BC Sprint Purse Being Withheld

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by philcski

Download doesn't work directly but for anyone wanting to view the sheets, it's under the thread "CA Steroids". As I suspected, the horses are not running out of their skin, but rather maintaining form, most likely pairing their last. Looking at these without knowing they were on a steroid list no one would blink an eye.

I don't think it's a hit piece, it's reporting the statistics- which do stand out as abnormal, however the ROI/off odds are important to color the picture.

The article certainly doesn't dig very deep. For the most part, all the other SoCal horses were coming off long layoffs (5-6 months) or making their debuts. Some of those horses were administered steroids presumably at the start of the layoff (Silent Bird, Longstocking) while others (the Miller horses) seemed to get them at the end of the layoff (~3 months out of a race). It's debatable whether this is appropriate use, but it is certainly more palatable than this BC fiasco.

What makes Masochistic unique, and what cmorioles has pointed out already, is that this horse was administered steroids while actively campaigning, which defies the intent of the regulatory changes surrounding anabolic steroids that started in 2008 to keep them out of sanctioned races.

Did the CHRB do a good enough job hammering the intent of the rule changes into the horsemen's heads?

In the last year when the Vet List wait period was 30 days, there was ~500 administrations of steroids in CA racehorses. In the first year that the wait time was extended to 60 days, there was ~50 administrations.

Crudely speaking, I'd say about 90% of the horsemen got the message.