Until the high-profile owners start taking horses away from those found guilty of these offenses, there is little deterrence. If they lack the integrity to do this, then it becomes incumbent for one of two things to happen: (1) when imposing penalties, the regulators have to rule that, during the period of the suspension, the horses may not race in the name of a family member or an assistant trainer (NY did this in the Greg Martin case); or (2) the racing associations need to deny stalls to the repeat offenders (as NYRA did with Shuman a few summers ago).
On this last score, how is it that tracks still give stalls to Scott Lake? What number suspension is he working on now? If someone is telling him after each suspension that it's his last chance, then it's (to quote Lt. Frank Drebin) "one of those major-league baseball, Steve Howe kind of last chances."
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