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Expect plenty more of these stories following the tragedy of Eight Belles. "Why do we refuse to put the brutal game of racing in the realm of mistreatment of animals?"
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So according to the writer's logic, baseball should be banned because Mike Coolbaugh was killed by a line drive? Or football should be done away with because Daryl Stingley was paralyzed? On the backstretch I see how these animals are cared for and loved. Many treated better than we treat the lowest rungs of human society. Tragedy happens. Steps are trying to be made to better understand and prevent these tragic occurances in our sport. To call racing bullfighting is bull-something alright. Agains, by the same logic I guess baseball players a gladiators - every year a pitcher somewhere gets struck by a line drive and dies. Racing is a beautiful and majestic sport that is working hard to make itself safer for all participants.
Here's the perception problem. Human participants in other sports are knowledgeable of the inherent risk. Dale Earnhardt and other auto racers know they have picked a dangerous career. Horses, however, don't know. They run on instinct. They put their bodies on the line within knowing the potential consequences. At least that's how I see the logic of racing's critics.
You want to know what else is brutal? Hamburgers.
Guys,
The problem here is that both sides are partially right. Unfortunately, we in the racing media and those who are the sport's avid fans have not done enough to educate the public about the greatness of the game and the people involved. Nor have we have done enough to shame the racetracks, owners, and trainers who put economics ahead of the welfare of the horse.
How can anyone sitting home not be appalled by the spectacle of a dead horse juxtaposed with the the post-race celebration among the winners? Whether the connections of Big Brown knew Eight Belles had broken down is in question. Larry Jones didn't know until long after the fact.
Among the problems is too many unqualified horses racing in the grueling Derby because: 1) some connections take a shot and hope to catch lightning in a bottle, and 2) some want bragging rights among their friends by entering a hopeless horse.
While neither of those apply to Jones and Eight Belles, many Derby and Breeders' Cup breakdowns have been caused by just such a mentality, inoculating non-fans to be suspicious of our motives.
Add to that racetracks which insist on sealing dirt tighter than an asphalt highway in the attempt to get a fast track. People bet more when it is fast, and fewer horses are likely to be scratched, adding to the bottom line of handle.
My newspaper didn't put my post-Derby column on-line. Here are some excerpts which speak to the subject.
"(I) said (in the Troy Record) last week that the price for racing in the Kentucky Derby has become excessively steep. If we are very lucky, Eight Belles will be the only one of Saturday's contestants to pay the toll this year. One can't help but wonder though, if that will be the case.
The distance between Big Brown and the last-place finisher in the Derby, Monba, was more than 59 lengths. A full ten entrants -- half the field -- finished 20 lengths or more behind the winner. That does not include Eight Belles.
People who work with animals, whether they are farmers, vets, shelter workers, or horse trainers, know the pain is coming. It is just a question of when it will arrive, and on what terms. Knowing doesn't make it any easier.
Most people who watch Thoroughbred racing these days do it via television. If you were one of those, as was I, you could not help wondering how the outcome of a single sporting event can produce such euphoric highs for some at the same time as others are griped by the depths of deepest despair.
While horse ambulances and grim-faced emergency personnel gathered around Eight Belles, Big Brown's enormous retinue of owners and followers were huzzahing their incredible success. Perhaps they didn't realize the tragedy playing out a couple of furlongs away.
Nevertheless, I couldn't help thinking back to another tragic afternoon in 1990. The Ron McAnally-trained Bayakoa was locked in a stretch duel with champion filly Go For Wand in the Breeders' Cup Distaff.
Suddenly, Go For Wand collapsed to the track, then staggered to her feet and careened in front of the Belmont Park grandstand before dropping for the final time. She had incurred a fatal leg injury, her suffering ended by a veterinarian's needle.
There was no celebration that day. An ashen McAnally took no pride in his mare's accomplishment, instead quietly reminding the audience that sometimes Thoroughbreds pay the ultimate price for our pleasure."
Racing once was conducted by people with class. In many cases those folks have been replaced by a party-hearty bunch who look at the Thoroughbred little different than they would a mutuel fund.
Nick -
It's too bad your column wasn't run - it was nice work and right on the money.
- Ted
As my name indicates, I'm not a big fan of horse racing. Not because I consider it animal cruelty, mainly because I believe it is a sport that has not been packaged well for TV or live viewing. I'll watch some of the big races because they are more tolerable for viewers...including the Derby. That being said, I can't get over how BS this article and the NY Times is.
Right off the start, Rhoden's questions--really veiled commentary--should be disputed. He asks, "Why do we keep giving horse racing a pass? Is it the tradition? The millions upon millions invested in the betting?" Ugh oh, the standard capitalist-hater response! Perhaps he should ask Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, where betting isn't permitted.
Then the comparison to greyhound racing! Really? Look at these animals! Does he seriously believe that the standard of living thoroughbreds enjoy is comparable to caged greyhounds? Let's be honest here. If this guy cares about horses, he might better serve the species by scrutinizing Central Park carriage rides.
Which leads me to my bottom line. What is the point of horses? Horses are no longer allowed to be raised in the United States for food export. Okay, so some people (Europeans) eat horses. The truth is that horses exist because humans want allow them to exist. Otherwise, they would have been rendered extinct with the emergence of the internal combustion engine.
Nowhere is a completely useless animal more celebrated and cared for than today's horses by today's horse racing industry. Averaging 2 to 2.5 minutes (remember, I'm not a horse racing expert here) per race for ten races, Eight Belles raced horses at "full throttle on spindly legs" for 0.0003% in her three years of life. If this is Rhoden's idea of animal cruelty, then Michael Vick should have been tried in Nuremberg.
Rhoden needs to give up his PETAesque agenda and get himself some perspective. There are certainly bigger fish to fry out there. Oops!
Good points, Notabigfan.
I sent Mr. Rhoden an e-mail today asking him whether football is a cruel sport because of the injuries that kill players like Chucky Mullins and Darryl Stingley and where the article was titled "Football Is A Brutal Sport". I also tried to point out the fallacy in his sentiment that horse racing is just a couple of steps ahead of animal fighting, meaning that no one send a horse out to race with the intention of the animal dying. Animal fighting is all about the animal dying. I just get incredibly irritated when people who ought to know better (liked a respected journalist like Mr. Rhoden) speak out on something they really don't know anything about.