For photos from the Meadowlands contact Lisaphoto@playmeadowlands.com

Friday, August 7, 2009

Sad Commentary

A press release from the Hambletonian Society indicates all the horses in the Oaks and Hambletonian have passed their pre-race blood testing.

It's a sad commentary that any form of horse racing needs to issue a press release indicating the star horses have not been treated with illegal medication before a race.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

they're hoping you bet your bottom $ on these races knowing there's no surprises due to illegal drugging, but how do you know it wasn't illegal drugs that got some of these starters to this spot in the first place?

That Blog Guy said...

Anon,

I am not naive to think illegal medication is not being used in racing but I have been to enough meetings with horsemen to know that the majority of them are preturbed regarding the use of medication that I don't think it is as widespread as some people may think. Waht annoys me the most is when people think the medication problem is much worse in harness racing. Don't kid yourself, medication violations is a problem with the runners, quarterhorses and any other bred which races.

Funny thing is many of the people complaining about illegal medication in racing could care less when their favorite baseball player, cylcist or other athlete juices up. Then, it is all in the name of winning. I guess it is because they are betting on racing and not the other.

Cheating is prevalent in life; be it racing, other sports, business, or do I say pay to pay politics? It is part of human nature, trying to get an advantage over someone else to improve your chance to come out ahead. So I guess we shouldn't be surprised these types of things occur.

We should alway strive for perfection when it comes to fighting medication in racing. But those outsiders who are quick to criticize racing, are you holding racing up to a double standard?