Eric,
I'm not naive enough to think that the two suggestions that I raised above will solve the entire problem. As you suggest, advanced testing and the like will have to be part of the solution. However, unless there are harsh consequences to a trainer that gets a positive (and the current system and its lenient penalties are comical), this sort of behavior will continue to go on.
As for the owners' part of this, I recognize that there will always be a segment of the population that subscribes to the "if I ain't cheating, I ain't winning" theory. An owner's choice of trainer(s), however, speaks volumes about whether they want to see the game cleaned up - or whether, by hiring the trainers that employ questionable tactics, they are condoning and ratifying that behavior. If the "honest" owners out there took horses from these guys (and I do believe that 90% of the people on the backstretch are hard-working, honest individuals), then the game might start to "self-police" itself.
Perhaps the real problem - and I say this as an attorney - is that we're more concerned with protecting the due process rights of the cheaters, than with the honest horsepeople (owners and trainers alike) that these people have driven out of the sport.
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