Re: Teflon Todd (549 Views)
Posted by:
Josephus (IP Logged)
Date: December 28, 2006 08:31PM
What we need are a series of "expose" articles done on TV, like 60 MINUTES, REAL SPORTS etc. and in regular daily newspapers, not the racing press. The first question that has to be addressed is the "so what" question. Why is the racing industry important? How many people are involved in each state? How much land? Greenspace? State wide economies? etc. How much is bet annually? Tie in racing's drug and steriod use with the Balco case. Why is racing breeding cripples that can't make it out of their 3yo yr.? Or, like The Green Monkey, not even making it to the races. Top money winning trainers getting days...imagine Joe Torre or Bill Parcells being suspended and the media storm that would result from that. How breeding unsound horses at astronomical prices strictly for speed, guarantees that drugs are going to be used. You get the idea, there are issues and stories here for the mainstream media,but they are not doing their job as watchdogs, just like they missed the boat on the Iraq war build-up.
We need an advocate who can answer the "so what" question and educate and point mainstream media reporters (who are proably ignorant of the whole problem) in the right direction.
As Jerry said, I don't think reform is going to come from within the industry. Too many people and institutions are on the gravy train and are going to squeeze "every drop of the lemon" until it runs dry.