Secret Service

In yet another irony, the President of the United States seems to have literally followed me home from Washington! I just learned from one of the about fifty policemen surrounding my street, that George Bush is coming for lunch at the home of one of my neighbors.

The security is unbelievable--helicopters over head; police on every corner; roadblocks; men with earphones in "unmarked" vans every three yards--our tax dollars at work preventing anyone from coming within one half mile of George W.'s destination, even those of us who live here!

The need for high level security clearly comes with the job of being President, but it is equally prevalent in the thoroughbred industry. Every owner that runs a horse in the Kentucky Derby is assigned his/her own Kentucky State Trooper to stand vigil over their horse. In addition, most trainers hire their own private security guards to travel and even sleep with their valuable charges.

Rumors of doping, tampering with food or equipment are often just that but horses that run at the highest level of competition are simply too valuable, on and off the track, for anyone to take any chances.

When Barbaro moved to Penn's large animal hospital, one of the biggest adjustments that employees had to make was identifying themselves to the Security Guards that literally appeared overnight at their normally bucolic place of employment.

And when there was talk, almost a year ago, about the possibility of letting Barbaro leave New Bolton for Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, Michael Matz's primary base of operation, one of the biggest obstacles was the lack of security.

Perhaps the greatest irony is that the more you keep people out, the more they want to get in.