Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasept
There doesn't have to necessarily be a drop off if they're shaking widely. Giving horses milkshake bullets -- essentially antacid tablets -- to lower lactic acid levels has gotten pretty sophisticated to the point where horses test just below the accepted CO2 level. But since they metabolize at different rates, not every horse necessarily will test under.
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Understand Steve - what's interesting is that apparently the stewards notify the trainer with a warning if they test between 35 - 37 and issue fines above 37. So this horse came back with a 38 after running a well beaten 5th.
And that to me is the troubling aspect
I think the track itself is trying to do the right thing, but much like when the Doug Oneill story came to the surface during the Triple Crown last year, the only reports are of horses that tested positive, but "no worries, the horse wasn't a factor in the race".
I've never seen a story like this come out where one of his horses that wins first off the claim by open lengths, moving up 20 beyer points off a career top in the process, gets a positive. It is always these also-rans.
They've raided his barn on at least two occasions that I know of, so they had to have reason to suspect more than an innocuous 12.5 claimer running 5th barely over the limit to put him under 24 hour pre-race surveillance.
If it came out that these miraculous move ups were actually unreported positives, the bettors would flee in droves.
I've personally just accepted him as part of the landscape. Unfortunately, he affects my ROI because he has to be included (at ridiculously low prices) on a number of occasions where any other trainer would be left off, so in that respect he increases handle which is a positive for the track, hence the toothless attempts to ban him, yet keep up the appearance that they are proactively addressing him.
The bright side is that he is also remarkably human (sub 15%) on a number of angles where he is consistently overbet, and taking advantage of those races can make up for his impact on the game.