....“There are guys dancing close to the fire as a way of doing business,” said Rick Arthur, equine medical director for the state racing board. “They accept that risk, and we're not particularly sympathetic to them when they have problems. Our new penalty guidelines are going to make that problem too serious for them to ignore.”


What Rick Arthur says is probably the case in NY also.

It's no secret that many of the most successful trainers in the country are playing the legal drug game close to the line because the reward is greater than the risk of getting positives.Much stiffer penalties would help reign in that group. Super testing would somewhat reign in the guys using the designer drugs(blood dope and super pain blockers) but enhanced testing monies are not being tossed around by the generally hypocritical racetrack operators.


Mike