Did anyone else besides me have a problem with some of Mark Shuman's comments in the Michael Gill article in the Sunday DRF? It's a shame that this has to come in the same edition that Jerry's insightful and provocative letter to the editor appeared. Shuman commented on the numerous positive drug tests and other scandals (the severed leg) that have followed Gill around the past few years.

Some of the highlights:

- "We get a simple medication positive and the whole country wants to know about it."

You're damn right we want to know about it.

- "....Shuman blames (the positive tests) on the inconsistencies in medication policies from state to state....sometimes keeping track of which horse received what injection spirals out of control"

I would like to think a major operation dealing with hundreds of horses and millions of dollars in purse money would be on top of everything going on, including which horse gets which drugs (especially an egomaniac control freak like Gill). Do not use the size of your stable as an excuse for not knowing and abiding by the rules. Granted, a universal, nation wide set of drug rules may be a good idea, but that's no reason to not follow the existing rules or make trite excuses for why you break them.

- "Something's okay here, it's not okay somewhere else....People want to blow it out of proportion. Sometimes, you get to the point when you say, 'I'll take that black hat and wear it proudly.'"

This is pretty disturbing and is a great reason why penalties need to be stiffened. It is obviously a joke to these guys when they get a slap on the wrist fine or suspension, so much so that they do not care when a horse gets a positive test. By having such soft penalties, the powers that be convey the message to horsemen that illegal drug use is not a big deal. If trainers got suspended for a year or two for first offenses, and vets get banished for life, maybe Shuman would think it's a serious offense, and it justifies all the "blowing out of proportion" that might come with it. No wonder horsemen do not mind cheating. They do not think it is a crime to cheat, because the legislating bodies obvisouly do not feel that way either. It all starts at the top.

The final, most appropriate, quote comes from John Robb commenting on Gill and the drug positives..... "He's no cheater."

How many drug positives does one man need to be convinced that someone is a cheater? As I said before, it means nothing to these guys because they apparently do not view it as cheating, nor do they view it as a big deal.

I want to call out to all my fellow horseplayers and sheet users, whether they are Ragozin or Thorograph. This is not about competition. This is an industry wide problem that affects all of us. Let's put our affiliations aside and unite as horseplayers and horsemen. Continue to write letters, whether to publications or to stewards and legislating bodies themselves, continue to do research, continue to post on boards like this. Keep the dialogue flowing, and do not give up. Hopefully with a little effort, (and thanks to guys with some celebrity like Jerry who spearhead these movements) we can level the playing field and someday enjoy a cleaner, fairer version of the game we love.

-Brent