Breaking from the Gate

There seems to be a big push (at least among horseplayers) to eliminate race day medications in horse racing. If they can’t be eliminated, then most people in the industry think there needs to be significant reforms on the medication front, as things appear to be getting a little out of control.

I wrote a pretty long post on my feelings about this subject last year, which is here in case you haven’t read it yet. I hope there were some good ideas in there, and at least some others in the industry agree with the needs to accomplish something in this area.

In particular, I was happy to see the NTRA recently formed its Safety and Integrity Alliance which included amongst its goals:

• uniform medication rules for each racing state
• ban of steroids from racing competition
• out-of-competition testing for blood and gene doping agents and pre-race testing
• uniform penalties for all medication infractions

The NTRA is good at doing research and making recommendations to the industry. Unfortunately they really have no power to actually do anything. While I applaud the effort and support them in what they are trying to do, it will make no difference if there is not widespread adoption of the recommendations that come out of this program. Or worse, if the recommendations don’t really address the problem.

After spending a year since my last post on the subject away from the day-to-day operations of racing, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps I didn’t go far enough in my last blog post on the subject. Maybe an outright ban on race day medications is really what needs to be done.

But how do we get there? Simply flipping the switch would create a huge problem given that nearly all horses in training are currently running on some form of medication in this country. It would be a little rude of me to lay down the gauntlet without some kind of plan. So here it is:

• All horses foaled in 2008 or later are never allowed to run on race day medications, period.
• In 2010, when those horses are two year olds, they will not be allowed to run on race day medications. All horses three years old and upward still can.
• In 2011, when those horses are three years old, they will still not be allowed to run on race day medications. All horses four years old and upward still can. This is going to be the difficult year. Racing secretaries are going to have to write more races for straight three year olds, or unfortunately the three year olds that step up to run against older horses will be at a medication disadvantage. Perhaps some additional weight allowances can help here, or the racing secretaries will have to get creative with conditions.
• In 2012, when those horses are four years old things will get easier on the racing secretaries because now they can write races for three and four year olds without race day medications, and five year olds and up will still be able to race on race day medications. If the racing secretaries still write three and up, or four and up races then the younger horses are still going to be at a disadvantage, but less so than the previous year.
• In 2013 there will now be a category for three, four and five year olds, or just four and five year olds. Again, older horses can still run on race day medications in races not involving the younger horses.
• In 2014 and beyond, a racing secretary can still keep moving the medication bar out, one year at a time, or at some point the track can just decide to stop allowing race day medications altogether.

OK, it’s not a perfect plan … it still takes five years to get through all the steps. For the player however, there will be at least some ‘raceday medication free’ races to play beginning in 2010. It also gives owners and trainers plenty of time to adjust. Those that want to be early adopters can, and those that want to play out the game can do so too. I also think it’s a little more fair than to just draw a line in the sand.

This plan doesn’t eliminate the need to improve the things the NTRA is targeting, nor the things I brought up in my previous post. All of those things are important to try to catch the cheaters and bring the playing field back closer to level than where it currently is.

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