Close, but no Cigar....

Good news out of New York. State Racing and Wagering Board Chairman, John Sabini announced earlier this week that New York will ban all but four anabolic steroids in racing by January 1. The four permitted will only be allowed in minimal doses.

With the adoption of these rules, New York becomes the 17th state to adopt such rules and the rest of the racing states are expected to follow. "The goal is to get all 38 racing states to adopt this by January 1," said Jack Knowlton of Saratoga Springs, managing general partner of Sackatoga Stable. "There seems to be a real spirit of cooperation here."

The rules in New York apply to harness and thoroughbred tracks and the New York Racing Association, which operates Saratoga Race Course, hopes to have the rules in place for its next meet. NYRA also operates Belmont and Aqueduct, where the ban will also be in effect.

The four steroids that will be permitted in minimal amounts are Winstrol, Equipose, Durabolin and testosterone. Winstrol, of course, was the drug that Rick Dutrow admitted he regularly administered to Big Brown. When Big Brown ran Winstrol-free in the Belmont, he did not finish the race.

It would have been ideal if New York had stepped up to the plate the way California has done and ban steroids all together, but something is better than nothing. I will be disappointed, however, if this partial ban becomes part of the NTRA's safety initiative, because I don't think that it is forceful enough. Yes, it will make a difference, but it won't make doping illegal. And I certainly don't think it is significant enough of a safety initiative on the part of the NTRA to answer to the public outcry over racing.

Perhaps harness driver-trainer John Stark, Jr, said it best when he admitted that he had already taken his young horses off steroids because he "knew the ban was coming." "It started with baseball," hes aid. "We knew it was going to come to our sport eventually."

Something that was inevitable does not, in my opinion, qualify for "new" initiative status.