Sixteen years after I first suggested in an Op/Ed in The Blood-Horse that the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) should be hired to oversee drugs in American racing and eight years after like-minded horse folks founded the grass roots organization named the Water Hay Oats Alliance (whose mission statement mirrored my original suggestion), the sport of horse racing in the United States is on the verge of seeing this goal at long last come to fruition with Monday's announcement that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will push for the creation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.
USADA supremo Travis Tygart will not be beaten in his attempt to rein in cheaters, just as the current investigations that have led to the initial arrests of accused trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis have shown what can be accomplished when real G-men go after rule breakers.
To me it is a given that systems, protocols and policing practices will be put in place by USADA and dedicated investigators will be hired to put a stop to cheating with the illegal designer drugs that have turned hitherto unknown horsemen into trainers with Hall of Fame credentials.
As far as I am concerned, the hard work that is to come is finally in the hands of those who can be trusted to make this happen.
We are now ready to focus on the next elephant in the room: the culture of the North American backstretch community, which includes those trainers, owners, veterinarians and other assorted enablers and misfits that do not want to follow the rules.
I look at the past decade as a time in racing that is reminiscent of the Black Sox Scandal in baseball. While our scandal in some regards is still unfolding as the investigations continue for the next year or so, it is time for all of us to take a strong look at the culture that made it happen, because unless this culture can change, racing cannot hope to turn the page and seek recognition as a clean sport.
Cheating by trainers, vets and owners with illegal and unknown Performance Enhancing Drugs has until very recently gone largely unchecked because those agencies charged with regulating the sport have shown no interest in addressing the problem.
Horsemen's organizations, State regulators, racetrack operators, racing boards and the media with few exceptions have not done their job of creating a positive culture. Trainers bent on cheating come up with any number of reasons that are as lame as the unsoundest horse in the barn to be able to keep their candy. State regulators will not rock the boat for fear of losing their jobs. Racetrack owners have been operating under the false notion that exposing cheaters will hurt their business. Racing boards are peopled by political appointees that want to defer rather than regulate. The media has enough clued-in writers and analysts to make a difference, but instead of being real they have made a light industry of glorifying trainers that cheat because that is what is expected of them.
OK, so now that a rejuvenating breath of fresh air is about to be ushered into the sport thanks to installing USADA to oversee drugs in racing and the horsemen's pleas to retain all of their drugs has been silenced, will those movers and shakers in racing agree to play the game on the level?
I am extremely worried the answer may be “no” given the history of the sport and the unbridled energy of the worst aspects of human nature. I do believe that plenty of horsemen and owners seek an edge only because they think everybody who is winning does the same thing. I think these people can and will adapt to a more normal way of doing business. I know plenty of them really appreciate the change.
The ones I fear are those horsemen that have seen the awesome power of illegal drugs and no matter what happens will always seek an edge because they have been emasculated by the power of drugs and think their skills will never be good enough to allow them to win on the square.
While most horsemen outwardly behave as though they have confidence in themselves, the truth is that very few of them really do and they live in mortal fear of being found out as a fraud.
I reckon that many of these will fall by the wayside, because if they are forced to stop cheating, their stats will reflect the new normal and fewer owners will supply them with horses. Others who are smarter than the average fellow will continue to cheat and, for a time, may continue to get away with it. But eventually the axe will fall not only them but their enablers—the owners who supply them with drugs, the money to buy drugs and expensive horses.
My hope for racing—and it is just that, a hope—is that those individuals who have enjoyed phenomenal success because of their cheating and only play a game they can dominate if they can cheat—will fade from view and go back to other money games on Wall Street or the corporate jungle and return to swindling their peers, while leaving the rest of us cases of arrested development to conduct our silly contests of equine speed.
Once the landscape has been cleared, racing in my fantasy world would take place on a level playing field for the first time in an entire human generation and those folks who really like the horses will produce a product that can be embraced by all of those horseplayers, fans, owners and trainers who love the greatest game played outdoors.
It could happen.
Barry Irwin is the founder and CEO of Team Valor International.
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