Jerry Bailey appeared Sunday on Capital OTB-TV's [upstate NY] 'TrackFacts' with hosts Tom Amello and Nick Kling. Bailey discussed many topics -- but he also took time to briefly comment on drugs in the game
Bailey's idea to address this issue: "With all the statistics we have available in the Racing Form, and other forms of information -- all the numbers that help us break down races and decide who's going to win... You know how many races and starters a trainer has. You know how many starts, mounts, and wins and places and shows a jockey has... Well, why don't we list who treats these horses for these individual trainers? List the attending veterinarian. Now, if you do that -- you can keep vet standings. And let's keep vet standings. You're not pointing any fingers. You not saying this guy's doing anything wrong. But, you know what, give us the information and let us make our own conclusions."
Earlier this month I wrote a post titled He's got a good vet. Jerry Bailey expanded on some of the points that I made. I think it is a great idea to inform the betting public about medications (other than Lasix and Bute), and who is administering them. Unfortunately, the industry will not take a proactive stance. As with most things, they will be reactive after a top horse breaks down in the Belmont or Breeders Cup. Until then they will pretend to forget about all the pre-race medications and the doctors who are administering them.
2 comments:
This is a very interesting series of postings and actually something I never gave much thought to considering the drug testing the horses go through but if Barry Bonds can come up "clean", well...you know where I am going. Anyway, very thought provoking posts. thanks
Joe....I am not just talking about illegal drugs. I believe that many of the legal drugs can be combinded to for a super cocktail. These cocktails may not be in the horses best interest, but the trainers and vets don't care.
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