Sound and fury

Class will tell.

The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection concluded its hearings today sans "Babe" Dutrow. He was a vet scratch apparently, feeling under the weather. Maybe he could have used a shot of Winstrol. The chairwoman Jan Schakowsky stated that the committee had not received word from Dutrow that he would not make the hearing. Dutrow claims he informed the committee of his planned absence. I wonder who is not telling the truth?
Update: Dutrow apparently was telling the truth. (10:15 in Paulick's live blog) Sorry Babe.

The panel, by and large, expressed its frustration with the industry in general and its eagerness to ban the use of medication in racing. A consensus was reached on the need for a governing authority for horse racing and the dysfunctional status of the current system, with the glaring exception of Alex Waldrop, president and CEO of the NTRA. Like the entertainment director aboard the Titanic, he claimed-with a straight face worthy of Oscar nomination-that the industry was best positioned to regulate itself and was making great inroads towards achieving self governing credibility. (My words, I'm not a journalist so I'm paraphrasing.) You bloody wanker, have the brass to step up to the plate and admit that you and the entire industry are useless and detrimental to the sport in general. Nobody wants to be told what to do but have the simple decency to admit that after so much time to fix your own mess you need to let someone in to do it for you. Piss off.

But I digress.

Curiously, TOBA has a new owner video thing on the Bloodhorse and in one of their presentations Dr. Chip Johnson, DVM, states that he, as a vet, has a truckload full of great stuff to make your horse run faster. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?? In the intro to the whole series, the moderator states that the purpose of TOBA is to increase the economics and integrity(IN THAT ORDER)of the sport.

Dutrow with his absence and Waldrop with his shrill cry of "...nothing to see here" prove that in the end, this whole charade was the classic "...tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Class will tell.