LEXINGTON, Ky. _ Never mind that Mark Casse won two legs of last year's Triple Crown with two different horses, it came to a point recently where the 59-year-old horse trainer wondered if it was time to hang it up.
"I seriously thought about retiring," Casse said Tuesday on an NTRA teleconference. "It's just so frustrating when you work and you work and you work and you know you're not getting beat by a better horse or a better trainer but by a drug."
Horse racing's big news this week is Churchill Downs' decision to postpone the Kentucky Derby to Sept. 5 and what that means with regard to the Preakness and the Belmont and whether the order of the Triple Crown can remain intact.
"We're still just starting the conversation with all the stake holders," NYRA President and CEO Dave O'Rourke told the Daily Racing Form on Tuesday "There are a lot of things to deal with; this is really important but it falls pretty far back when you consider the immediate issues at hand."
The overriding issue for the sport, however, remains the charges made in federal court by the Southern District of New York against 27 different horse racing entities, including trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro, in an alleged doping conspiracy.
"That was a big step the other day," said Casse, speaking on an NTRA teleconference. "They took out some bad guys and there's more to come, I hope."
His hope is Congress will pass the Horse Racing Integrity Act, which would establish an outside body to govern the sport. News of the federal charges garnered more support for the legislation. Bob Baffert, the sport's most famous trainer, had previously been opposed to the act, but announced his change of heart in an editorial for the Washington Post.
"This legislation would create the Horse Racing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority, a private, nonprofit body with the expertise to set national drug policies, procedures and penalties," Baffert wrote. "For the first time, we would be racing under a uniform, nationwide set of drug rules."
"I blame a lot of different individuals or organizations for what was allowed to continue to happen," Casse said. "I think some of these racetracks they know there's a problem, they just don't know how to stop it."
Casse doesn't believe testing is enough. Testing didn't catch cyclist Lance Armstrong, or the steroid users in Major League Baseball. You need investigations, said the trainer, similar to the one the FBI used to obtain the indictments.
"I think what happens, you in life you have to figure out what's more important winning at all costs or your integrity," Casse said. "I think sometimes owners and trainers and racing managers and bloodstock agents worry only about winning.
"We have a pretty good idea who's cheating. Those guys who are in trouble with the FBI, it was quite obvious."
Casse was not aware of the performance enhancer SGF-1000 allegedly used by Servis and Navarro. He is aware of Clenbuterol, a synthetic drug used for respiratory diseases. Casse wrote an editorial for Thoroughbred Daily News saying the drug should be banned.
"I don't believe the tests are catching the Clenbuterol the way it should," he said Tuesday. "Clenbuterol shouldn't exist. Any study you read it's got an anabolic steroid _ it isn't but it has the same effect. And the carbon-bone density _ I think it's a large reason why we've had as many breakdowns as we've had. I think it's the major reason. That's why it has to go."
And the cheaters must go. While others may have been disheartened by the news of the indictments, Casse had the opposite reaction.
"I'm excited again," he said. "I told one of my biggest owners, who called me a few days ago and said, 'How are my horses?' I said, 'They're going to get faster and faster each day that goes by since Monday.' And he said, 'What do you mean?' And I said, 'There's going to be a lot of them that are going to get slower and that's going to make ours faster."
