What's a detention barn?
 

I've heard this term before, but I really don't know what it is and was just curious. What goes on in a detention barn? Drug testing?

A detention barn is a supervised holding area where horses are required to report a certain time before they are scheduled to race. In NY, it's 6 hours before. A horse running at 1pm needs to be in the detention barn by 7am for example. The theory behind it is that operations that are utilizing certain methods with their stock will be unable to reach horses in the barn to do whatever they may be doing to them to gain performance advantages. It doesn't necessarily work, but gives at least an outward appearence that something is being done to prevent shenanigans...

Maybe they would be better off putting the people in the detention barns and not the horses. ;)

It is the most ridiculous thing in racing. All about appearance. Racing doesn't really care too much about cheating. Just look at how guys like Biancone and Dutrow basically just laugh in the faces of the people that claim to keep the sport clean.

We actually agree on something...

One of the greatest quotes I've heard about detention barns as a concept came from John Nerud on ATR last year..

I asked Nerud about them and he said, "They don't work. It's just a show. It's been tried and it doesn't do anything... They did it at Bowie... in 1936."

1936...

Steve,
Is J Nerud still alive? If he is, it would be interesting to hear what he thought of the "tartan surface" developed by 3M (W. McKnight), first installed at The Meadows and later at Hialeah (in lieu of a turf course, I believe)where it was a bust and at Windsor (I saw it there).

Did you know that Tartan, the first synthetic surface, was first tested at Belmont and Saratoga in 1961?

According to the attached areticle by S. Bergstein, it was Nerud who pushed for the development of the synthetic surface, back in 1959. He was ahead of his time.

see p. 8 of the following for story and picture:

http://canadiansportsman.ca/download...man_Sample.pdf

Still alive (94) and STILL ahead of his time. A true genius and as sharp as a tack. Still mentoring Carl Nafzger too. Nafzger's first call after the Derby was to Nerud, and it was Nerud who advised him to bypass the Belmont if he was looking to win the Travers and BCC.

John talked about Tartan on his first visit on ATR... I need to have him on again. He hasn't been on in too long...

I think having a John Nerud and Steve Haskin segment would make for a great future show

theres more"top" names than that unfortunately. youre right tho most places and people dont care, hell they dont even care about the condition of some of these horses going to the gate every afternoon, another horse loading is more money for them