> The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.
>
> Worth a quick look if you play the game probably....
>
> [rules.house.gov]

The U.S. Senate on Monday night approved a bill to establish a national regulatory body for racing beginning in the summer of 2022. Supporters of the bill have already named a 7-member nominating committee to select the authority’s board of directors. The nominating committee will be tasked with selecting 5 “independent” members of the board “from outside the equine industry,” along with 5 other members who represent various racing constituencies.

I’d like to think our boy Jerry Brown would be nominated to be on the board. After all, he, unlike others, can show tangible evidence of suspicious performance enhancements that defy logic. Why does the little red devil dancing above my head tell me they’ll nominate from the pool of Jennifer Lopez, Bo Derek, Hunter Biden, The Three Stooges or Mitch McConnell’s office assistant? We’ll see.

One more thing. Ultimately, the powers that be on this new regulatory board will take up the volatile issue of lasix. A month ago, in response to Jerry’s Breeder’s Cup Final Figures, I wrote some feedback about that day, but I never sent in the post because, among other things (like… no one cares; the ThoroGraph board is a far cry from what it once was) at the time, Michigan was being taken into overtime by Rutgers in football. Rutgers! Ugh. I was totally distracted and flabbergasted about that. Anyway, speaking of being flabbergasted, I wrote…

Re: The Breeder’s Cup Final figures: George Weaver’s 75-1 winner EVER DANGEROUS was quite haveable, even though he broke from a wide post. But Aiden O’Brien’s 73-1 winner ORDER OF AUSTRALIA? Utterly unhaveable! A shameful performance explosion on the world stage! And part of the equation (drumroll…) was first lasix! Was this a great display of horsemanship? Or pharmacology? [Anyone? Beuller? Don’t ask the Scott Hazelton’s of the world. They’re useless.] “And so my fellow Americans”… where’s the outrage? Apparently, there isn’t any! And where’s the discussion? Nowhere to be found! Horseplayers, after all, are used to taking it up the wazoo. “Thanks a lot sir, can we please have another?” A disgrace like this happens and no one cares? That’s right, folks! Chalk it up to just another great training job by Aiden O’Brien (just as MENDELSSOHN’s explosion to a -4 in the UAE Derby was a great training job. Yeah right. Sigh. There used to be one person in racing we could rely on to stand up and publicly crow about things like this: Andy Beyer. Sadly. he’s pretty much gone now. [Hey, didn’t Jerry Brown write an article about lasix recently? Was he for or against? I forgot. No matter.] This should not have happened. The Breeder’s Cup shouldn’t have first lasix runners. Tough tootsies. Long story deleted.