I have been in the horse business for about 20 years. I own horses and just for the record so people don't start to throw stones (seems to be a lot of that going on around here, LOL), I have had and currently have a horse with Scott Lake. I am not a vet. Unless you are one, giving opinions on the medicinal aspects of these discussions is perhaps a waste of time because the opinion is not truly a qualified one.
Also, for the record, I do not think a trainer should be banned for life after a first, second or third clenbuterol. I have said that before I knew and had a horse with Scott Lake and I say the same thing after.
I don't want to get into the "who is cheating" and "who is not" routine. There is far too much hypocrisy there. If a horse is stepping foot onto the track for a race, and he/she is racing 100% on hay, grain and water -- unfortunately that horse is at a comepititive disadvantage. We may not like it but that is the truth.
I don't view clenbuterol as one of these designer or exotic drugs. It has its place on the backstretch. It is medicinal, when precribed and used in the right places -- at least I think it is or can be. However, its not allowed on race day or X amount of days out. Period. I think unifom medication rules are needed and with something like clenbuterol, there needs to be a graduated scale.
How about a first offense of a clenbuterol positive there should be a fine ($X). Second offense, days, and five times $X in fines. Third offense, major days and ten times the original fine. But there are problems here as well. There are gray areas here -- contamination, split samples not agreeing, etc. Sabotage, mistakes, etc. There are scale questions as well. The trainers responsibility rule applies. One trainer has 200 horses and has 2000 starts, another trainer has 4 horses and races 30 or 40 starts. I don't know what the answer is.
Eric
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