In the last couple of weeks, Harnesslink has broken the Glaucine story emanating from the drug positives reported on Ron Burke and Julie Miller trained horses.
Since then a number of other trainers located in NJ, PA and NY have had positives reported for the same drug.
These positives were reported to the New York State Gaming Commission by its own lab, which not so long ago reported positives for a different bronchial dilator and a number of trainers were then subsequently penalized.
The current rash of Glaucine positives simply cannot be dismissed out of hand by the regulatory body in NY.
The response, to the drug infraction positives reported by the very competent New York State Lab for Ron Burke and Julie Miller, from The Meadowlands and Jeff Gural, was a huge surprise to me as well as many in North America.
Instead of doing what Gural has done to every other trainer and driver since he took over The Meadowlands who have either had reported drug positives or some personal peeve, and stand them down from his tracks, Jeff Gural gave Ron Burke and Julie Miller and some others a free pass on a reported positive and did not stand any of them down.
It is a complete turnaround from how The Meadowlands and Jeff Gural have treated everyone else in a similar situation based upon nothing more than – a reported positive test.
The one known exception of course is a few years ago, if my recollection is correct, you guessed it, one of Jeff's trainers got a positive. In that case, once the vet was blamed all was apparently forgiven.
Remember the Canadian owner barred from the Meadowlands because his trainer had a reported positive?
I recognize that it is a great embarrassment for Jeff Gural to have people who train for him charged with drug infractions (as perhaps it was for that Canadian owner), but surely for a drug policy to be effective, it must be applied without fear or favour and to suddenly change what has been custom and policy sends a disturbing message to the wider industry as a whole.
Compare the response to the Ron Burke and Julie Miller drug positives reported by the New York Gaming Commission's respected laboratory and the unfair treatment recently meted out to Robert Bresnahan Jr. and a host of others who have had reported positives under Gural 's definition of a positive which is obviously not that of any regulatory body in either NY, NJ or PA.
In Bresnahan's case two horses similarly were said to test positive for EPO or its antibodies in out of competition testing. Testing done by the Meadowlands, not the New Jersey Racing Commission. There was no verification of any positive by the regulatory body lab in NJ.
While Bresnahan has asked for additional testing to be taken to clear his name, so far reportedly denied him, he is unable to race horses at The Meadowlands, Tioga Downs or Vernon Downs.
The reason given in the Meadowlands press release was as follows:
"As a result of the positive tests, Mr. Bresnahan will be unable to participate at the Meadowlands and sister properties,Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs".
Yes, just a positive test.
So Mr Bresnahan was barred immediately, while Ron Burke and Julie Miller are allowed to continue to ply their trade even though the New York Racing Commission has found drug positives on horses trained by both of them.
In addition, Gural (Little E LlC stable), unlike the Canadian owner, continues not only to race his horses at the Meadowlands and Yonkers but does so while employing those trainers with the reported positives.
One thing that has really intrigued me about the testing regime in place at The Meadowlands is the almost God like reverence given to the testing laboratory of the Hong Kong Jockey Club which is selected for each case The Meadowlands generally uses to toss someone.
Where I come from in the Southern Hemisphere, the harness racing industry certainly doesn't place the Hong Kong Jockey Club on the huge pedestal that the Meadowlands does and one has to wonder why the Meadowlands continually shouts their praises from the rooftops at every opportunity.
Is it because that lab will call anything a positive even if it doesn't come close to a violation of any rule or regulation?
Is it because it denies the accused any right to clear his name because of where the sample was sent?
Is there a reason why the Meadowlands did not ask the Commission in New Jersey to at least accompany its personnel to conduct out of competition testing, so that if there was a violation of drug rules, the party would be officially stood down by virtue of a Commission ruling?
As an outsider looking into the North American scene from the Southern Hemisphere, I just cannot get my head around the way people in the same situation such as Bresnahan — Burke and Miller can be treated so differently.
While the solution seems to stop the hypocrisy and role playing as judge, jury and executioner, and work with the Commissions to see to it that trainers and owners, if the latter are involved, are penalized appropriately for violations of the rules governing racing.
Perhaps others have some different ideas to resolve this, reinstate all or bar all, but for the moment the stench of hypocrisy and that of a double standard is so strong in this instance that it has wafted all the way down to the Southern Hemisphere under its own steam.
JC