Shanahan:

What D-Rex was trying to tell you in his inimitable way is that one vet, Dr. Steven Allday, currently treats many of the star performers from the barns of Frankel, Pletcher and Dutrow. Dr. Allday apparently drives a white Mercedes.

I thought I had created a diverse post earlier, mentioning the Maktoum family and Nolan Ryan within a few lines of each other, but D-Rex topped me with Rich Dutrow and Michael Jackson in the same post. (Don't worry, Mr King of Pop, you are being tried in the same state that allowed Robert Blake and OJ Simpson to walk the streets, and allows Jeff Mullins to continue to ply his trade).

D-Rex did bring up an interesting notion, one that has been discussed for at least the last 30 years. In D-Rex's words "the industry should make everything legal and let free enterprise level the field". I guess we could call this the "Amsterdam" solution.

In the old days, as recently as say ten years ago, there was an old guard who contended that the effects of performance enhancing drugs and treatments would have long term deleterious effects on the entire throughbred gene pool. There were still enough "hay oats and water" trainers around having success so that this old guard could contend that performance enhancing drugs were not necessary to be competitive.

The implication seemed to be that the prevalence of performance enhancing drugs would result in a breed which would become slower, less sound and less consistent in future generations.

In my opinion, it may be in the 21st Century that the breeders will do more damage to the future well being of the breed than the so called "supertrainers". Consider if you will:

In days gone by, top stallions were bred 40- 60 times per year. Some now cover 100- 120 mares per year, and others are shuttled between two hemispheres and cover nearly 200 mares per year. I am not familiar enough with the breeding shed to say for certain, but would feel safe to assume that the increased activity necessitates the use of some sort of performance enhancing medication ("erections which last for 4 hours, though not common...").

The chapter in Glenye Cain's "Home Run Horse" about the cosmetic surgeries which are performed on weanlings and yearlings is very scary. I wonder what an old time horseman such as EP Taylor would feel about this? Basically animals with conformation defects are being surgically straightened. Unfortunately, while the crooked leg is straightened, the crooked gene still exists. These carriers of the crooked gene, having been surgically straightened, will bring more money at the sales and will be bred more readily (and at higher levels) than they would have been in the past. The result: a very crooked breed, in need of constant surgical correction.

What about the fact that 2YOs in training are selling for 5 million dollars based on their ability to breeze AN EIGHTH OF A MILE in a fast time? This is where I would look for abuses of performance enhancing drugs because never again in a racehorse's career will he/ she be able to earn such a large "purse" for such a short dash.

So I am on the record as saying it now--as long as pinhooking and stallion syndication continue to offer profits out of proportion to any reality, look for the abuses of performance enhancing drugs and treatments in the breeding shed and at the 2YO in training sales. This is where we can see the real potential for damage to the breed.

When the White Mercedes turns up at Calder or Ocala in February, the real problems may be starting.



Post Edited (03-28-05 04:29)