Quote:
Originally Posted by myohmyjustify
Per the NYT story, Repole, Viola and Pletcher did not return the reporter's calls for comment. Not surprising.
Yet, on TV broadcasts we are forced fed Repole's little daughter being used as a prop; his "kid from Queens" garbage and the typical media avoidance of any basic and meaningful questions on serious issues.
Repole did "feel sorry for the horse" when Forte was scratched on Derby morning. He looked sad. Another joke. And Pletcher was MIA and hiding despite earlier telling the media that Forte's final workout was good and that Forte just takes his time getting warmed up.
And now we hear Forte was drugged up when he won up at Saratoga last year and no action taken!!
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It's worth noting that the owners, while in theory responsible for the stuff that goes into their horse, are almost certainly not morally blameworthy for these things. If Todd Pletcher, a great trainer, top of his profession, says that the horse needs to take X or Y, what's Repole going to say? You trust your trainer to do the right thing and comply with the rules.
And that's especially true in an environment where competitors are perceived to also be doping. I always come back to the 1988 Olympics mens 100 meters, where Ben Johnson was DQ'd for doping but it turns out that every runner on that starting line except one was eventually linked to the use of performance enhancing drugs. Or the baseball steroids scandal where writers tried so hard to separate "the good ones" from "the bad ones", writing now memory holed stories about how guys like Alex Rodriguez proved you didn't have to cheat, only to find out later that he was doping too. Because EVERYONE was doping. You HAD to dope, because you thought the guys you were competing with were doping.
This is why in the end horse racing needs something like HISA and with real teeth. Because the only way this stuff ever stops is if tests are frequent, suspensions are close to automatic (and difficult to lawyer), and punishment is consistent. Short of that, the Mike Repoles of the world are not going to have a lot of power to prevent doping. Really, nobody will.
