All is Not as It Seems

Talk about putting the cart before the horse! Here's an interesting tidbit: The safety panel created by The Jockey Club after Eight Belles broke down in the Kentucky Derby and was euthanized on the track, has recommended a steroid ban in the sport.

The recommendation was released Tuesday, two days PRIOR to the Congressional hearings slated for Thursday of this week. Is this an effort to save face by the higher echelons of the sport or an effort to out trump Alex Waldrop, president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, who still maintains that it is a state-by state decision? Or is it a realization that Congress is going to mandate this ban anyway so the Jockey Club might as well get on board and look good in the process?

Only time will tell of course, but feathers seem to be flying in all directions over this issue. Senator Damon Thayer, a Republican state senator from Georgetown, Kentucky called the concept of the hearings a "dog and pony show," lobbing a direct hit at Rep. Ed Whitfield, one of the organizers of the hearings. To make matters worse, he did so at a meeting of the Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council, of which Ed's wife, Connie, is a member.

Thayer and Waldrop are on the same side. They both believe that regulation of drugs in horse racing is a state by state issue. Kind of makes you wonder if they are being courted by lobbyists for the drug companies. The simple fact that there are such inconsistencies across the sport is enough to suggest that national oversight is needed. The larger question is whether or not this oversight should come from Congress or a national racing commissioner. Both solutions seem to make Thayer and Waldrop quake.

It makes sense that Waldrop is opposed to the creation of a national czar because that would put his job in jeopardy. But Thayer? Come on, two republicans from the same state trading punches? What gives?

All is not as it seems. When even the venerable Jockey Club comes out with in favor of a ban on steroids, its hard to disagree.