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Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind
While I totally agree with this....I would also like to mention the honest horseplayers that are also being put out of business. Cheating is a disgustingly self-centered activity that is destroying this game.
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I agree, but little is done about it. I've often thought that industry leaders, totally obsessed with the casual fan's view of the sport, are afraid to crack down on cheaters. (There was an interesting article in the NY Times on this subject as it relates to track and field - a sport which does impose real penalties, where each suspension/banishment is viewed by some as only reinforcing the notion that the sport is filled with cheaters.) In this age where racing is covered in the mainstream media as a niche sport (most papers don't have a racing beat writer), my sense has been that, if a well-known trainer was sent down, it might be a front page sports story in papers like the Louisville C-J, Lexington H-L, Albany Times-Union, the Saratogian and few others. Whatever minimal damage occurs in the eyes of the casual viewer would be made up in spades by the honest horsemen and gamblers who would invest more $$ in what they perceived to be a sport more on the up-and-up.