Where there's a will there's a neigh

Reports of Mumbai racing enveloped in heat and dust (never mind the recent dip in temperatures) because three top horses Ocean and Beyond, Star Future and Eloise, the hooves who of the equestrian fleet, were tested positive for the prohibited substance boldenone

Reports of Mumbai racing enveloped in heat and dust (never mind the recent dip in temperatures) because three top horses Ocean and Beyond, Star Future and Eloise, the hooves who of the equestrian fleet, were tested positive for the prohibited substance boldenone. This lures me to tweak the clich ufffd: where there is a will, there is a way to: where there is a will to win at any cost, there is a crooked way.

The difference between doping in athletes and doping in horses is of course that the animal does not know and does not have a choice when being given a prohibited substance.

Racing has struggled with the 'fixing' smear everywhere. Most punters talk through their pockets, there are howls of outrage when a favourite loses, some jockeys have their fixing reputations clinging to them as obdurately as shadows, and racing authorities insist, sometimes to cynical scoffing that they are doing their best to keep the sport clean. I believe that things would be a lot simpler if horses could speak. They would be a psychologist's dream come true because they could provide some insight into man's twisted mind.

While in the recent case, the prohibited substance could be used to enhance performance, (though investigations are still on) there are substances known as stoppers, which can be deceitfully used to take away or diminish a horse's performance.

Then of course, comes the grey area where a jockey does not ride the horse to full ability. In certain instances, the jockey is known to crack the whip on his shoes rather than the horse. At full speed, this is difficult to discern.

Then there are whispers, all told rather sinisterly for full effect, of horses being made to drink a bucket of water prior to the race in order to slow them down. First, salt is put in the horse's mouth to make the animal thirsty and then a copious amount of water is given.

Then, there are all those anecdotes about horses being wrongly shod or a nail in the horseshoe, all contributing to poor performance.

Many years ago, Horse A was substituted for Horse B at the racecourse. Horse B was a superior class of horse and winning that particular race would be easy for him. He was painted black to resemble Horse A. When the horse started sweating in the race, the paint ran down and came off him, revealing his different/real colours underneath.

If horses could speak they would surely tell tales of the human heart full of deceit.

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