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[Elkchester Road]

Originally Posted by Sysonby

A few people have said that betamethasone is not a PED. It's an inflammatory/painkiller. A sore horse does not run very fast. Therefore, for that horse, betamethasone would act as a PED. It's similar to lidocaine or any other pain killer in that regard. In terms of whether Medina Spirit would have been getting a painkiller benefit from the amount in his system, according to a number of vets, most notably Dr. Mary Scollay, the amount found would have been exerting a pain killing effect. The danger of having a horse run on these types of medication is that track vets would be less likely to recognize a problem and rule the horse out of the race. The horse will be more willing to run past the point of its own safety because its body isn't telling them they have a problem. To dismiss this medication as not being a PED is inaccurate for the reasons stated above.

To those persons who say he should be innocent until proven guilty, first that's the standard in the criminal law. It's not the standard in other areas of the law, and this is an administrative law process. Even so, the standard for proving guilt by the KHRC regulations is the finding of a positive for the substance in a test and then split test. That's happened. So by the standard that he agreed to when entering a horse to race, guilt has already been determined. Everything that's happened since is a scramble to find a mitigating factor.

To those who still believe BB on ointment, there are a few reasons I'm skeptical: poppyseed bagel used to explain a positive test for morphine, salon pas explanation for lidocaine, peeing in the hay to explain another overage, and the list goes on. BB said he didn't even know what beta was even though Gamine had been found with an overage of the same substance less than a year before at the same track. There is absolutely no reason to believe anything this guy says at this point.

Good points and facts, Sysonby.