I myself will be thirty in just a few days. I’m a previous buisness owner(Banshee Hill Farm),and current farm manager. I do not know what will save us. So much of this buisness is speculation of a percieved value. We have turned an art and the volatility of livestock into the crippling make or break necessity of surviving in buisness. All the while still packaging and selling it as something majestic. We let the looters in and gave them the keys while we made money on their practices. WE, we the horse owners.We the farm owners/workers.We the fans. We closed our eyes and asked no questions until it occured that it couldnt go on like this forever.

There is something majestic still left though. And I’m proud to say its not human. The horses are still running. They still give us goose bumps.I dont want to try to do the job of a journalist or take up too much space but i leave on this. We have conscientiously turned a blind eye to the likes of Jim Cullen while choosing only to spout empty rhetoric as the industry i love falls down around us..

- an organization like FINRA COULD record and disclose rule breakers’ names, all infractions, judgments and penalties.

It appears that Mr. Nuckols is part of the problem and that Jess Jackson was right but his business standards and proposed sales integrity rules were too good when proposed and were buried by insiders who wrote self-serving rules to create as little disruption as possible while giving the appearance of change.

This seems to be the norm at least with the rules I have read in the past few years which either don’t go far enough, avoid the elephant in the room or leave giant loop-holes, including those covering sales integrity, the NTRA track safety and integrity accreditation, the California and Florida two year old breeze sales allegedly created to protect horses and buyers, the BC 09 testing only 25% of entries (or pre-entries) for blood-doping down from only 50% in 08.

Insiders and powerbrokers choose to see no evil, hear no evil, create no waves, obey the code of silence, are against transparency and justify the use and abuse of drugs (sorry Mr. Nuckols “medications”) to train, race and maximize the exploitation of horses without loss of time by reminding everyone and themselves that these drugs are clean because they are “therapeutic” and “FDA approved”… Even though most “therapeutic” drugs only have a narrow therapeutic range, are used off-label and routinely not used to cure horses, but to numb injuries, over-ride exhaustion and depression, push them, drop them, and enable or boost performance.

Arrogant powerbrokers have no intention to clean-up their act until they are absolutely forced to. Rules written by insiders, for insiders offer little progress, mostly the illusion of progress which fails to fool the public, media, potential corporate sponsors and horse owners. Congress will be back.

The NTRA Safety & Integrity Accreditation’ questionnaire mentions anabolic steroids and NSAIDs but I cannot recall reading the word corticosteroids once. So, one of the biggest and most dangerous chemical scourges based on how most “therapeutic” drugs are used and abused at the racetrack, is completely avoided in the accreditation. Why? Because the NTRA has zero authority including with regard to safety and integrity and that accreditation is for the most part to give the appearance that the industry is making progress while the most crucial safety and integrity reforms are avoided.

A recent NTRA video featuring safety measures leading to the 2009 Breeders’ Cup is nothing but shameless propaganda. It implies that such measures are in place to protect all horses, all the time. That soap opera video to “prove” how much equine safety matters is made for TV and a large crowd to help prevent catastrophic injuries and public outrage. It is not done for the day-to-day safety of the horses and riders as such video implies. Safety standards drop drastically outside of the BC in California and nationwide. That video doesn’t show joints of two year olds being injected repeatedly with cortisone or mentions the less-than-rosy side like the spent $2,000 claimers racing right down the road from the BC at Santa Anita, one bad step away from being sent to the killers though horses are not better protected at Santa Anita and most tracks around the country since “you can’t save them all”.

The racing industry should cease to operate outside of crucial, mainstream business regulations, under the radar and above the law.

To disinfect itself and cease to be a societal misfit and outlaw, it could create:

- a racing authority to bring in new blood and hire a tough, impartial commissioner.

- an organization like FINRA couldn’t record and disclose rule breakers’ names, all infractions, judgments and penalties.

- independent escrow/title companies could handle all horse transactions like in the real-estate industry.

- electronic equine medical records could be kept and disclosed to help protect horses, riders, horseplayers and boost business.

- a national animal-offender registry based on the National Sex-Offender Registry could prevent abuse.

I do not have any experiences with Cullen.

I do have two positive thoughts for you: In a fair society, one is innocent ’til proven guilty; This is my last response in this forum to anyone without the gumption to sign their name.

Alfred Nuckols, Jr. makes the same, good point. Sad to say, some commentators take umbrage. It is difficult to understand their problem with wise words and good counsel.

“Cornfed”. I understand the essential protections for whistleblowers. There is not any whistleblowing in this forum. It is mudslinging, piling-on, garbage throwing at the pillory. It takes only two shouting that kind of stuff and there is the nucleus of a lynchmob.

To close, who will tell me the point of the exclamations: “Go Stanford” and “Go Irish”?
I’m a Stanford alum and I’m Irish. Where do such slogans fit into this forum?

Arrogance at it’s best. Without us part time owner’s spending our hard earned money in your industry you sir would be running your horses at county fairs. The old guard attitude about new owners needs to change or you and the Cullen’s of the world will find it much harder for the horse industry to survive without us owners that you detest so much.