Trainer Karl Broberg is having a fantastic year. 31% winners, 60% in the money. No doubt, the first thing that happens when a trainer achieves numbers like that is to ask, what undetectable elixir has he found?

I don’t know Broberg. He seems to be mostly a Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana guy. But the reaction to his numbers underscores the fact that few horseplayers buy the idea that percentages over 30 occur simply through great horsemanship.

Two great debates that horseplayers have are around the benefits of giving horses cobalt and milkshakes (bicarbonate loading). The research on cobalt seems to point toward the likelihood of it having limited performance enhancing powers, but having great potential for causing serious harm to a horse. The value of milkshakes is also ambiguous. However, both these items are extemely easy to detect, and trainers would either have to be very uninformed or self-destructive to use either as a performance enhancer.

Broberg just had two violations for TCO2 thrown out and in writing the story, the Paulick Report said this:

Both of the alleged violations were dismissed because the method of collection and handling of blood samples was not compatible with the type of equipment being used to measure total carbon dioxide (TCO2, commonly referred to as milkshaking a horse through bicarbonate loading that reduces fatigue-causing lactic acid buildup).

If you’re going to write stories about drug/medication violations, do your homework. An elevated TCO2 level may be due to milkshaking, but it can also be a result of diet (especially one high in alfalfa or soybean products), dehydration, supplements, medications (e.g., certain anti-ulcer medications), electrolytic drinks (pedialyte), or a Lasix bump. It is very easy to determine if the high TCO2 level is potentially related to milkshaking – sodium levels will be very high. If they aren’t, the cause of the elevated TCO2 is one of the other things.

So it is accurate to say that a high TCO2 level may be associated with milkshaking if there are sufficiently high sodium levels accompanying the positive, but it is inaccurate to make a TCO2 level over the standard and milkshaking synonymous. Let’s not convict a trainer of milkshaking by proxy, or lead horseplayers to believe all TCO2 violations are a result of bicarbonate loading.

Horseplayers are cynical enough about the presence of drugs in racing, and every time a trainer gets a positive the sport suffers both with bad publicity and loss of public confidence. But let’s be accurate here. There were 14 TCO2 overages in 2014 according to RCI statistics, and of those, most had nothing to do with milkshaking.

As for Broberg, he does seem to have found the winning formula. I believe it is incumbent upon track officials to reassure the public through investigation that it is good horsemanship or find out what it is if not that. This is an area where horseplayers should be more active. Instead of tracks spending precious resources battling trainers with picogram level therapeutic violations, let’s make an effort to prove or put to rest the rumors and innuendo associated with every trainer (except the mega guys like Baffert, Pletcher or Asmussen) that has an eye-catching winning percentage. If I was Broberg and I knew I was clean, I would demand an investigation to clear me. Tracks do themselves no service when they let such rumors hang there unaddressed.

As for Paulick, a lot a people depend on him for horseracing news. Getting the story right is not just a good idea. It’s an obligation.