"Drug-testing, from a historical perspective, is a colossal flop," said Chuck Yesalis, the retired Penn State professor, an expert on such matters. "One might argue that its done more damage than good because it has kept a façade — 'So-and-so must be clean because he never flunked a drug test.' "
This quote is from Jon Saraceno's column in USA Today on September 26, 2007, in the aftermath of Marion Jones' admission that she used steroids before the Sydney Olympics; her defense up to that point had always been that she never failed a drug test. In light of the capabilities of many of racing's testing labs and the fact that there are no tests for many designer drugs (cobra and cone snail venom are recent examples), it's hard to reach the conclusion that a certain trainer must be clean because he/she has no positives, or only a few. By that standard, Patrick Biancone ran a clean barn in the US prior to 2007 - and who, in light of recent revelations, believes that?
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11-05-2007, 07:31 AM
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