Tsk, tsk: Who's the culprit behind this one?

[Nacumi]

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/racing-news/2007/December/04/Delaware-officials-investigating-sponging-incident.aspx

Rumor has it, sponging still goes on regularly in the region to help horses radically "improve" off their previous form. Unimaginable bastards. In my perfect retributional world, those trainers would be reincarnated as their horses, so they could feel exactly what those poor animals are suffering. It's a pity to call these clowns 'trainers' in the first place. :mad:

[Doc]

Are you insinuating that the trainer of the sponged horse is to blame? Or are you saying you think a rival trainer is behind it?

Doc

[Bristol]

As long as there is wagering on horse races, there will be tampering with race horses. Unfortunately.

[LRL Racing]

Don't really understand comment that sponging improves performance as sponging drastically affects a horse's ability to breathe and has a negative effect on their perfomance. A trainer is NOT sponging his own stock and anyone who thinks they are doesn't understand.

[Pace Cap'n]

I took it to mean the next race, sponge free.

[PaceAdvantage]

A trainer is NOT sponging his own stock and anyone who thinks they are doesn't understand.Yeah, and athletes (and now refs) have never been paid off to throw sporting events by making sure the favorite team loses.....

[Greyfox]

I took it to mean the next race, sponge free.

He could darken the horse's form a number of ways without resorting to sponging.

[LRL Racing]

Almost any trainer does not like to ever mess with a horse's head due to the potential issues with doing so. Alot of horses who have been sponged never run again or they never returned to anywhere near the form before they were sponged. In this particular case the trainer shipped the horse to Lexington, Ky. for surgery thinking it was a tumor and that if it ruptured the horse would bleed to death. Only after they initiated surgery did they find the sponge. Believe me this trainer didn't have anything to do with it.

[PaceAdvantage]

LRL Racing,

I wasn't attempting to claim the trainer had anything to do with it in this case, just that to think it could NEVER happen is silly given human greed....