http://www.harnessracingupdate.com/2…eg-big-m-rule/
TL;DR: “Owners and trainers take heed: one positive test in 2018 could result in all of your horses being banned from all stakes races at the Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) tracks and the Meadowlands, Tioga and Vernon Downs.”
Not a bad idea. I hope it’ll do some good.
Wish they could get that translated over to tb racing.
Way too overbroad for TB racing. What if you run a horse in partnership with owners that also run horses in multiple states using 5 or more trainers. One of those horses–which you and your trainer have nothing to do with-- gets tested for a Class 2 drug in picograms. So your horse gets benched?
Maybe that works in harness racing because it’s so much smaller but I can’t see it in TB racing. Rather than do stuff like this, I’d like the regulators attack the Lance Armstrongs of the sport where anyone with a sense of history knows something doesn’t compute. Trainers that win at the biggest circuits at a 30 % clip, horses that never seem to tire in the stretch, trainers who toiled in obscurity for 10 years and suddenly overnight have horses that seemingly can’t lose. I’d like a rule that when a trainer hits a certain tripwire–win percentage or what have you–that the barn is subject to extra scrutiny. But the regulators would have to have the stomach to take on some of the biggest names in the sport and personally I have my doubts that would happen.
Maybe not this exactly but something more streamlined (the same at all tracks and states) and more harsh then the current slap on the wrist most get. Like you said, probably wishful thinking but it would be good for the sport.
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