are tested in many of the lower tier states. You won't get many non-winning positive tests if those horses are rarely tested.

[appistappis]

this just in...........marlins win 15th in a row since hiring kirk zaide

[iceknight]

Exactly!

If the ban is not for life, it is not effective.
Anyone who thinks a lifetime ban is excessive, it is really simply to avoid - don't do it.

Zero tolerance.
At least in Baseball, it dosen't matter what damage the drugs do to the idiots who use them. In racing, horses have no say in the matter. Actually, what I do not understand.. why the heck do they needs drugs to perform better at baseball? I mean, sprinting in 100/200m, bicycle races, even (american) football, soccer, field hockey etc I can understand the need for speed and power..
baseball seems to be a lazy person's game.. what next steroids in curling and golf?

[appistappis]

Actually there has already been a curler caught and suspended and some believe tiger's whole marriage breakup thing was a coverup for his coming off of something.

[Just a Fan]

The severity of the suspensions won't impact horse racing. But I would like to think that maybe horse racing can take a page from baseball, in terms of how MLB caught these guys. Its pretty clear that the cheaters have been a step or 2 ahead of the testers for a long time. But maybe the policing focus should expand from just testing post race samples to becoming an investigative unit that can find the sources and track the shipments and transactions of illegal drugs.

If you're a baseball fan, its disheartening, but not totally surprising, that most of the guys that were suspended never failed a test. You have to believe the same thing happens in horse racing.

[Fingal]

One learn from the other ? Not until they can learn from their own. I keep thinking of the last couple lines of Don McLean's song Vincent-

They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will

[tucker6]

Actually there has already been a curler caught and suspended and some believe tiger's whole marriage breakup thing was a coverup for his coming off of something.
Yeah, Tiger was coming off a waitress from Perkins.