NY Daily News Article On Drugs and Horse Racing

[Cangamble]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2008/04/26/2008-04-26_sports_drug_world_takes_center_stage_wit-2.html

[DJofSD]

Horse racing spends $35 million a year to keep the game clean, according to Alex Waldrop, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. "I think the industry is more united than ever on performance-enhancing drugs," Waldrop says. "There is testing using urine and blood and we are increasingly moving towards plasma testing. It's more stable and more accurate and it's easier to collect. One thing we have discussed with Congress is that we believe our testing methods are superior to testing of humans."

There might be $35 million spent a year but I question everything else about this statement. He asserts it is spent to keep the game clean. Poppycock. That dollar figure likely is the total bill for all testing performed by all labs for the year. It does not mean that is used to enforce the laws and regulations.

If the industry was a united as the biased, self-serving spokesmouth says it is then why are there still drug positives and people like Biancone still involved?

Increasingly moving towards plasma testing sounds really nice but if the industry is as united as he would like us to believe I would expect there to be a demand by the participants to adapt the plasma testing immediately.

You can wave your hands and make noise about superior testing when compared to the testing of humans but if you don't swiftly and severely punish those that cheat then what good is it?

And finally, when will some of these hard questions be asked of these industry reps?