We've all read the news that the trainers implicated in the positive tests at The Red Mile this fall were all cleared.
But I think very few people really thought they were guilty. Still, their names were well known and this was a hot topic of conversation during the Grand Circuit meet at Lexington. No trainers likes to have such a taint on his reputation.
It's grossly unfair to the trainers named. It's to their credit, however, that most people I talked to thought the whole process was a sham when they heard the names of the alleged violators. These weren't the "usual suspects."
I could probably think of many trainers who might be guilty of giving EPO, but they would certainly NOT include the four trainers named in Lexington.
Kentucky hasn't exactly had a sterling reputation for racing regulation in recent years and this incident doesn't help matters any. Isn't it ironic that the state most associated with horse racing in the US does such a poor job of regulating the sport?
Sometimes it seems that racing catches the good guys while the bad guys go about their nefarious business.