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Originally Posted by MaTH716
I'm all for banishing the cheaters when they get caught. In this instance I just feel like the whole story is not out there. I'm not sure what happened, and the story that is out there makes me feel like Mullins might have be misled to believe that Air Power was acceptable. Maybe I'm 100% wrong, but what punisment do you want? To banish him for life because he wanted to give a horse cough medicine. That's like the feds putting John Gotti away for life for tax evasion.
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having a guy get put away for air power-yeah, that sounds extreme. but when you phrase it as 'a repeat offender did it yet again'-does it still sound so innocuous? he's a cheater and more than once, and he just got caught again. whether he was giving the horse 'just' air power, or air power with a little something extra is beside the point. how many times should a guy be allowed to violate the rules? five, ten, twenty five (apparently you win an eclipse award for best trainer once you crack two dozen). how many is too many?
perhaps they should institute a points system. lesser offenses, lesser points. bigger offenses, bigger points. point out, get out.
my take is that the punishment should fit the level of the crime. small time trainers don't have the deep pockets of some of the big name trainers. so, a violation in a graded race should be higher $-wise than a $5k claimer for instance. i have said all along that penalty money should be based on a percentage, not a flat rate. $2500 means next to nothing to mullins, but is a lot to some other trainers.