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Originally Posted by PSH
To the casual racing fan and even the not so casual (which i would put myself in that category) and except for the experts and insiders like Oracle 80, etc. this whole issue about drugs legal and not so legal is both confusing and obviously putting a cloud under the sport....
I, first believed that there was widespread drug abuse when i first came to this board just a few weeks ago amongst the high percentage trainers. It now seems obvious that i am wrong. Trainers like Pletcher, Asmussen, Dutrow are winning at the higher percentages most likely because:
1) They get the better horses (well bred and higher price yearlings, etc.)
2) They are just plain smarter than their peers
3) They go the extra mile and spend an additional $40-$50 per day using the best food and vitamin supplements available.
I guess suspensions like the ones being talked about with Dutrow, Pletcher and now Asmussen are just making this issue more confusing and somewhat unfair by not testing for the real so called "milkshakes" on a national level.
Yes, like baseball there will always be cheaters who are one step above the detectors. Not sure what has to be done, but something should be done to get rid of the real cheaters and make the playing field level for handicappers.
Paul
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I don't know how you came to the conclusion that you were wrong about suspecting cheating. I think that if you asked most people in the business, a majority would say that they think many of these top trainers are cheating. Now that doesn't mean that these people are correct. I have no idea whether Pletcher or Dutrow cheat. I can make an educated guess but I can't say with certainty. By the way, I think it partly depends on how you define cheating. If you milkshake a horse the day before a race, it is technically legal as long as the numbers are below the the threshhold when the horse is tested. You can't give a horse anything on race day. If they catch you giving a horse anything on race day you can get in trouble.
I'd rather not talk about any current trainer today because I don't want to offend anyone but let's talk about a trainer from the 1980s. I don't know if you remember thr trainer Oscar Barrera from the 1980s. He passed away several years ago. He would claim a horse for $25,000 and the horse would lose that day. Then he would bring the horse back 5 days later ina stakes race and the horse would win by 5 lengths. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this guy's horses were not improving by natural means. This guy would improve horses by 10 lengths overnight. Nowadays you usually don't see anything quite that extreme but you still see some stuff that is pretty amazing. If it looks too good to be tue, it usually is. However, even if you see a horse improve immensely for a new trainer, you may be correct to assume that some type of drug played a role, but it may very well be a legal drug. The good trainers have the best vets and they make the best use of their vets.