[ceejay]

Very good column
http://www.drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do...8&subs=0&arc=0

If the winner of one of America's important horse races came back with a positive drug test, I would say with confidence that the offense would never be made public. Racing fans have long suspected that many offenses are dealt with quietly, behind the scenes, to avoid a public scandal. Some of those suspicions were confirmed by a 2004 report by The Blood-Horse Magazine on the California Horse Racing Board. When horses of prominent trainers tested positive for illegal drugs, the board handled the cases privately, administering fines that often amounted to a slap on the wrist and never suspended an offender. Racing's regulators seem more concerned about avoiding bad publicity than exposing cheaters.
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But in horse racing, the use of illegal drugs brings no opprobrium, no shame. Steve Asmussen, the nation's top race-winning trainer in 2004 and 2005, was recently suspended for six months by Louisiana authorities after one of his horses tested positive for mepivacaine, a local anesthetic that could be used to block pain in an animal's leg. Asmussen faces another six-month suspension for a violation in New Mexico. Reports in the press described the offense as if it was a technicality or an accident and not a case of cheating. This same was true with Dutrow's violations last year.

Asmussen's powerful stable continues to operate under the name of his assistant, Scott Blasi, at major tacks across the country, including Saratoga. Yet no track executives question the presence of stand-ins for rule-breakers such as Asmussen and Dutrow. (In racing, we don't use the word "cheater.") Most owners have continued to support these trainers, feeling no stigma of being associated with them. There is only one way that horse racing can prove that it is serious about stopping the use of illegal drugs. When the sport catches a high-profile trainer engaging in a blatantly illegal practice, it should throw the book at him, run him out of the sport, and castigate him as a cheater and a disgrace. What horse racing needs, in short, is its own Floyd Landis.