Is the Drug Bill about the destroy the business of Horse Racing?

[andymays]

http://trainingdays365.blogspot.com/...to-stupid.html

Excerpt:

If you have gotten to this point I ask just one thing of you. Read the bill that is proposed. It is a piece of garbage that should cost Whitfield and Udall their seats for sponsoring such a joke of a bill. The severe lack of clarity or specifics is appalling for Communist China let alone America.

[FenceBored]

For those who would like to read the bill before they vote on it:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.1733:

[Robert Goren]

If horse racing continues to refuse to clean up its own act, then the Feds will. From a bettors point, this bill is better than what we have now, but then again anything would be.

[lamboguy]

the drug bill can only improve racing. i rather see 3 horse fields with horses that are not on drugs than 12 horses that have horses in them that are stoned out of their minds.

[rastajenk]

You'd rather see them, but would you rather bet on them?

I didn't think so.

[comet52]

Horsemen will adjust and eventually thank the congress for weaning them off their addiction to dope.

[thaskalos]

Originally Posted by andymays

http://trainingdays365.blogspot.com/...to-stupid.html

Excerpt:

If you have gotten to this point I ask just one thing of you. Read the bill that is proposed. It is a piece of garbage that should cost Whitfield and Udall their seats for sponsoring such a joke of a bill. The severe lack of clarity or specifics is appalling for Communist China let alone America.

The impassioned plea of "Horse Trainer" is duly noted...but I have a question for HIM:

While he was training horses and earning untold "millions" for his clients...did he ever stop to consider the plight of the horseplayer...who, after all, shoulders the burden of making sure that those MILLIONS of dollars remain available for the taking?

Why couldn't the racing "industry" take the proper measures to clean up this game BEFORE this government intervention? Didn't they have enough time?

Haven't there been enough veterinarians speaking out against this injustice, throughout the country?

I can still remember a "60 MINUTES" special in the mid-1970s...where Illinois veterinarians were revealing that illegal drug use in that state was getting so rampant...it was almost impossible for the horseplayer to make an educated choice while playing this game.

And yet, the industry continued with "business as usual"...with the horsemen getting "fat" on the subsequent full-card simulcasting and casino infused purses.

And now the horsemen are looking for sympathy from the horseplayers?

Truth IS stranger than fiction...

[Hanover1]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

the drug bill can only improve racing. i rather see 3 horse fields with horses that are not on drugs than 12 horses that have horses in them that are stoned out of their minds.

Would keep a few more of them around longer as well, rather than go-go, retire, and on to the next crop. Surprised a shorter field with clean horses would not appeal to bettors vs the norm at present, but here again its just speculation as to field size once a bill like this ever gets the nod. Having sounder, clean horses would improve longevity of those racing, it would seem, but I'm sure we will have detractors yet again, if for no other reason than something like this having horsemen endorsement. And yes, I voted in favor of.....

[Southieboy]

This bill has NO shot of failing. It will get passed.

[Horseplayersbet.com]

I like Jerry Bailey's suggestion:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?catego...837&id=6571806

[5k-claim]

Originally Posted by FenceBored

For those who would like to read the bill before they vote on it:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.1733:

Since I will have to live with this bill beyond just voting "Yes" after devoting about 10 seconds to saying, "It's about time something was done. The trainers are all a bunch of cheats.", I went ahead and took you up on your offer to read this.

I guess all of the "details" in the bill are to come later?

Under definitions:

(2) PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUG- The term `performance-enhancing drug'-- `(A) means any substance capable of affecting the performance of a horse at any time by acting on the nervous system, cardiovascular system, respiratory system, digestive system, urinary system, reproductive system, musculoskeletal system, blood system, immune system (other than licensed vaccines against infectious agents), or endocrine system of the horse; and `(B) includes the substances listed in the Alphabetized Listing of Drugs in the January 2010 revision of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, Inc., publication entitled `Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances.

I have also read and/or referenced the 'Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances' from time to time. It is noteworthy to me that the Guidelines go to great lengths to group drugs into Classifications ranging from 1-5. For example, Heroin gets a "1", and Tylenol gets a "4". It also recommends penalties based on those Classifications. The Classifications are what I reference, and all of this seems reasonable enough to me.

What is somewhat confusing to me is that the Alphabetized Listing of Drugs that the bill is using to define "The term `performance-enhancing drug'" is just that, an alphabetized listing of all of them. From heroin to tylenol. I don't know if the bill's authors do not even realize that the different Classifications even exist, but I would like to know what distinctions between drugs the bill intends to make. Is the intention to use the Classifications set forth by the ARCI?

As quoted from the bill above, the bill's definition of 'performance-enhancing drug' could really mean just about anything at the moment.

What I need is what people need all over the world, whether they are racing in the supposed utopia of "drug-free rest of the world" or "drug infested America"- and that is a simple list of withdrawal times. Heck, I can even live with the list the British Horseracing Authority provides for its horsemen to use in making sure the therapeutic drugs they are using during training are sufficiently out of the horse's system by the time the "drug free" raceday comes along.

Too bad the bill doesn't provide that list.

Without knowing any details about how this bill would actually work, it is hard for me to give it the "thumbs up" at the moment. And I have no idea how anyone else could, either.

Thanks again for the invitation to actually read this, FenceBored. There is either a more comprehensive version of this bill somewhere, or else there is still a lot of details to be worked out.

.

[JustRalph]

I don't have to read the bill. I don't have to go any further than knowing the guy who wrote this article is a trainer. That tells me where he is coming from. Enough said.

I hope the bill tears the ass end out of half the tracks in America and they shut down. Then maybe the game could be saved. For too long this game has been shitting on its fans. This bill passing might make some of these crooks go away. Things can't get much worse.

[Charli125]

Originally Posted by 5k-claim

There is either a more comprehensive version of this bill somewhere, or else there is still a lot of details to be worked out.

This is the main reason I chose the bottom two options in the poll. As the rule is written right now, we would all of the sudden have the strictest drug policy in the world with zero tolerance for everything. For this bill to be effective they need specific thresholds, lists of drugs, etc. If we suddenly took horses off of all drugs, we would really be hurting our horses.

I'm far from an expert, but the current bill, as it's written, is far too broad and strikes me as reactionary rather than progressive.

[5k-claim]

Originally Posted by Charli125

This is the main reason I chose the bottom two options in the poll. As the rule is written right now, we would all of the sudden have the strictest drug policy in the world with zero tolerance for everything. For this bill to be effective they need specific thresholds, lists of drugs, etc. If we suddenly took horses off of all drugs, we would really be hurting our horses.

I'm far from an expert, but the current bill, as it's written, is far too broad and strikes me as reactionary rather than progressive.

I definitely agree with you.

At this point, I am suspecting that this is just a clever way to get all of us to just accept the "rest of the world" model. It is a way of saying, "Alright horsemen, we can either use the policies of the rest of the world or we will come up with something on our own of monumental, staggering stupidity. The choice is yours."

It is a good strategy because I do not trust that they actually know enough to be bluffing about this. I back down and choose the former.

.

[Robert Goren]

As usual, it is not to hard to tell which posters are horsemen and which ones only bet on the horses.