Drug Free Handicapping

[KMS]

Suppose drugs really are banned from racing. How might handicapping change? I assume that most of are not old enough to have ever experienced drug-free racing. Your thoughts? A couple of mine are that it will be harder to hide an unfit horse, but consistency will also suffer, ie, it will be harder for horses to repeat good performances, so there will be more "bounces."

[GameTheory]

Maybe we can use all those old systems -- "must have raced in the last 15 days", etc...

[Hammerhead]

Drug free racing? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Most of these A HOLES Trainers never woke up in the morning with out a snort. A bunch of the nags probably never seen a sober day.

[chickenhead]

sometimes drugs are beneficial to the handicapper. depends on the setting.

[KMS]

sometimes drugs are beneficial to the handicapper. depends on the setting.

It would no doubt change the way we handicap races. That's not a reason to be against it, just a fact of life. It would be interesting to go through past performances from 40-50 years ago, or however far back it takes to get out of the pharmaceutical era, and see if our methods would have worked back then.

[beenacoach]

Here is a news flash for you. NO ONE is old enough to remember drug free racing because it has never existed.

Legal or illegal drugs have probably been a part of racing since about the second or third race ever run.

I first got involved in racing some forty years ago. Drugs were a part of racing then and the old timers on the backside talked about how drugs were a part of the game when they were kids as well.

I love to read about the drug free racing in Japan and Europe. Makes me smile every time as I have no doubt at all that a person on the back side there that was trusted would see drugs of some kind being used there.

Horses, dogs, humans, cars, if it is being raced there are people in the races trying to gain an unfair advantage by using things they are not supposed to.

Anyone that thinks Lasix and Bute are big problems is kidding themselves. I have a son-in law that is a bull rider. He routinely takes a large dose of asperine prior to riding in order to help with the pain and inflamation he is sure to have the night and day after riding. Small doses of Bute do nothing more or less than that. I am not aware of any dangerous side effects of lasix. The worst thing about lasix is that it sometimes can mask other drugs that are illegal.

I am not saying that there should not be efforts made to clean up the illegal drugs being used. Far from it. I am saying that bute and lasix are not really a problem and that anyone that thinks racing was drug free in the good old days is fooling themselves.

[Imriledup]

If racing was drug free, handicappers who had the ability to evaluate the actual talent of every racehorse in accurate fashion would eventually have all the money. With no drugs, people who weren't handicappers would never have a shot to win any money betting only because they would actually have to handicap....as opposed to just betting on the horse they knew was plugged in.

Not that every 'plugged in' horse wins, but enough of them win that if you knew who was getting the sauce, you would cash enough bets to at least hold your own even if you didn't have the first clue about horse racing.

[BUD]

sometimes drugs are beneficial to the handicapper. depends on the setting.

He's correct..without mine I can't walk....

[Tom]

sometimes drugs are beneficial to the handicapper. depends on the setting.

I can't handicap without them!:rolleyes:

Serioulsy, though, I think synth surfaces are vringing back the need for condition due the non-carry-you-to-the-wire aspects of them. Horses eem ot need more fitness than early speed on many of them. DelMar last year was a schooling in current form for me. I still lost every race, but on much fitter horses than ever before. :bang:

[DJofSD]

sometimes drugs are beneficial to the handicapper. depends on the setting.

:lol:

My present moment drug of choice is caffine.

[GameTheory]

The biggest problems with Lasix and Bute are as masking agents, and the fact that everybody uses them even if not needed. Like Van Berg said, it is not like these horses have a choice. If we go to "drug free" racing, that doesn't mean they are going to ban medicine for horses anyway, just can't have anything in the system on race day, and no steroids, etc anytime...

[magwell]

Years ago they would take a "piss test" they just went thru the motions, had no clue what they were looking for...... most horses were "hopped".... then about 30 yrs ago they started testing for REAL and now you see the real world of "betting on horses" only thing that changed is the names of the players.:)

[tmh]

i believe guys 20- 30 years ago could get awy with alot of stuff, van berg included, drug testing has become unbelievably better over the last 10-15 years that i think its harder to "get awya with things" than in the past. i think there is a need for drug testing but just think if all drugs were taken away fromhuman athletes what would we have. bute is similar to aspirin. football and baseball players are always injected with cortisone,see kurt schilling, horses are high class athletes and the need some help. outlawing all drugs is not the answer,some yes,but not all.

[Robert Fischer]

it would be bad for a week or two, and then I would be fine

:D

[Greyfox]

A Midsummer's Night Dream.

Why am I reminded of it?

[garyoz]

A Midsummer's Night Dream.

Why am I reminded of it?

Someone here remind you of Puck?

[Greyfox]

Someone here remind you of Puck?

I was probably associating with dreaming more than anything as the sport will always have chemists ahead of the curve. In some threads, Puck comes to mind. In others Botom the Weaver.