The ARCI report actually contains 72 total entries. Thirteen are for drug-related offenses. Many of the entries are for minor violations - not having the proper paperwork or a late scratch here and there. And many others center on Dutrow, not his horses. Several marijuana offenses. A suspension in Maryland 28 years ago for "allegedly participating in a scheme involving stolen checks, forgeries ... and cashing checks under false pretenses." A 1991 suspension in New York for attempting "to provide a false urine sample by means of an apparatus concealed upon his person." Fined in 2003 for "being the aggressor in an altercation."
Dutrow is refreshingly open. He doesn't make excuses about his past and owns up to his personal transgressions. It all has played a role in him getting to this point, he figures, high atop the racing world with the most dominant 3-year-old in the field.
While Dutrow admits he used illegal drugs, he vehemently denies that his horses ever have.
"I don't care what anybody writes or says, we do things the right way around our horses," he says.
"And I know there's people that don't. I'm in the game, I know what's happening. When these kind of guys beat me, I don't like it because I know what they're up to."
Comments like that are why it's so difficult to discern whether Dutrow's reputation or his brazen speech is more believable. When it comes to drugging horses, he's especially passionate - which made a particular exchange yesterday outside the barn all the more curious.
Dutrow was asked about Winstrol, the anabolic steroid that the trainer acknowledges he gives his horses on a monthly basis. Winstrol is the same steroid that has been linked to Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro and Ben Johnson. Unlike other sports, horse racing has no uniform rules, but Winstrol is not considered a banned substance.
Dutrow was asked why he uses the drug.
"You'd have to ask the vet what the purpose of that is," he said. "I don't know what it does. I just like using it."
You like using it, but you don't know what it does? Why would you like using it if you don't know what it does? You must see something?
"No," he said. "I don't."
Do you see something from not using it?
"No," he said.
This is why your conflicted feelings about Dutrow are understandable. No doubt he cares about his horses, but to suggest that he doesn't know why he uses the steroid is absurd. Trainers monitor every little thing that goes into their horses. None of it is happenstance. You don't take an injectable shot of steroids for good luck.
