(In response toJoe Faraldo’s letter in the Dec. 22 issue of HRU):

Wouldn’t it be nice if our USTA leadership would spend as much intellectual muscle on ridding our sport of cheating and animal abuse as what was spent by this author in this article to defend the status quo? A lot of effort here in this article to create a gigantic buffer for reasonable doubt on any effort by anyone to clean this mess up. There is only one reason anyone involved in racing bought EPO, and it wasn’t to win the Tour de France.

Small owners like me are being pushed out of the business by the protective umbrella provided by the status quo and breeders to protect cheating. We all know what and who is under the umbrella. People that cheat are stealing from you. They will smile at you, treat you nice, charm you… And steal the lion’s portion of the purse from you, then use that money to buy the yearlings you have circled in your book.

I commend anyone trying to level the playing field. You should take your USTA, and local horseman’s association votes seriously. The only way for a change is to make a change and vote out the people you believe are harming the sport and you. Don’t be charmed by the thief in your house.

Ivar Hyngstrom / Boca Raton, FL

Settlemoir on efforts to reduce post-time drag

The time in between races referred to as a “drag” is a “drag” for everyone including myself. I can’t stand the “drag” after zero, it makes for a terrible on track experience.

At The Meadowlands the day after Christmas, we tried once again to get the tracks on board this coming weekend with us to try an experiment in going to the gate at three minutes past zero including thoroughbreds.

The answer was “no” by each individual track operator. Finally, though, there seemed to be some willingness from both the standardbred and thoroughbred operators to get on a call after the first of the year and see if we can get everyone to try this experiment not just The Meadowlands and Mohawk like the last time we tried.

I personally think this is a good initiative for the entire horse racing industry to get on board with. However, I do understand that if everyone is not on board it makes it very difficult as the last two times we tried this our off-track handle dropped more than 20 per cent. Without a casino and our [New Jersey] sports betting numbers down because New York went live with sports betting it’s something we cannot try alone. I’ll keep you posted after the first of the year once I’m able to arrange a conference call with track operators racing at night.

Jason M. Settlemoir / COO The Meadowlands