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Thread: Can Drug Testing alone catch or stop DRUG cheats? - Richard Freedman on TripleM Radio

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    Banned Gelding racefair will become famous soon enough
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    Can Drug Testing alone catch or stop DRUG cheats? - Richard Freedman on TripleM Radio

    Richard Freedman during the Dead Set Legends program on TripleM Radio Sydney this morning categorically claims that people are joking if they think that drug testing alone will catch or stop drug cheats in any sport. He then goes on to say that it's a big problem in horse racing and he's on many occasions tried to get the authorities to do more. Richard and the Freedman brothers have won many Group1 races in Horse Racing.
    Do you believe that Harness Racing is an exception and a level playing field? If Richard Freedman is right then we can do all the testing in the world and it won't make a difference. Training stables with the money behind them will be able to afford research and undetectable drugs and stay ahead of the game. Do the authorities need greater powers or do we need different people in the authority to get a level playing field? Maybe it's easier to get the public and members to think that we are doing a lot through all this testing. I'd be interested to hear what trainers think.

  2. #2
    mark diegutis
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    Richard Freedman is right . We have seen some 30 odd positive swabs since NSW has cracked down with pre race testing but what we don't read into this is that these are just the poor sods who , in desperation , have done something to try and match it with the "profesional" offenders . The money stables are sodomising the industry and I think that Dots 5 year plan to exit this industry is about 2 years too long . We also have a 5 year plan which we put into affect 2 years ago . I believe that most of our group races here and in New Zealand were won by cheats . You would not believe how many , and who , have come up to us at recent race meetings and are threatening to leave . We received calls from 3 different states from people who are wanting to form a "union" and take their greivances public . I recently spoke at length to Reid Sanders who assures me that they are doing everything they can but untill these cheats are living in fear of being caught then we have absolutely no hope of being on a level playing field . They have to start a continuous "out of race" testing regime . Reid Sanders has gone overseas , this week , for a seminar on gaining the latest information on drug testing . Lets hope Harness racing can get ahead of the cheats . Unfortunately there is a mind set amoungst alot of people that its not so bad if they cheat and that unless the're caught its ok . The racing industry seems to accept cheating as part of the industry . They name group 1 races after the worst offenders in the gallops . The gallops will survive anything though because the huge majority of punters have nothing to do with the industry . Its quite the opposite with harness racing . Most punters have a direct connection to the industry which makes them ,generally, alot wiser with regards to racing . They know when they are being dudded . I predict another disasterous year for breeders and more and more will continue to leave . It's such a shame .

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    Senior Member Stallion Danno is a jewel in the rough
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    From a hobbyists point of view, one of the most offensive aspects of dealing with these "professionals" is the way the poor masses hold them up as some sort of "ornament" to the game, when any horse trainer knows you can't improve every horse that comes into your yard by several lengths virtually overnight. And when they start driving them like there's a bottomless petrol tank....anyone with half an open mind can join the dots.

    Some will remember one particular contributor to this forum ( who has since been banned) expousing the virtues of a trainer who has since been found guilty of cheating, and he wasn't the only one either!!

    In one repect that contributor may end up being correct...there will only be a handful of trainers left if things continue to follow the current trend, and those trainers left will need a degree in chemistry, an ally in the medical field and another in the pharmaceuticals business to remain competitive. So much for horsemanship.

  4. #4
    Senior Member 4YO dizzy will become famous soon enough
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    Post race drug testing certainly wont catch all the cheats as the use of performance enhancing drugs has become a much more sophisticated process then giving something on race day and hoping to get away with it. A lot of drug use these days, and not just in horse racing, revolve around using drugs during the training phase to produce physiological benefits that remain at competition time whilst the drugs that produced those benefits are long gone from the system and the horse will propuce a negative post race test. In other words to remain effective more pre race/ out of competition testing needs to be done to detect drug use.

    Also important in any effort against cheating/drug use is better intelligence gathering, and this is an area that needs to improve IMO. Whilst it may take some effort to sort the wheat from the chaff initially an integrity hotline where information could be reported anonomously should be available (we had one under the GHRRA which dissappeared under HRNSW) Yes there is the possibility of misuse and the odd wild goose chase, but there is also the possibility that crucial imformation that completes the picture may be obtained.

    And as Mark said there is a culture problem in the industry. Participants need to change their "Robin Hood" mentality, the cheats are not stealing from the "authorities" but are quite simply stealing from their peers, and in many cases their friends. Mr Sanders and company receive the same pay each week regardless of how many drug cheats they expose, it is honest participants who go home each week with less in their pockets because of the cheats.

  5. #5
    mark diegutis
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    Hi Dan and Dot . At the recently run Breeders Challenge finals day the race caller anounced that we should change the name of Menangle Park to Macarthy Park . He did this after he won one of the finals . You could hear a thousand jaws hitting the ground . This guy has a positive swab and he says that . Its absolutely absurd and most found the comment insulting .

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    Super Moderator Horse Of The Year teecee has a spectacular aura about teecee's Avatar
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    Senior Member 4YO dizzy will become famous soon enough
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    Yes Mark some of the comments and actions from the administrative side of the industry defy belief

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    Senior Member Stallion Danno is a jewel in the rough
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    Quote Originally Posted by dizzy View Post
    Yes Mark some of the comments and actions from the administrative side of the industry defy belief
    Dot, from that angle do you remember the colgate kid?? had more positives than a battery factory and everytime he came back the masses would welcome him with open arms while everyone who had been skinned by him and his cheating siblings cringed. He was constantly referred to as being "good for the game", the memory of it still shits me rotten.

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    Senior Member Horse Of The Year Greg Hando will become famous soon enough
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    I believe that with the first offence 12month's min penalty to 3 year's depending on drug used
    2nd offence 5 year's
    3rd your out for good.
    The penalties have to be much harder to try and deter these people from using these banned substance's and somehow have some way of putting in no right of appeal condition's factored into your license when it is renewed each year.
    Have whoever you want on but don't ever have yourself on

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    Senior Member Stallion Triple V will become famous soon enough Triple V's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by racefair View Post
    Richard Freedman during the Dead Set Legends program on TripleM Radio Sydney this morning categorically claims that people are joking if they think that drug testing alone will catch or stop drug cheats in any sport. He then goes on to say that it's a big problem in horse racing and he's on many occasions tried to get the authorities to do more. Richard and the Freedman brothers have won many Group1 races in Horse Racing.
    Do you believe that Harness Racing is an exception and a level playing field? If Richard Freedman is right then we can do all the testing in the world and it won't make a difference. Training stables with the money behind them will be able to afford research and undetectable drugs and stay ahead of the game. Do the authorities need greater powers or do we need different people in the authority to get a level playing field? Maybe it's easier to get the public and members to think that we are doing a lot through all this testing. I'd be interested to hear what trainers think.
    [VVV] Hmmmm. How quickly some forget. One of those Group 1's was Encosta De Lago's win in the 1996 Bill Stutt Stakes @ Moonee Valley and that after returning not 1, not 2 but 3 pre race TC02 overages, the first 2 of which came in well over and the 3rd of which came in at still over the limit but within the 'margin of error' and so the horse was allowed to start and it duly won the race with ease.
    I wonder just how strongly old mate Richard was trying to get authorities to do something about it all back then when it was brother Lee in the firing line?

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