Horse Racing: Remove the Need for an Asterisk
Written by playerpress.com, Tuesday November 25 2008
Athletes who use steroids are stupid. The stuff can kill you, ruin your sex life, make you act crazy and it is detectable. Anyone who uses and gets used deserves the consequences. But, what about the athlete who has no choice in the matter of what enters his body?
In February of this year the commissioners of the big four sports gathered in DC to discuss the allegations brought forth by the Mitchell Report. The meeting was attended by the House Committee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection as a follow up on use of performance enhancing drugs in sports.
Everything was rolling along and all four of the sports bosses were nodding in agreement and clucking their tongues at all the right moments when Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) shook up the proceedings.
He started a tirade against the use of drugs in horse racing. As he correctly pointed out to the assembled, trainers and owners are the ones who decide if a horse is going to become slave to the needle. The horse has no opinion in the matter. He added insult to injury by noting that the rest of the world has already banned the use of steroids in horse racing; all that is except for us. In fact, the UK banned the drugs 38 years ago.
Since this meeting the country has become aware that steroids are used on horses courtesy of Big Brown. The horse that captured America’s heart for a spring fling as it made a run for the Triple Crown was legally given Wisterol by his owner.
Yes, the drug was used legally because you can give a horse Wisterol when he is injured or sick and may not be able to train. We’ve heard stories about trainers who in days of old would inject players with Novocain and send them back onto the field telling them their injury wasn’t serious. Sometimes it was and the pain killer allowed them to play and, in so doing, increase the severity of their injury. That has been eliminated from team sports, but it still exists in horse racing.
Face it, a horse gets very little from its run to the roses. Maybe a larger stall and stud rights can be gotten for the efforts, but that’s as good as it gets for the equine. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association claims it is policing the sport, but when a drug that is potentially damaging to the horse can be given for loss of training time, it appears that the animal does not have good representation.
One of the reasons they are illegal every where except the US is because yearlings and two year olds were found to be permanently damaged as a result of their use. While it is known they can affect older horses, the damage is not as telling as early. However, larger stalls and stud rights go out the window when the horse is too damaged to enjoy either perk.
At a time when we are still attempting to clear the air in baseball, maybe we need to take a look at the athletes who do not knowingly destroy their future health. Horse racing is a goldmine for everyone involved, except the horse. At the least, let’s make sure they get to enjoy the fruits of their labors for as long as possible and in the best of condition.
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