SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, April 9,2009--I must admit something up front. I don’t have any sympathy for the trainer of the protem favorite for Kentucky Derby 135. How am I supposed to regard someone in the same business who refers to me as an idiot because I bet on the outcome of horse races?

Jeff Mullins said he made an “innocent mistake” because he didn’t know the rules regarding New York’s detention barn, meaning that he hasn’t read a trade paper, magazine, blog or the rules of racing for each jurisdiction in which he races.

But I certainly hope he’s aware that horseplayer dollars make the mares, and the horses go, too. Since, in that context, I make a contribution to his livelihood by helping to provide for purse money and, it should be noted, have put more than my fair share of children through school, I resent being called stupid.

Of interest to me is how some of the Internet media has lined up on the issue of Mullins’ entering the NYRA detention barn to administer an item sold in many tack shops around the country for $12 and which, by definition, is not a banned substance.

Internet media reaction has run the gamut from throw-the-book-at-Mullins to Kool-Aid-spewing apologies, arguing that the media shouldn’t complain about racing getting bad press when it’s the press who are fanning the flames, especially during a high profile season, for that would do more harm than good.

Let’s assume for a moment that the latter stance is correct. Then who is supposed to speak for horseplayers and the public at large?

Here’s my question: Would it be unreasonable to expect that the men and women who care for the animals on which I bet, and who guide the destiny of their horses and mine, to know the rules?

Forgive me, but I don’t I don’t think so.

The product that Mullins was allegedly going to give Gato Go Win, called “Air Power,” is described as a “horse cough medicine.” But that’s where it begins to get fuzzy for me. If a horse has a “cough,” should it be racing? And aren’t the chances good that the rest of the barn would be coughing, too?

In an advertisement for the product that appears on Equidaily.com, there is an illustration showing that Michael Matz of Barbaro fame uses and endorses the product. And Matz has no history of medication violations, unlike Mullins.

Last year Mullins received a “mepivacaine” violation and in 2005 one of his horses failed a pre-race blood test when excess amounts of sodium bicarbonate was found in one of his horses. This mixture, euphemistically called a “milkshake,” is universally banned because it‘s suspected to act as a masking agent and artificially prevents horses from tiring quickly.

New York racing rules allow for the use antibiotics, vitamins, electrolytes and food supplements, as long as they are administered orally and do not contain any drug or any properties acting as such.

The rules also state that medication may not be given to a horse while it is in the detention barn. That in part is why Mullins has hired defense attorney Karen Murphy who owns an excellent record defending horsemen in previous cases against the NYRA, as was the case some years ago involving Dr. Michael Galvin.

“We feel that this substance isn’t something that should be used on race day. We view it as having drug-like properties,” Joe Mahoney, Public Information Director for the State Racing and Wagering Board, told HRI yesterday in a phone interview.

“The [apparatus] used to administer the substance has been sent to the laboratory at Cornell. It could take weeks before this issue is resolved. We’re still gathering information. We want to be complete and thorough, that’s our number one obligation.

“As far as what [Mullins] told the media [in printed reports regarding a search prior to his entering the detention barn], it’s in conflict with the information we’re receiving from the association. It wasn’t in plain view.

“But, at the end of the day, the detention barn procedure worked.”

In a Thoroughbred Times post yesterday, Steve Blanchard, vice president of sales and marketing for Finish Line Horse, the maker of “Air Power,” said that Jeff Mullins misused his company’s product when the trainer administered Air Power in the detention barn to a horse about to race.

“My position is to train all of our employees in presentation and explanation of all our products,” Blanchard told T.T. “They have all been trained that you tell trainers not to bring our product into a detention barn. I do believe that even without our direction, all trainers know that.”

So, while it is true that not every rules violation is “cheating,” and that the racing media must explain the difference between the two to those who don't follow the sport regularly except for racing’s high profile events, neither should we knee-jerk into a defensive posture when incidents like the Mullins case occurs.

The racing industry, like politicians, uses the media when it’s to their benefit. At times like these the media is a double-edged sword. This story and, more so, the Paragallo case, has drawn swift reaction from racing’s regulators. This is a good thing: Acknowledge the problem; work to fix it.

But like it or not, it’s the media’s job to police the police. It’s the public’s job to police both. Perceptions notwithstanding, the media does want to be fair. All it needs is a good reason.