People think of drug testing as the omniscient, infallible arbiter of guilt and innocence in competitive sports. When I set out to write a book about doping in the monied, occasionally aristocratic sport of Thoroughbred horse racing, I thought the chemists would offer me a clear path to understanding who was cheating—who belonged in the “good guy” box, and who belonged in the “bad guy” box.
Instead, I came to realize that for all its incredible sophistication, drug screening in both human and equine sports is a limited tool, offering not clarity but endless opportunities to muddy the truth, weasel out of accountability, and hide behind uncertainty. Sometimes, it may even condemn the innocent.
