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Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin
I think there are a ton of bettors who have walked away from the sport due to their belief that the trainers with the best vets and the best drugs are winning all the races. They see some of the so-called "super trainers" moving horses up 5-10 lengths overnight off a claim. I hear people complain about this all the time. Some of these fans will still come out once in a while and bet small, but they don't take it seriously any more. Some fans have given up racing entirely because of the integrity issue.
I don't see why they couldn't implement a system similar to Hong Kong at the major US tracks. If they had to cut the purses by 5% to pay for it, then so be it.
I heard that in Asia, every horse can be identified when training in the morning. Each horse has his own unique identification number on his saddle cloth and the trainer's name is also on the saddle cloth. I think they should do that here.
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What you say about people walking away is probably correct but i dont see them returning. I also dont see big move ups off claims stopping regardless of the rules. What happens when we ban everything and that still happens? The reality of the situation and the perception are always going to be 2 different things.
The system in Hong Kong relies on one very secure and fairly isolated barn area, vets that work for the track, all vet work published for all to see and most importantly laws that support it. The system there is set up by the govenment that has very different laws than we do. It just is not feasable here. Maybe we could try to implement some things but because of the set up over there most simply arent applicable. Not to mention the cost which would be far greater than 5% of the purses.
When i was over there i asked a friend of mine who trains there what happens if you switch the saddle towels (which also have a microchip in it and all activity on the track is electronically timed). He told me you can get jail time.