Has anyone considered that Asmussen may have been set up at the bush league tracks where the violations occurred?

Afterall, Pletcher and Dutrow got their's at NYRA tracks, and Cole Norman at Santa Anita. Seems to me that a small track in a singular jurisdiction would be an easier place to pull something of this nature off than at a large facility like CA, NY, FL, etc.

As an example, has anybody noticed where Baffert is winning the "big" races these days? Sunland Park, Lone Star, Aqueduct in the winter, maybe a Grade 2 or 3 in the big leagues...but not like the old days. Consider this, he makes public his plans to take Wanna Runner to Canada and arranges for transportation 2 days before the race. Then Woodbine comes out with its new policy where every horse has to be on track and under surveillance 48 hours before the race, and subject to blood testing at will.

So Baffert says "I'm going early". Did he have a choice? Sure, he could have said the horse was sick or off, but he would have had to take the horse out of the barn area in the middle of the night like Wygod and hid him away from all the clockers and other trainers to sustain that belief. And the cynicism still would have been there about his reasons. He goes to Canada, runs a non-race near the back of the pack and both the jock and trainer are at a loss for an explanation.

Baffert is a big draw in New Mexico and Texas, and they will continue to treat him like Kentucky treats Dale Romans as long as he wants to race there. Churchill used to love him too...until Congaree. After that he was shut out on big days for at least 3 years.

My point is that as long as drugs in racing are handled on a location by location basis, it will still come down to who you know and who you are - not what you are using. And if Brass Hat actually wins that hearing in Dubai, then you can forget any reform ever coming about because the bottom line of trainer accountability for the actual test result (not who said what you could give the horse and when) will have been breached beyond repair.

Delmar Deb