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Originally Posted by Honu
I wish The Bloodhorse article would have also included the rest of the rulings that the board voted on and approved that day such as , trainers who are given suspensions will have their stalls taken away , they must remove all their signs, stall webbings, saddle towels and anything with their names or logos on it . So it will be much more difficult to just hand over the reins to the Asst. when the asst. will have to apply for their own stalls come up with their own insurance money and equipment , also they cant turn their stable over to a family member period.
So who are the real culprits in racing ? Who are the real villians Phalaris ? Its not the guys pushing the envelope with clenbuteral so instead of withdrawing 72 hours out they wait till 65 hours out ? Is that not trying to cheat in a sense when they know what the time frame is. Or is it the trainer who blocks his horses legs for the races and never gets found out ? Is it the guy that is " just treating his horses stomach ulcers " who's C02 level is thru the roof on most of his runners ?
All trainers know what the rules are , they know what the withdrawl times are also , and if they dont they should be fined for being stupid. If a trainer is on the up and up , they and their owners have nothing to worry about with the new rules in place and its that simple , the people pushing the limits are the one's who should be taking a long look at changing the way they do things.
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Clenbuterol reportedly has an effective duration of six to eight hours. Withdrawal times are about elimination of traces of the drug, not that if you give a drug to a horse nearer the race you are going to get some kind of post-time "edge," just because its effects wore off some 57 hours prior to post time rather than 64 hours.
I suspect - though this is strictly IMHO - that this is a function of an industry which loves 21st century techonology but clings onto mid-20th century "a positive is a positive" mentality. They'd rather see clean tests than admit that there are a few detectable molecules of a drug given days before, and for that reason, thresholds have been strongly resisted, even for legal medication.
I found at least one abstract online dated 2001 that noted that newer, more sensitive, tests for clenbuterol could detect it at the 1 ng/ml level 11 days after administration. I've read other sources that note that it can be detected for even longer than that.
The idea of punishing people for using medications which we tell them they can use, just because our gee-whiz technology allows the detection of it days after it had any possible clinical effect on the horse, is so patently ridiculous I'm not even sure why it's in debate.
Horsemen are given lists of withdrawal times with a footnote that there is no guarantee. Researchers can work out averages and ranges in terms of how quickly horses will eliminate drugs, but because horses are living creatures and not perfect mathematical equations on paper, there are occasions when someone can follow the rules to the letter and get a positive. The fact that they followed the rules won't help them.
Cheating is using a substance which is not allowed at all. Cheating is administering a substance not allowed on race day within a period of time in which it could remotely still have some sort of pharmacologic effect on the horse at post time.
Those are the people we should be going after.