From all I have gleaned about this case, it is apparent to me that Ms. Yates was bat-shit crazy. She had been this way for a long period of time. Her former husband has to look at himself every day and think that he helped seed the circumstances for this psycotic act (IMO).

As a long-time supporter of horse racing, I have witnessed both the wonderful triumphs of this sport and the terrible tragedies that other writers here have alluded to. I am not ready to give up on horse racing, but I do wish some major changes could be made to try and reduce the catastrophic breakdowns that so pain all of us who follow this sport.

The first change I would institute would be to put 'polytrack' on all racetracks, in place of dirt. This surface seems to be much easier on horses. I would also be in favor of outlawing dirt & only racing on turf (which also seems to be easier on the animals). The poor horses will still breakdown from time to time on turf (I was at Arlington when poor Landseer broke down near the end of the Breeder's Cup Mile race, which was on turf).

The second change I would make would be to reinstitute the tax writeoffs for 'pleasure' horses (which is what racehorses are classified as for tax purposes). This writeoff was taken away in the early 80s & in my opinion, gives the owner a monetary reason to over-work the horse & to run them hard early in their career, so as to try and maximize their earnings potential. The tax writeoff (which would primarily affect the already very wealthy), would give the owners an economic incentive to take it easy on the horse & go slow in their development.

As others here have mentioned, I would allow artificial insemination for thoroughbred horses. This would allow certain gene lines to continue & hopefully strengthen the breed (right now, if Barbaro cannot physically cover the mare, his bloodline is lost for thoroughbred horses. They could use his sperm to artifically inseminate quarterhorses & showhorses, etc. but not thoroughbreds).

I would also (from my perch as Czar of Horse racing) add a week between the KY Derby & Preakness and between the Preakness & the Belmont. My take on Barbaro's injury was that another horse just barely clipped his back leg & forced him to take a bad step which resulted in the initial fracture, and as the article stated, he then ran another few strides which further fractured the leg. I do feel that Barbaro knows he is badly injured & is trying to do what he can to live. This is a magnificent physical speciman who was used to doing intensive workouts just about every day and is now almost immobile day after day after day. If you know racehorses, you know that this is about as big a change as one can have & that he is putting up with this tells me that he certainly is doing what he can to try an help his situation (as much as he can understand it).

I would not necessarily raise jockey weights, as that does nothing to help the horse. In fact, I might lower the weights a bit. Maybe an intensive program to find more naturally small riders should be instituted to locate riders able to make these weights without half killing themselves. Some jockeys can only make the weights thru the purging & sweating other writers mentioned, because they would naturally weigh 140 - 150 lbs (Mr Pincay would be a good example). To me that is wrong, the people who should be riding the horses are those who already are very small & slim (Mr. Day & Mr. Shoemaker would be two prime examples of this body type).

None of these wishes will completely stop a horse from breaking its leg in a race. I do feel that implementing these would improve and 'modernize' one of our oldest sports.

I don't think Mr. Rodman was a better overall player than Mr. Jordan, but I do think he should go to the Hall someday. In his prime, he was the best rebounder I have ever seen & just about the best post defender. In his time with the Pistons & then with Spurs/Bulls, I have seen him just about single-handedly win games at the end with his tenacious defense & rebounding. To me, his rebound totals are staggering, especially when you consider he was only 6'9". Those alone should get him into the Hall.

As for Mr. Landis, I certainly want to believe he is innocent. I have heard that testosterone can give you a 1 day boost, though. Maybe it's possible one of the support people at Phonak gave him a little booster without his knowledge (thinking he was cooked anyway & knowing he was going to try & go out in a blaze of glory, gave him the stuff never thinking he would actually win the stage).

Pro cycling in the Tour is probably the toughest physical challenge an athlete can take (IMO). Maybe cycling at that level should be considered a 'Beyond Endurance' sport & some of the doping rules be relaxed (allow EPO to a certain level & testosterone enhancing to a certain level, etc.)?

I really would hope that Burmese Pythons and their ilk could be outlawed as pets, so as to stop the kinds of ecological damage expounded upon in this article. If, however, Americans were more adventurous in their eating habits, they would find out that these snakes are quite edible & there's a lot of meat on a big one.

I would imagine there are no restrictions on killing them, so start predating on them & we can hopefully reduce their numbers.