Breeders' Cup adopts stricter drug policy

The Breeders' Cup did a good thing this week. Officials announced Monday that, in addition to the ban on steroids that was adopted last year, all trainers of Class 1 and Class 2 drug violations will face a one-year suspension from the 2010 Breeders' Cup and those that violate the policy three times will face a lifetime ban from the event.

Great, but I suggest going even further:

(1) Let's also suspend the owners of these horses. Why are owners given a free pass when the trainers are in essence working for them? Any penalty handed down to trainers should also be imposed on the owners, who then might start taking a second look at conditioners who continue to bend the rules.

(2) How about a two- or three-year ban for a first offense, and a lifetime ban after a second violation? Why do they get a second chance when they know the rules going in? This is an industry that has coddled its cheaters for too long, and it's time the drug rules were similar to the ones in Europe. I applaud the Breeders' Cup for its actions this week, but we can take it a step further.

According to a press release distributed to the media on Monday, the ranking of drugs is based on their pharmacology, their ability to influence the outcome of a race, whether or not they have legitimate therapeutic uses in the racing horse, or other evidence that they may be used improperly.

Here is how the Class 1 and Class 2 drugs are defined in the Breeders' Cup release:

Class 1 -- Stimulants and depressant drugs that have the highest potential to affect performance and have no generally accepted medical use in a racing horse. Many of these agents are Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) schedule II substances. These include the following drugs and their metabolites: Opiates, opium derivatives, synthetic opioids, psychoactive drugs, amphetamines and amphetamine-like drugs. There are at least 51 drugs in this class.

Class 2 - Drugs that have a high potential to affect performance, but have less of a potential than Class 1. These drugs are not generally accepted as therapeutic agents in racing horses or they are therapeutic agents that have a high potential for abuse. Among the nearly 350 drugs in this class are Lidocaine, Epogen, Caffeine and snake venoms.

"The establishment of these new regulations strengthens our number one priority of preserving the integrity of our competition and protecting the welfare of our athletes at the World Championships," Breeders' Cup president and CEO Greg Avioli said in a statement.

In addition to the crackdown on steroids and Class 1 and Class 2 drugs, this year's Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita (Nov. 6-7) will include out of competition testing for EPO (blood doping) 10 days before the Breeders' Cup and TCO2 (milk shaking) testing in the detention barn before all 14 Breeders' Cup races. A failed EPO test would render the horse eneligible for the race and the trainer open to suspensions. Failed tests for TCO2 will mean purse redistributions and suspensions. The latter two testing policies were introduced at the 2007 Breeders' Cup at Monmouth Park.

Again, let's make the owners as liable as the trainers in all this.