Can you be validictorian of your graduating class if you are caught copying off another student’s test? 

Heck no!  At least not most schools.

Can you enter the Baseball Hall of Fame if you are caught betting on baseball?

Heck no!  Ask Pete Rose.  (At least not yet anyhow)

Can you win the Boston Marathon if you take the subway?

Heck no!  That would be cheating!

But you can earn an Eclipse Award while serving a meds-related suspension. 

I’m sure there are relevant, mitigating, elements of the story that I’m overlooking.  However, after commenting on this situation in a previous blog, no one is offering those elements.  No one has rushed to Mr. Pletcher’s defense.  Surprisingly, most piled on in agreement with me.  At the time, my suggestion was that with two of the nation’s top trainers serving meds related suspensions, the cheating must be fairly pervasive.  I still believe that to be case.

I bet if I was an industry insider I would know a dozen different reasons why my view of the situation is dangerously oversimplified. 

I’m so glad I’m not an industry insider.  

California Horse Racing Board has recommended a zero tolerance approach to the use of clenbuterol and other anabolic steroids, an act that would significantly trim the number of horses shipping in from other states.  That is a bold and shocking approach and I hope it goes forward.  Even more shocking is the number of horses currently being treated with the drug.  The CHRB is also looking to extend penalties beyond trainers, to also go after owners and veterinarians.  My hat is off to the CHRB.  It is time to take a stand.  Maybe the CHRB understands their role in this gig.

Eclipse awards voters apparently do not. 

We, the racing ran base, deserve a clean sport.  We should expect to be able to read the racing form in order to match wits with other members of the parimutual pool and draw our conclusions from the racing history of the competitors.  Not from the med history of the horse or the suspension history of the trainer.  I don’t want to look at those other factors. 

If Todd Pletcher truly did make an honest mistake, treated a horse too close to a race date and a post-race test tripped a flag, well that would be a crying shame.  But when meds infractions are pervasive in the industry you simply can’t give Eclipse Award to a trainer serving a meds suspension.   At least that is my oversimplified opinion.