Allegations/Rumors of drugs and fractures
 

From the bloodhorse, Ray Paulick notes persistent rumors of the use of undetectable performance enhancing drugs.
http://opinions.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=34351

And from the bloodhorse, Christine Janks alleges horses run with fractures at Arlington.
http://opinions.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=34352

I'm a fan of the game and have entered into a breeding partnership for a foal due March '07. We put a lot of thought and time into the breeding to bring a foal to auction that will enhance the breed and have a rock solid chance to win races at the highest level.

So I am shocked to learn all of these unseemly, probably some are illegal, activities within horse racing. I will proceed with the partnership and hope horse racing is cleaned up and made safer. I don't want our foal, or any foal, in a world of abuse.

Sumitas,
Take it easy my friend.
Yes, some bad things continue to go on. Like everything, if people can find a way to cheat, they will.
The bad ones get the press, especially when they're caught, and so sorry for it.
Most people in racing are not close to being that way. They work hard and play fair.
The bad apples do indeed spoil the basket.
DTS

yeah thanks DTS. we'll keep the faith. i mean, ok bending the rules, hey it happens. just so long as the horse is not being abused or the safety of the jockey threatened.

It's much worse than you could ever imagine. Whatever the worst case scenario is in your mind, in reality it's about 1000x worse than you could ever imagine. The stuff that goes on is really bad. There are so many problems that I wouldn't even know where to begin.
One huge problem, as the article said, is that there are a lot of horses with serious injuries that are running in races every day. The problem is that if they got really strict and didn't allow hurt horses to run, then you would have a ton of 5 horse fields.
There are no easy answers that would solve all the problems in racing. There needs to be a ton of changes made though. They need to turn everything upside down. One important change that needs to be made is to have uniform drug rules that apply in all states. Right now they have different rules in different states. It's amazing how badly most states do not want uniform drug rules. Kentucky has always had the most lenient drug rules in the country. They finally decided that something needed to be done to get thier rules more in line with other states, so they made their rules a little stricter to be more in line with other states. The horsemen in Kentucky were up in arms. They threatened to boycott. They said the new rules were way too harsh. The Kentucky racing commision had to back down somewhat beacuse the horsemen were going to boycott. What a joke! Why can't they play by the same rules as everyone else. The Ky horsemen acted like the new rules were so terrible that there was no way they could live with these new rules. I would have let them boycott, but that's beacuse I have no stake in it. The Ky racing commission backed down because they didn't want to cost the state money and the state would have lost money if there was a boycott and there was no racing. One of the problems is that the the fox is basically guarding the hen-house.

I'm with Rupert. The Kentucky situation is as disgraceful as it is preposterous.

The cheating is rampant. The chemists are three or more steps ahead of the testers and racing has been woefully negligent in pursuit of illegal medication.

I'm don't want to get on my soapbox but anybody that doesn't see the obvious and egregious doping going on in the game, specifically at the highest levels of the game, has their head in the sand ( or somewhere else ). Just because you like a trainer, and just because he is talented, doesn't necessarily mean he's honest. Everybody is to blame...the vets who supply it, the trainers who use it, and the owners who pay the bills. They breed is being debilitated and the results are being falsified.

And the bettors are getting screwed. And so are the honest trainers and owners.

Here is another example of a problem in racing. There was recently a big-time trainer who couldn't win a race after the detention barn was implemented. So he simply went to another state where there was no detention barn. Did they hassle this trainer in this other state? Of course not. They were happy to have him and all of his horses. This would mean bigger fields. Bigger fields mean bigger pools and more money. This a perfect example of what is wrong with racing. This is really another example of the fox guarding the hen-house.
The way most of the racing commissions think is really short-sighted. Most of them just think about the bottom-line right now. They just want to make money for the state right now. They're not interested in doing anything that will cost money in the short-run but will pay big dividends over time. Some of the racing commissions are starting to think outside the box and are really doing a good job. They are making tough decisions that may be unpopular but that will be beneficial in the long-run. One of the main reasons that racing has gone downhill is beacuse the fans know that there is a ton of cheating going on. People are not going to bet a lot of money on something they think is crooked. Racing needs to do a much better job policing themselves, no matter what the dollar cost is. The funny thing is that there are several things that could be done that aren't even that expensive. I think they should have surveillance cameras in every barn.

I'm at a loss for words. Thanks for your insight. I see a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope it gets brighter.

Paulick did hint that trainers with very high winning percentages were the subject of these persistent doping rumors. He didn't say who or where they train in his piece.