Ouch! USADA's Travis Tygart takes swipe at Baffert in latest article

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

This is reasonable as a gambler's POV, but it doesn't work for the government. I don't think government regulators should ever think "if I impose the correct regulation, it will put this discretionary activity out of business" or something similar. If there's no way to run horse racing cleanly, then the correct thing for them to do IS put us out of business. I know that sounds harsh, but it's true. It's our sport's obligation to figure out a way to clean it up, not the government's obligation to let us run anyway if we can't.

I understand what you are saying.

What I am saying is that we better do this "right" from everyone point of view or it could have negative unintended consequences.

[rastajenk]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

unintended consequences.

There it is.

more later

[Robert Fischer]

How is a standard phrase, that's been used openly for decades, considered an elephant in the room?

i don't want to dwell on dark markets

EIR; relative to the perception of integrity

[AskinHaskin]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

Go to Utah or Hawaii. There are no racetracks there.

There are far too many fiction writers on this website.


Weber Downs

Laurel Brown ($220K in purses in a day this year)

[Parkview_Pirate]

From the link in the first post:

He added: “It's not just the trainer training the horse that has responsibility for this culture of a clean sport. Everybody within the sport should have a responsibility to ensure that it's being done the right way.”

This sounds like a slippery slope to me - it's a fine line between enforcing the rules via the participants, and having snitches in Stasi/North Korean style. As players, we'd have probably voted Baffert out a long time ago if we had a say, but it's hard to imagine a fair and balanced process.

It's a tough problem to solve. The cost of policing racing properly is high, and only a few venues do it well (ie, Sha Tin), but their model of racing would be difficult to apply here in North America. It's a restrictive model at that.

Unfortunately, I don't see too many indicators that the decline of the sport over the last 40+ years is going to reverse any time soon. The economic impact just over the last couple of years has been pretty dramatic IMHO. Small fields, unbettable races, cheating and the public perception of cheating is making it, the improvement if not just the survival of racing, an uphill climb.

The most effective approach would be to reduce or eliminate the takeout of handle that goes to the state. Racing appears to get little benefit from the plump and sticky fingers of the politicians that are so kind to allow us the privilege of pursuing our pastime. But you know what they say about fighting City Hall....

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by AskinHaskin

There are far too many fiction writers on this website.


Weber Downs

Laurel Brown ($220K in purses in a day this year)

You can't bet on Weber Downs. I was obviously talking about tracks you can bet on.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Parkview_Pirate

From the link in the first post:



This sounds like a slippery slope to me - it's a fine line between enforcing the rules via the participants, and having snitches in Stasi/North Korean style. As players, we'd have probably voted Baffert out a long time ago if we had a say, but it's hard to imagine a fair and balanced process.

It's a tough problem to solve. The cost of policing racing properly is high, and only a few venues do it well (ie, Sha Tin), but their model of racing would be difficult to apply here in North America. It's a restrictive model at that.

Unfortunately, I don't see too many indicators that the decline of the sport over the last 40+ years is going to reverse any time soon. The economic impact just over the last couple of years has been pretty dramatic IMHO. Small fields, unbettable races, cheating and the public perception of cheating is making it, the improvement if not just the survival of racing, an uphill climb.

The most effective approach would be to reduce or eliminate the takeout of handle that goes to the state. Racing appears to get little benefit from the plump and sticky fingers of the politicians that are so kind to allow us the privilege of pursuing our pastime. But you know what they say about fighting City Hall....

Honestly, and I know I'm going to sound like one of our other regulars on this, but a Sha Tin style situation may very well be the future of racing in America.

The sport has massively contracted, which is an inevitable product of simulcasting. Bettors are no longer forced to bet on their local product, no matter how bad it is. That will continue.

And the logic of contraction is that what a regulator would want to do is concentrate the contraction into a jurisdiction that has to follow super-strong drug rules- Hong Kong is able to do that because of its jurisdictional boundaries. But we can accomplish something similar with a national rule.

The fact of the matter is that the American racing industry produces way too many horses who then can't be propped up to run without drugs. Logically, as the sport contracts due to simulcasting, we should be able to clean up the drug situation too.

[Andy Asaro]

Twitter

[classhandicapper]

I can't believe they still haven't even tested the urine yet. Talk about the wheels of justice moving slowly.

[Andy Asaro]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

I can't believe they still haven't even tested the urine yet. Talk about the wheels of justice moving slowly.

The result will come out in favor of Baffert. I trust this lab like I trust the CHRB to be competent. ZERO trust

[GMB@BP]

Originally Posted by Andy Asaro

The result will come out in favor of Baffert. I trust this lab like I trust the CHRB to be competent. ZERO trust

why?

[Andy Asaro]

Originally Posted by GMB@BP

why?

Notice how timely the timing of this is? And I don't trust that particular lab based on an article I read on the paulick report.

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