Wake up and smell the horse manure
By Gina Spadafori
May 8, 2008
“[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.

