When the Buck Stops

Some interesting news out of Saratoga about the Jockey Club Round Table conference held this year on August 17th. As might be expected, the hot topic was limiting drugs and improving drug testing. The Thoroughbred Safety Committee issued four new recommendations pertaining to these topics including the creation of a task force to develop a business plan for equine drug testing and research; prohibition of alkalinizing agents (so called "milkshakes") by all racing jurisdictions and tracks, and participation by all racing regulatory agencies in the Jockey Club's injury/breakdown database.

There was much debate regarding, you guessed it, the money needed to improve the industry's current drug testing program. Currently, according to TRA (Thoroughbred Racing Association) CEO Alan Foreman, the industry spends $30 million (from state funding) to fund 18 laboratories where testing is conducted. According to Foreman, "We're spending the same amount as we did 20 years ago. Our system worked decades ago but it won't work now."

Foreman feels that the same money could be more efficiently spent (makes you wonder who's currently got their hand in the till) with the creation of a research lab controlled by the racing industry.

It is interesting to me that Foreman first acknowledges the antiquity of the current system and then calls for the industry to regulate its own testing program. That would of course mean that the industry would have to fund its own program and not rely on states to police their own jurisdictions with money from their own coffers. Where that money would come from is any body's guess, but I can assure you that state funding will not be allocated to private industry.

All of which means that nothing much is going to get done. "There weren't many new ideas here today and the main issue has not been addressed," noted RCI president Ed Martin. "I would challenge (the industry) to match the money now spent on drug testing. There is no beef. Where's the beef?"

I don't think that the industry has the luxury of time to chew its collective cud. The sport is under the microscope like never before and unless the industry acts quickly to clean up its act, I predict they will have to deal with federal regulations that do it for them.