Horse Racing Dichotomy

[Split Rock]

Originally Posted by brianwspencer

I'm no fan of Dutrow, and I'm as upset as anyone about Eight Belles today...

But you do realize that your plea to the Almighty would be just about the single worst thing that could happen to racing? The very short lived opportunity everyone would have to feel all good about themselves honoring Eight Belles after she passed would be completely overshadowed by the raging, swollen, irreparable black eye on the sport.

I hope you rethink your prayers on this one. Dutrow is a d-bag, for sure. And Brown is the real thing.

But if he came back positive, the very short-term benefits and righteous indignation towards Dutrow would feel great, sure, then three days later you'd realize what a shitstorm it had just caused in the world of anyone connected to racing.

I think you're coloring this with way too much emotion, and not enough hard thinking about what your dream scenario would really mean.

Begging for the Kentucky Derby winner to test positive for drugs is not even within my realm of thinking, or feeling, or emotion even after what happened today. I honestly don't understand how any racing fan or horseplayer could wish for that to happen.

We're going to agree to disagree here. Do you think the drug issue in baseball would be investigated with the same ferver had the smug Barry Bonds not broken a hallowed record? Forever, there will be an asterisk next to that record, if it is even mentioned at all going forward.

I not only think a Kentucky Derby winner being DQ'd is what the sport needs, I would go a step further and say a Triple Crown winner being DQ'd is what the sport needs. National attention to this very serious issue is the only way it will be rectified.

If Dutrow is on the up and up with Big Brown (which, to me, seems virtually impossible, especially based on what I saw today) then I would be the first to say he deserves it and appreciate the accomplishments. However, the Mullins', Lake's, Ness's, Dutrow's, Pletcher's, Assmussen's have absolutely ruined the sport for me and reduced it to a simple gambling venture.

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Split Rock

We're going to agree to disagree here. Do you think the drug issue in baseball would be investigated with the same ferver had the smug Barry Bonds not broken a hallowed record? Forever, there will be an asterisk next to that record, if it is even mentioned at all going forward.

I not only think a Kentucky Derby winner being DQ'd is what the sport needs, I would go a step further and say a Triple Crown winner being DQ'd is what the sport needs. National attention to this very serious issue is the only way it will be rectified.

If Dutrow is on the up and up with Big Brown (which, to me, seems virtually impossible, especially based on what I saw today) then I would be the first to say he deserves it and appreciate the accomplishments. However, the Mullins', Lake's, Ness's, Dutrow's, Pletcher's, Assmussen's have absolutely ruined the sport for me and reduced it to a simple gambling venture.

I get where you're going with it, I just think that there has got to be a more productive, less harmful way for us to make drug reform in racing -- without tarnishing one of the finest recent Derby performances and without forever marking the nation's biggest race with such a terrible stain.

I admire your zeal, and I'm not being sarcastic, I just don't really think you've thought this through. I don't think you're being realistic about the outcomes. Whatever incremental positive gains could possibly be made by having to make an example out of Dutrow if this happened would be overshadowed 10,000x by all the negative press and how terribly it would turn so many people off from the game.

Agree to disagree, fine, I just wish you'd think it through more.

[Riot]

I not only think a Kentucky Derby winner being DQ'd is what the sport needs, I would go a step further and say a Triple Crown winner being DQ'd is what the sport needs. National attention to this very serious issue is the only way it will be rectified.

We've already had a Kentucky Derby winner DQ'd for drug useage.