In all honesty when I read the announced testing procedure for the BC I was left with the same feeling I have about synthetic race tracks.

The racing community in response to the outrage associated with high profile breakdowns of recent years wants to be seen as taking action to lessen the impact of horses tragically being euthanized prior to having racing careers of significant length. Agreement for a desire to alter these outcomes is universal with the cause of the problem still very much debatable.

The testing proposed is a response to all of the negative publicity associated with trainers who benefit from cheating and specifically the racing community having to deal with an eclipse award for trainer of the year being given to a trainer serving a suspension for cheating.

The racing community has no real solution to lessen the number of tragic breakdowns so now we have poly/cushion/tapeta track answers. The New Jersey Racing Commission has no idea how to catch trainers who have the edge so we have new testing for Epogen and TCO2 to give the appearance that these measures will insure a fair and equitable playing field on October 27-28.

The problem is that this testing is akin to treating all pneumonia with penicillin. It may work for the majority of simple pathogens but the few deviant resistant organisms left scoff at such measures as their defense is far more complicated than this simplistic solution can battle with.

Cushion/poly/tapeta track doesn't solve the problem of genetic selection for fragile champions and their offspring due to greed and premature retirement.

Epo and TCO2 levels won't insure a fair championship series but it does give the appearance that the New Jersey Racing Committee and BC management care about this issue.

If I were BC king which of course I am not, I would have every Vet Trainer and Owner who wanted to enter a horse in the championships sign an agreement that says if your horse is found to have cheated all three of you are banned for life from racing. We are going to freeze samples for all eternity so that as scientific method catches up with deception we are always able to punish a wrong.

I have no doubt that dishonest connections are utilizing the current human science to produce undetectable advantages. Sooner or later discoverable evidence will become available and known. The criminal with new toys may be one step ahead of the law but eventually the evidence speaks for itself.

Enough from this windbag sorry to drone on so long TGJB.....gotta go to work!!