interesting cross post

[roxie901]

CASEY RESPONDS TO CHARLES TOWN ARTICLE
As a Veterinarian who works at Charles Town Race Track, I take particular exception to Wayne Harrison's comment "we are in the ice age here on drug testing" in a VTA Insider story published July 25. His remarks imply that horses are "drugged" more frequently than at other tracks. First and foremost, let us remember that to using illegal drugs costs money and generally a lot of money. Based on this alone, I can assure you that the horses at Charles Town receive far less drugs than other race tracks.

The average pre-race bill at Charles Town would be well under $200 dollars. Compare this to Kentucky pre-race bills which can run three to five times higher, and you will have people laughing and wondering how these horses can run at Charles Town. For example, based on the current price of Epogen, which exceeds $200, often obtained from a veterinarian in Pennsylvania, the chance of a horse stabled at Charles Town receiving it is minimal. I use Epogen, as an example of drug misuse as there is no veterinary or therapeutic application for horses. In addition, the risk of a horse dying from its use is real. I believe anyone using, or dispensing Epogen, should be bared from racing for life.

Making rash, uneducated statements such as Wayne Harrison has only causes confusion and distrust among the many people involved in the racing at Charles Town. It also turns attention away from the real cause of the problem.

If you look at the break downs at Charles Town, the vast, vast, majority occur between the 3/8 pole and the 1/4 pole. If the cause of break down was do to racing lame horses that were drugged, as Wayne Harrison's statement implies, they should have break downs spread out evenly over the entire track. With this very small area of the track incurring the vast majority of break downs, this can only be caused by a problem with the track.

As I am a Veterinarian, and not a track maintenance expert, I can not tell you what the problem with the track is. I do wonder how long and how many more horses will break down before a track maintenance person, with the knowledge to rectify this problem, is hired by track management?

In the future, I do hope that in the future, Mr. Harrison sticks to solving the problems of the HBPA.

Sincerely yours, Maurice F. Casey, III, D.V.M.

(The VTA Insider re-published a story from the Blood-Horse last week concerning problems that plague Charles Town. While we are not intending to conduct a debate about what is right or wrong with our neighboring racetrack, we thought publishing Casey's response was appropriate.)

This is from a recent VTA update-

[louis finochio]

The average fan thinks all the work force that works on the backstretch, has inside info that will line their pockets with gold.

When you work on the backstretch you soon realize that the employees lose more money at the windows than win.

Just look at the cars they drive and you will become a believer.

Many people spread false rumors about TB being on performance enchancers, its just not true.

[mary syers]

The funny truth, many horses that run on preformance enhancing drugs don't run as if they are enhanced. They lose right along with the non'enhanced horses. Good horsemanship and good horses win races, not well informed needles. Mary Syers