Re: Pletcher Positive /Question for Barry Irwin (616 Views)
Posted by:
richiebee (IP Logged)
Date: December 16, 2005 04:25PM
...as TP and Team V's Colita wins the feature at AQ at 8/1...
TGJB, if you go back to January, almost a year ago, before I even knew how to edit my posts, I COMMENDED Team Valor for their zero tolerance stance towards drugs and their firing of young Mr Nicks, who they had just retained as a private trainer.
Fast forward to the first or second day of the Saratoga meet where Barry Irwin appeared as a poster and told us all to bet our houses on La Ina, a turf mare who had just undergone an operation for an entrapped epiglottis (She won and paid $7).
Some of the posters on this board, HP and myself included, took BI to task on his refusal to blame TP for the 04 positive. Classhandicapper, who said he had previously been a Team V member, was particularly outraged that we would treat BI with such disdain.
MY particular question, which was never answered, was what would have happened if the TPletch positive involved a TValor horse.
Look, Pletcher drew a 45 day suspension. When Dutrow drew 30 days for a positive in the spring, posters on this board were so happy... "Aha, we caught the cheater" (remember 30 days of Dutrow's 60 day suspension was for a claiming violation).
If racing is going to wage a war against drugs (if you've read my posts I think this war can NOT be won) you can not have loopholes and exceptions which swallow the rules.
Yes, Mr Irwin has been a high profile voice against drugs, but TGJB, since you mention BloodHorse, read if you will BI's eulogy of Doc Harthill in that same publication. BI admits that he himself believed in Hay Oats and Water and that Harthill believed in anything which would create a winning result which would stand long enough to cash a mutuel ticket. BI admits that he and Doc Harthill were quite the odd couple on the backstretch. My point is that you can not take a stand against drugs while standing anywhere near Doc Harthill.
Doc Harthill made Doc Allday look like Doogie Howser. But where Allday is under constant scrutiny, Harthill, as one of the preeminent vets at the racetrack, was usually given carte blanche.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2005 04:50PM by richiebee.