Sometime during Derby week I heard trainer Larry Jones say that Eight Belles stood almost 16 and a half hands, in fact next to stablemate Proud Spell she looked like a draft horse. That being said, Jones has ordered a drug test to prove that his filly's size was not the result of steroid use.
From USA Today:
"I guarantee there were no steroids ever on the horse," Jones said at a news conference. " We're taking a lot of abuse out there. ... We're being accused of steroid abuse because she was so large. I can tell you that (owner Rick) Porter goes to the sale to look for good horses and that's one of the thing you look for -- a horse that's big enough, strong enough and fast enough to compete in big races."
While I have my doubts about Big Brown, considering trainer Rick Dutrow's track record of repeated violations and suspensions, there is no doubt in my mind that Larry Jones runs a clean barn without using illegal drugs or steroids on his equine athletes.
The necropsy on the Derby runner-up was completed on Monday, and although no formal results have been released, Jones has said that he hopes the post-mortem examination would uncover previously undiscovered "soundness issues."
Jones has also fought back against PETA's claims that jockey Gabriel Saez was to blame for the filly's death.
"I think that it is really the most ridiculous thing I've heard," Jones said. "I hate the fact they are using this as a fund raiser. They are using this as a money maker. They're not doing this for the benefit of anything."
4 comments:
I hadn't realized that it was all that uncommon for Thoroughbreds to stand 16.2 and above and that a tall horse was cause for steroid accusations. Unless they're saying a 17-ish *filly* is the problem. My experience has been that they are generally more gracile, but that it's nowhere near the rule.
Thinking back, the majority of the Thoroughbreds that I've ridden were on the tall end of the scale ... I actually considered mine to be kind of smallish at 15.3.
While I think it can be only good for racing that the results of such a test are released (and probably should become standard practice), it is outrageous that the shrill cries of the uninformed lunatic fringe are putting this sort of pressure on Saez/Jones/Porter. The power of the mob hasn't changed much since Julius Caesar, and if PETA has its way, the three of them will end up in jail.
1) steroids aren't illegal yet and Dutrow admits giving Winstrol to all of his horses monthly; 2) Jones should make his veterinarian bills public for Eight Belles
The problem isn't with Dutrow giving his horses Winstrol -- it's the illegal levels of Lasix, Clenbuterol, Phenylbutazone and Oxyphenbutazone -- and that's what some of his suspensions were for.
This guy didn't wake up and decide to race clean overnight.
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