pet connection

“[S]tudies have shown the catastrophic injury rate in Thoroughbred races typically hovers between 1.6 and 2.03 per 1,000 races.” — Daily Racing Form, May 5, 2008

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Signs that the horse-racing industry doesn’t get it, even now:

On the Bloodhorse Web site, Steve Haskin dismisses the concerns of horse-lovers after the death of Eight Belles as being all about the folks at  PETA (”[E]nough of PETA, protests, and poppycock”), shows a complete misunderstanding of the history of PETA, suggesting it started out an animal-welfare group, when it never has been anything but an animal rights group  (”PETA began as a well-intentioned organization, and any lover of animals had to embrace their cause”) and then goes on to talk about how the Derby horses performed relative to their odds and their breeding.

In other words: Tough break on the filly, but let’s get back to business, shall we?

Oh, and he gave horse-racing a big and utterly undeserved pat on the back: “If [PETA] bothered to do their homework and joined together with Thoroughbred racing in its never-ending quest to provide the ultimate in safety for the horses …”

Yeah, right. Tell it to the Jockey Club, which has formed a committee to ”look into” the Derby Disaster, comprised of a group of the industry insiders. Uh-huh. I’d be surprised if the report offered anything earth-shaking, and even more surprised if it ended up anywhere except a file cabinet. Please, just this one time, prove me wrong for my cynicism. (NewYork Times horse-racing blogger Alex Brown calls for an independent panel, and I agree.)

And by the way, I’ll respect Big Brown’s Derby victory when drug-testing is industry-wide and when the horse is healthy and winning at four years of age and more after months of clear drug tests. But we won’t see that, most likely: Already, the Bloodhorse reports a stud deal is in the works.

Better get him off the track fast, boys, so he can pass those bad feet along. Get a fast profit, flip the asset and run like hell. What would you expect from Wall Streeters who are building a horse-racing investment empire and a trainer with a history of drug suspensions?

Mr. Haskin, you and the editorial staff at the Bloodhorse may kid yourself all you want, but it’s not just the folks at PETA who think racing is on the wrong track. It’s also the dwindling fan base you have left, and you’d better not keep dismissing us, along with the people within the industry who have been sounding the alarm all along. (Again, I called this tragedy the day before the Derby.)

In a moment of sad irony, my box seats for our Del Mar weekend have been confirmed and should be in my mailbox any day now. I wonder if I’ll still  feel like going come August. My Breeder’s Cup World Thoroughbred Championships ticket order form sits in the middle of the dining room table (they’re being held in Southern California this year, at Santa Anita). I haven’t decided what to do, but with races for 2-year-olds on the program, I’m thinking of giving it a pass. Most tellingly, I haven’t been able to stomach one minute of the horse-racing cable channel since Saturday. (I usually have it on in the background on the weekends as I write, to watch the stakes races at the good tracks.)

More: Another difference between European and American racing is that in America, jockeys use the whip much much more. Noted horseman Monty Roberts (”The Horse Whisperer”) and track announcer Trevor Denman (who calls the races at Santa Anita, Del Mar and was the race-caller for last year’s Breeder’s Cup) have both criticized the use of the whip in American Thorougbred racing. Guess that’s just more poppycock, though.

I don’t have a problem with PETA advocating for animal rights, although I do not agree with their agenda which, if followed to its simple, logical conclusion, would mean the eventual end of all domestic animals, including pets.

This is America, after all, and you can advocate for any point of view you want. What I have long had a problem with is PETA jumping into every animal-related issue and neglecting to mention that agenda, which is, in PETA’s words, that “animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment.”

That’s why, like Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly, I have a problem with PETA demanding the reform of horse-racing, when in fact what they surely want is abolition. I felt the same way when PETA showed up in support for the Michael Vick dogs, even though PETA’s Ingrid Newkirk has written in favor of pit bull bans. Again, she’s entitled to her opinion, but her organization needs to be consistently open about these views in their outreach to animal lovers, especially the majority of us who don’t share them. This is even more important when fund-raising is involved.

As it stands, what PETA has put out regarding horse-racing is disingenuous.

On Dolittler, Dr. Khuly writes in response to a PETA e-mail (which she reproduces in her post):

1-How does sanctioning the jockey fit into this? Since Sunday when this news broke (sans e-mail), I’ve been marveling at PETA’s dumbfoudingly ridiculous jab at the jockey. What’s that all about? Almost all those jockeys whipped their horses. Why not call for a uniform suspension of all jockeys?

2-And the trainer? Show me one that bests Big Brown’s for his well-documented, disgusting, horse-doping behavior. After examining this guy’s pedigree, you’ll never convince me that Eight Belles’ trainer deserves a special sanction over all the other guys in his field—just because his horse was the one to go down.

3-And finally, am I really to believe that PETA seeks to reform the sport? If their approach to pets is any measure, it’s clear to me they’d love nothing better than to see the entire shebang shut down overnight and its animals summarily dispatched by a bevy of vets wielding pink juice.

But they don’t say so. Nope—they won’t. They’d rather have you believe their aims are to make the sport safer. Their target? The average animal lover who wants to believe they’re helping animals wherever they can…even if it takes sending PETA a few bucks to help make it happen.

Look, horse-racing has had years — decades, really — to work on its downward spiral, and it hasn’t. Let’s take it all the way back to the first time it lost lots of fans: The day Ruffian died. And then … Go For Wand in the Breeders Cup (worst catatrophic breakdown I’ve ever seen) … more fans gone, unable to stomach the carnage. Barbaro, of course, and now Eight Belles. Plus thousands and thousands of cheap claimers no one ever paid attention to, dying on the days when you could count track attendance in the hundreds, not the hundreds of thousands as on Derby Day.

Instead of reforming, American horse-racing chose to look the other way on rampant drug use that keeps horses who shouldn’t be running on the track. It chose to embrace and accelerate the “quick return on investment” trends by concentrating faster, more fragile breeding lines, and by pushing young horses to the breaking point, literally. It stuck to its BS traditions instead of actively seeking changes that would make the sport safer for horses and jockeys alike, such as moving away from fast, hard dirt tracks towards more racing on turf and synthetic tracks.

Instead of working to keep or even grow a base of fans, racing decided to double-down on a losing bet, chasing a smaller and smaller pool of dying off horse-racing gamblers (younger gamblers play online poker or go to casinos) and demanding of state legislatures that racetracks be allowed to put in slot machines to prop up the falling profits.

Much as I loathe PETA’s opportunistic concern for race horses — where were they the day before the Derby, when I was writing about these issues? — horse-racing brought this on itself. They had a chance to make changes after Barbaro, but they haven’t done much. (Especially with regard to drug use … nada.)

Horse-racing is not getting it even yet, but they’d damn well better, and soon.

Unlike PETA, Dr. Khuly and I truly are calling for reform, not secretly hoping for an end to horse-racing. You can start by refusing to watch any more Triple Crown races. And letting the tracks, the networks and the sponsors know why.

May 4, updates thoughout to add material.

“… Eight Belles showed you her life for our enjoyment today.” — jockey Kent Desormeaux, who won on Big Brown

The Curb My Enthusiasm racing blog sums it all up:

[T]his was one of the worst Kentucky Derby stories ever.

Won by an arrogant trainer with a long history of rules violations and suspensions (dare I say one of the biggest cheats in the game), backed by a Wall Street group that wants to create a horse racing hedge fund, followed by the best potential story of the race — a filly who runs second — having to be euthanized.

The only way this could have been worse would have been if Eight Belles had won the race instead of coming in second, her fatal injury leaving no champion to present the garland of roses to in the winner’s circle.

The rest. Actually, I think that would have been better, in a sick way, if there’d been no horse to blanket with roses. There’d have been no ignoring the on-track tragedy by NBC, which did its very best to keep from showing what was happening on the track after the race. If there’d been no happy celebration to show, the network couldn’t have kept trying to distract viewers from the truth. (A truth that could be read on the face of Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, an NBC commentator who tried his best to play the party line, the tension in his jaw visible as he refused to speculate on what he as someone who’d ridden in thousands of races knew had happened and would happen to Eight Belles.)

Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly is more than disgusted at what she didn’t see and won’t watch again. And she suggests that we send the message for reform of the horse-racing industry by refusing to watch the Triple Crown races … and letting the sponsors know why. (I’d also suggest boycotting Derby sponsor Yum! Brands — KFC, PIzza Hut and Taco Bell — but since I wouldn’t eat any of that crap on a bet, that’s not exactly a sacrifice for me. Yuk! Brands is more like it.)

You got it, girlfriend. If Big Brown wins the Triple Crown for the first time in decades, I won’t be watching.

(more…)

Update, post race: In memory of Eight Belles.

Tomorrow is when the only horse race most Americans know or care about is run. I’ll watch it, but to me the Kentucky Derby represents a lot of what I don’t like about horse racing. Getting to the Derby requires getting young horses into training fast and pushing them hard. Breeding for the Derby requires using those lines that produce precocious horses, those who show great promise early and mostly flame out.

It’s all about the quick fame and early return.

The small percentage of successful 3-year-olds retire to the breeding shed instead of racing as grown-ups and letting the fans follow them. Their less-fortunate compatriots keep running in ever-cheaper claiming races, moving from barn to barn until every last bit of value is squeezed from them. Some of the lucky ones end up as someone’s riding horse; the rest either die on the track or … end up on a foreign dinner plate.

Drugs (for the horses) and gambling (for the fans) keep the whole merry-go-round spinning.

Can you see why I’m such a tormented horse-racing fan? (more…)

Long-time readers know that thoroughbred horse-racing is one of my guilty pleasures. There’s a lot I would change about horse-racing, but since nobody’s asking me, I still follow the sport, thrilling to the moments when a horse’s heart and courage exceeds his athleticism for a finish that has you holding your breath.

I’ve been doing this since Secretariat, and I don’t think I’m getting over it any time soon.

Anyway, spring’s always a busy time in horse-racing, with the Kentucky Derby coming up. I’m not really a Triple Crown fan, believing the series puts too much pressure on these young horses. But on the Bloodhorse site, there’s a story about Big Brown, currently one of the favorites for the Derby. He was such an even-tempered youngster that no one really paid much attention to him, according to the person who “pinhooked” him (translation: bought him hoping to turn a profit on the resale). To make this point, Big Brown’s pinhooker said his vet didn’t even remember the horse:

“The colt was so under the radar that “my vet didn’t even remember him,” [former owner Eddie] Woods said. “I said to him after the Florida Derby, ‘What about Big Brown?’ And he says, ‘Who’s Big Brown?’ He went to his computer and he brought his (Big Brown’s) records up, and he said, ‘We only wormed and vaccinated that horse. That’s all we ever did.’ The vet had never seen him because he had a grunt vet, an intern or something, to do the vaccinating and worming.”

I’m guessing Dr. Grunt isn’t feeling very appreciated right about now.