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Originally Posted by my miss storm cat
Good for them, good try. I love our game but I support their efforts because I think there is some truly outrageous and disgraceful stuff that needs to change. It seems like way too many people hide their heads in the sand and look the other way instead of aspiring to be leaders and to begin to make all that is wrong with the sport right.
Racing will never clean itself up. The nudge nudge wink wink mentality will go on and on, "suspensions" will be handed out and cheaters allowed to continue to stay in the game... nothing will ever change unless organizations like PETA bring attention to the general population and in a big way.
Kinda sad that we do not grab the reins and try to control our own destiny but I guess it's easier to pretend there's nothing wrong and hope they go away and leave us alone.
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I agree with you 100%. The only time anything ever changes is when outside groups publicize what is going on. When racing gets some bad publicity, that is when they make some changes. I am actually somewhat optimistic that racing is starting to take some positive steps. They may be doing it kicking, screaming, and dragging their feet, but at least they are starting to make some positive changes. They have a long way to go but at least the ball seems to be rolling. I don't think any of these positive changes would even be happening if it wasn't for negative publicity. I look at negative publicity as a good thing because it is usually a catalyst for change.
With regard to Asmussen specifically, he's probably not too much worse than many of the other trainers out there. There wasn't really anything earth-shattering on the video. The video just kind of showed some of the stuff and some of the culture of the backstretch. There was nothing all that shocking to people that have spent a lot of time on the backstretch. But it was probably very surprising to many in the general public that have no idea about the extreme use of legal drugs on the horses. It is a shame that the sport has come to this, a point where drugs (both legal and illegal) have such a huge impact on the results.
One thing that was somewhat surprising was the admission from Blasi that Santana has carried the machine at his request. I haven't heard anyone explain the defense of that one and I'm not sure why nothing was done with regard to that admission on Blasi's part. When a guy admits to doing something totally illegal such as that, you would think that the KHRC would take some action. Does anybody know what Blasi's defense was on that one? Does he claim that he simply made it up to impress the girl?