Mike:

The comparison between the NFL and Racing is an interesting one.

For years, NFL teams have used secrecy and deception about the physical
condition of their players to gain or maintain a competitive edge. Even now,
a large number of doubtful and questionable players listed during the week on
the injury reports end up playing in the games.

The NHL has an interesting approach, classifying all injuries into two types:
upper body injuries and lower body injuries.

For as long as claiming races (still the majority of the races run in the US)
have been run, the true condition of the runners has been concealed for the
purpose of gaining an advantage. I have seen trainers bandage horses in a way
which makes those horses look like they were a little off, or that made them
seem like they might have tendon or ankle problems. Once the time for
entering a claim for a horse has passed, the bandages are removed and all of
a sudden the horse is sound. I have seen trainers put vaseline on the knees
of horses to give the appearance that they were standing in an ice tub when
the fact is that they were not. I have seen trainers put flecks of mud or
poultice on a horse's legs to give the appearance that the horse spent its
non racing time in mud or poultice up to its ears when this was not the case.

These are just the ways I have seen sound horses seem dinged up (and I must
disclose that I spent a good deal of my time on the backstretch down on
Gentilly Blvd.) Of course there are even more ways to make a sore horse look
sound enough to be claimed, and this is where medication (legal, illegal,
grey area, whatever), fits in.

As has been said here many times, the full disclosure most horseplayers want
directly conflicts with the way the claiming game is played. I guess the
compromise would be to establish a separate protocol for horses nominated for
stakes.

As to Maker/Vicar, I can think of as many legitimate reasons that Maker would
want the horse in Florida as evil ones. If Maker or Ramsay answered the
question, to what extent would we go to affirm the veracity of the response?
What would be the penalty for lying?

The world of racing seems to be pulling ahead of the NFL in terms of
insuring the health and happiness of retired participants, thanks to the
appreciated efforts of folks such as yourself. The NFL and its players' union
have a pretty miserable record with regards to retired players who have lived
with pain, dementia and the kind of desperation which in some cases has lead
to suicide, after their NFL years.

I believe that racing should take the next step: Two year old in training
sales held before May or June, and especially the sale and resale of
pinhooked horses, should be heavily surcharged, with the receipts going to
a) research into thoroughbred injuries; b) new testing protocols to level the
playing field; and c) thoroughbred retirement programs, because the whole
microindustry of 2YO in training sales and pinhooking produces large numbers
of early retirees.