Consistent and uniform drug policies, rules, and procedures across all racing jurisdictions would be my focal point for what we should aim to achieve in 2020.
It's imperative that all of the industry participants who are racing across the country have a clear understanding of what the protocols are, both from a training standpoint and for race day. However, this tends to be quite different depending upon which location a given horse is racing or training at on a certain day. It creates a lot of confusion, potential for mistakes, and general inconsistent results both for the industry participants and the public's understanding. More transparency and communication about this would be in the best interest of our sport.
The end result is that we've seen years and years of this massive inability to get the various racetrack owners and operators to come to the same table and agree on what policies should be implemented for their particular racetracks, including the racing organizations involved with that track. I think it would behoove the industry to have an elected committee that oversees the implementation, monitoring, and controls relative to this.
It's no secret that racing had a tough year in 2019. We asked a cross-section of participants what their number one goal is to make racing better in 2020. (Want to participate? Email suefinley@thetdn.com)
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