BARRY IRWIN, Founder/Chief Executive Officer, Team Valor:
What is the most pressing problem that needs to be tackled in racing, and how would you solve it?
There are rules on the books in every racing jurisdiction that would ensure the integrity of racing if followed, but sadly, as far as I can tell, there is not one active investigation to find illegal substances that are being used to enable horses owned and/or trained by dishonest people to gain a competitive advantage over clean horses owned and/or trained by people that follow the rules.
Testing alone is not yet able to keep pace with illegal substances used by cheaters, so investigative initiatives carried out by experienced law enforcement personnel with the standing to bring any violators to justice is the best way to address this problem.
New methods to evaluate the impact on the physiology of the equine athlete are now being perfected that would serve to identify horses that have been given an illegal substance in advance of a race but that no longer appear in a post-race test.
However, as has historically been the case, by the time this new methodology is brought on board for use by regulators and investigators, the cheaters will be on to some new trick.
The only answer is to use tried and true policing techniques to discover, identify, prosecute and eliminate from our sport those miscreants who have a known pattern of chronic criminal behavior.
What do you think somebody from the outside looking in-somebody not involved in racing-would say the problem that most needs solving is?
Outsiders I have met complain most about racing professionals abusing the animals, whether it is doping them, or whipping them or running them when they are not sound.
This is not fanciful or unfounded.
Bring a newcomer to the races for the first time, sit with them and start answering their questions. You will wind up supplying them with the raw materials upon which their perception is founded.
“What does that mean, first-time Lasix?” Or, “Why is that jockey beating up that horse when he is clearly winning by so many lengths?” Or, “Why is that jockey beating up that horse when it clearly has no chance of catching up?” Listen to yourself as you explain, “Why do so many horses in this claiming race wear those bandages on their front legs?” And, when a horse is dropped from a NW3 allowance to a $16,000 claiming race, “Why is this horse such a big favorite if it has run dead last three times in a row?”
If you are interested in being a respondent in our Challenges and Solutions series, please email suefinley@thetdn.com.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
