I read the discussion about Mullins in a previous thread, but I decided to start a whole new one dedicated to juice.

As i have stated before, I am a Raggie, and I have posted a few different times on their board about Mullins, and it was funny that a few people had the twisted frame of mind to defend him. It's a joke. It seems as though Mullins sometimes goes through a strange slump every now and then. During the 03 Hollywood spring meet, he went through a 3 week slump in which his horses very running terribly; no bounce lines or anything, just not running. Had this been 1960, I would say that such a streak is inevitable even for the top guys....but when you habitually win 30% of your races and go through stretches only winning 6-7%, something is wrong....especially when those stretches come on the heels of drug related situations. For instance, in that Spring meet slump last year, I believe his barn was raided (nothing was found interestingly). I could be wrong, but I remember his slump came right after some conflict involving juice.

Quite frankly, I am sick of juice guys dominating the game....just freakin sick of it. From a bettor's perspective it's lethal to bet them or against them. Betting against them doesn't work because they win 30% of their races, and in a lot of races, many different juice guys are represented. It's murder. Worse, horses from the typical juice barns (Frankel, Pletcher, Norman, Mullins, Gill et al) get pounded at the windows, so you have no value. Basically at best you can hope to lose a little less than the take (which is why high takeouts are becoming more of a problem). From a horseman's perspective (I am not one).... suppose you actually play the game "fairly" and don't use anything, what are you supposed to do? You cannot afford to risk suspensions, fines, broken down horses. It isn't fair. Worse, the people who should be legislating to stop this, aren't in your corner. Why would the CHRB want to get rid of Mullins? They raid his barn last year, and amidst a severe horse shortage, find nothing. Of course, he's one of the few guys filling your races. If you play by the rules in this game nowadays, the deck is stacked against you. I applaud the efforts of the CHRB (quarantine with video cameras, pre-race milkshake tests, etc.) but if the powers that be do not want to catch anyone, than no one is getting caught. If they really aren't serious about cleaning the game up, then these moves are just nothing more than cosmetic posturing. Only time will tell.

I RARELY bet So cal anymore. Short fields + rampant drug use does not = good betting opportunities. You want to know why Maryland racing stinks? Same problems...every race is a 6 horse field with 3 horses owned by Mike Gill, 1 trained by Capuano, 1 by Wolfendale and the other by Lake. Who needs that? Kentucky offers a much better product with lower take and fuller fields. Don't tell me that lack of slots is why Maryland racing is horrible. Delaware Park is just as bad, and they have slots.

I was just venting here, and I apologize for the length of my post. I urge anyone who feels strongly about this to chime in. Seriously, when a guy like Asmussen starts 1500 horses through the end of August and has won 25% of them...something's wrong. What's worse are the cheerleaders who defend them and claim there is no juice. I'm not stupid and I don't need my intelligence insulted by articles like the one last Sunay about Asmussen, claiming he wins more races than anyone cause he is more demonstrative, more organized and works harder than anyone else. PLEASE!!!!