If you win the Tour de France and fail the post-race drug test, they take away your yellow jersey. Just ask Floyd Landis.
If you win an Olympic gold medal and they find out you did it on steroids, they take it away. Just ask Marion Jones.
If you are good enough to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and they find out its only because you were on steroids, your entry is denied. Just ask Mark McGuire.
And yet, if you win the Triple Crown on steroids, because it is legal in the states in which the races are run even though it is illegal in 10 of the 38 states with horse racing, they sell your stud services for $50 million and laugh all the way to the bank.
Something is not right and it has nothing to do with Big Brown and everything to do with the people who own and train him. After his performance yesterday in the Preakness, I don't think that any other horse can touch him, although Casino Drive has a legitimate shot. Big Brown seems destined for greatness, even though he is doing it on a drug called Winstrol, which his trainer admits he injects into all his horses on the 15th of every month.
Scot Waterman, Racing Medication and Testing Consortium executive director, said he expects the other 28 states that permit the drug to adopt more limited rules on Winstrol before next year's Triple Crown. "There was evidence these products were being overused or abused," says Waterman.
Need any evidence of the damage that steroids cause damage? The front page of The New York Times sports section on Saturday carried a story about Diana Koebel, owner of Lumberjack Farm, a rescue and rehab facility for retired racehorses in New York state. Koebel reports that horses arrive at her facility with so many drugs in them that "it can turn her seven stall stable into a detox clinic." And you can't tell me that all those drugs don't mess up a horse's reproductive abilities.
And yet, we look the other way. Inject horses with steroids, run them six or seven times, and then cash in your chips. What about the horse who won you the jackpot? What is the cost to his quality of life?
And more importantly, why do they keep giving these people trophies for winning on steroids when in every other sport, if you win on drugs, they take away your victory?
Maybe you can clue me in.
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1 comment:
Amen to what you wrote. Hopefully with the banning of steroids in January, 2009, some things may change for the good. I was rather amazed at Brown's trainer admitting his use of steroids in such a blase manner, but not shocked that he uses them.
Human atheletes make a conscious choice to use them, so taking away their medals is just. The horses have no choice and run their hearts out to win.
Let's just hope that regulations for all aspects of racing are finally put into place on a National level. Doing it by state just is not the answer.
Thanks for your post.
Jo
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