In today's NY Times Joe Drape wrote an article about AP. In it he gave us the following;

"Horses are beautiful animals. The humans around them mostly are, but in thoroughbred racing particularly,the miscreants who drug them, mistreat them and trade them like commodities degrade the sport and create distrust."

When I first read this I was angry-this the of vague attack has become Drape's mantra but other than dealing with New Mexico quarter horse racing and reporting L'affaire Dutrow, neither the Times (nor racing's bible in the form of DRF)has ever named names or undertaken an investigation into major league racing and the corruption (drugs or otherwise) which might have actually made a difference. My anger was not because I believe Drape is wrong--to the contrary, as post after post here and elsewhere make clear, he is correct. Cynicism abounds (i.e. last nights post here re Baffert's vet being responsible for his success). Actually, Drape buried the lead.

Then I became sad-a sport and game I have loved formerly 50 years (yeah- I am that old), invested in as an owner and gambler is not straight and no one seems willing to do anything about it except kvetch on sites like this .All the talk re reform-drug and otherwise- is just talk. As I noted weeks ago in a post re legalization of sports betting-the game is in trouble. I loved every minute of this past weekend. The big fields, high quality and the ability to make a bet (many bets actually)with confidence that the best horse would likely win-unaided by chemicals. With AP out of the way, racing will retreat to a speck on the sports pages with most looking at those of us that love handicapping and gambling on the game as among the miscreants referred to by Drape. (Only my closest fiends know me well enough to reach that conclusion.).We will complain about Jacobson's numbers,which tracks TAP runs better at (wink wink)and continue to bet. We will rationalize why we continue to do it even though we know the playing field is not level--and all the while we are witnessing racing's equivalent of Rome burning while we watch.

Sorry for the vent--maybe just cranky after last night's Mets game.