Yes, bears do

Occasionally, a question will be thrown your direction, the content of which is so self-evident, that it warrants the counter-query we all learned in grade school: "Does a bear shit in the woods?" Such was the case a couple of months back while taking in an afternoon of 10 cent returns and 5 dollar beers with a few buddies at Six Flags over Churchill Downs. After watching a Patrick Biancone trained-Coolmore owned-Leparoux steered-filly scorch the track in a half of a cigarette (Biancone time), my friend asked me if I thought Biancone was, as he so elequently stated, "juicin' these girls?" Bears moving bows in their natural habitat is not my favorite quip, as its legendary status has lead to gross overuse But Biancone's reputation for dirty tactics was the worst kept secret in the Bluegrass and beyond. So when Biancone's garrison of barns were siezed by the KHRA last week at Keeneland, the only person surprised was probably Biancone himself, that it took this long.

Nevertheless, kudos to the KHRA and Keeneland for taking a stand. The fact that a singular governing body still eludes thoroughbred racing in these United States is a separate rant unto itself, but the porousness of the current set-up is rife with loopholing horsemen, giggling in line at the bank with but a small welt on the wrist. My heart bleeds for Steve Asmussen when he gets a $2,500 fine for positive tests after his stable has made off with millions in winnings. Not to single out The Frenchy and The Ass Man (sitcom?), but one only had to look at Biancone's lengthy track record. Run out of Eurpoe, banned in Hong Kong, and now a major hiccup in Kentucky. The word from the Keeneland backside is that there's more than enough evidence to expel Biancone from the Commonwealth, which is a serious death blow to anyone in this business. Now it's up to the KHRA to pull the trigger and send a message to the super-stables that you'd better leave your snake venom on the reservation, the cocaine in the limo, the EPO in the...well, you get the idea.

Just look around. Turn on the TV, browse the web. Cheating is in. From Armstrong, to Landis, Sosa to Bonds, the media is feeding us truck loads of accusations and consumers are eating it up and asking for seconds. If the smoke ever settles around baseball I fear that the cannons will be pointed toward horse racing, an onslaught I doubt the sport's fragile legs withstand. Horsemen and gamblers aside, racing fans are turned on to the purity of the sport; the unfettered grace of a horse as it gives its all doing the only thing it knows how. When you jeopardize integrity, you stand to lose it all. Hopefully, the only losers in all of this will be the ones winning the wrong way.