Op/Ed

The new TDN Topics feature (click here to read TDN Topics: Should the Crop Be Banned?) creates a great opportunity for those of us who care about the long-range health of racing to stand up and be counted. Therefore, I am moved to write one last time, despite being "retired" from 40 years of handicapping, betting, pedigree analysis, breeding, and racing.

I watched Golf Channel's Feherty the other day when the host, David Feherty, was interviewing the CEO of the PGA Tour, Tim Finchem. I found one segment of the show particularly interesting.

About two-and-a-half hours after American Pharoah won the 2015 Kentucky Derby, a mare we own in partnership lay down and foaled a colt. Another dream began.

Twice in recent editions of Thoroughbred Daily News there has been mention of a foal being a three-quarter sibling to another.

There is a popular notion that if horseracing somehow managed to have a league office running the show, our troubled game would be saved.

Anyone who has studied Australian history shouldn't be surprised that the premier states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria are at loggerheads over the future of the media rights to Australia's racing vision.

I was more than a little intrigued by the Op-Ed piece published this week in TDN penned by John Fulton. The bloodstock agent brokered the private sale of a major horse and then watched as members of the media speculated on the name of the buyer and the purchase price.

"Well, if Bayern holds on to win, he will come down," I said just a few seconds into the running of the Breeders' Cup Classic Saturday at Santa Anita.

In comments in the TDN this week, both Dr. Larry Bramlage and Arthur Hancock took the position that Lasix needs to be banned because bettors want that to happen, and handle will suffer if we don't (click here). Those gentlemen are certainly qualified to comment as professionals about veterinary medicine and breeding, but when it comes to bettors and handle, they are playing in my ballpark.

Most of you have never heard of Mike Mayo. When I tell you that Mike did as much for the sport of Thoroughbred racing over the last 15 years as any industry leader, I hope you will read his story.

Recently completed research regarding the use, or non-use, of Lasix in Thoroughbred racehorses adds some pertinent new facts to the discussion. One investigation looked at horses racing in Hong Kong over a 5-year period where the use of Lasix is not permitted in training or racing.

Ten years ago in an Op/Ed written for The Blood-Horse, I suggested that only an independent agency like USADA (United States Anti-Doping Association) was capable of bringing order to our sport by cleaning it up, as it had done with Track & Field and subsequently with Cycling.