"How are we, as gamblers, supposed to gain credibility in our attempts to clean up the game while saying that drugs are not that big a problem? "

"The central point of this thread was how sick we, as horseplayers, were of the “juicers” and what we can do if we organize into a group to rid the game of this plague. It does great disservice to such an effort and undermines how seriously we take this issue to make public statements that A) drugs are not that serious a problem and B) we see this as a great angle. "

You remind me of a lot of the politicians I so deeply despise. Not only do you want to change something everyone agrees needs to be changed, you want to suppress the truth, mischaracterize what people are saying by referring to single quotes without using other relevant comments, prevent people from discussing how to cope with the problem until it's solved, and prevent people from succeeding, all to advance your agenda.

People can be strongly opposed to illegal drugs because of the damage it's doing to the industry and more than willing to be active in implementing change, while coping with it in the mean time. That's where I have been coming from and it has been obvious every step of the way.

The simple fact of the matter is that illegal drug use is a huge problem for breeders, trainers, horse owners, the tracks etc... It's not nearly as big a problem for serious horseplayers as you are implying even if you don't like hearing the truth.

Handicappers have been studying trainers for decades. It's a fundamental aspect of the game. Whether the "first time" Levine horse at Aqu that came from CA won by a block yesterday because of juice or because Levine is a great horseman doesn't matter to an informed and well rounded "horseplayer". Either way, he knew that even at 6-5 the horse was a good bet. It matters a lot to the other owners, trainers, tracks worried about public perception etc...

If you are going to gamble until the required changes are made, there's no reason to flush money down a rat hole or suppress honest discussion of how horseplayers can cope with the situation in the mean time. We are allowed to be angry about the situation, work towards change, and continue winning money too.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2007 03:32PM by fkach.