The horses are being called over to the paddock for their race. The trainer leaves the barn and heads over to the paddock. The horse is left in the care of a groom who proceeds to the paddock and is stopped just prior by the horse identifier who lifts the top lip to check the tatoo usually without protective gloves. The horse is saddled and a rider is legged up. Then the horse proceeds to the track and is handed over to a pony person who warms up the horse and it is now handed over to an assistant starter. Hmmm, I just counted five different people handling the horse from the barn to the starting gate. And that’s not counting the trainer.

I understand the absolute guarantor rule has two sides and horse racing should be regulated with strict controls. But let’s keep an open mind. Not only are the testing procedures resultant in tiny miniscule amounts of certain illegal drugs being detected, those amounts being totally negligible to the performance of the horse, but the race track cannot provide security for the horses once they are out of site of the trainers.