[Vision2020] Thoughts on horse racing

[Saundra Lund]

Thanks, Carl, for sharing this.  While I know there's big money in horse
racing, the exploitation and to date inherent cruelty of the "sport" of
horse and dog racing where animals are treated as "investments" capable to
turning a profit rather than as the sentient beings they are has always been
problematic for and nauseating to me.  I'm saddened to hear that yet another
great horse lost her life so that we could be "entertained."

 

Maybe - just maybe - Americans have finally had enough of these needless
deaths and will demand reform.  If so, Eight Belles' death won't have been
for nothing.

 

 

Saundra Lund

Moscow, ID

 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.

~ Edmund Burke

 

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2008 through life plus
70 years, Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside
the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the
author.*****

 

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Carl Westberg
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 2:51 PM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Thoughts on horse racing

 

Never been much of a fan of horse racing, and am even less so after what
happened at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.  Some thoughts from an ESPN
writer......... Monday, May 5, 2008
This time is different

  _____  

By Bill Finley
Special to ESPN.com

This one is different. This time, the people are not going to buy that
tired, old "it's part of the game" line. The public is outraged by the death
of Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby and asking some very serious, very
appropriate questions about whether or not horse racing is tantamount to
animal cruelty.  This is usually where the sport buries its collective head
in the sand, tells people how much everyone involved with the game loves
their horses, and hopes the controversy dies down. This time, that's not
going to work. The horse racing industry has to be proactive and take some
severe measures to make this sport safer and more humane for the animals
that compete and the humans that ride them.  It has to send a message: We
admit we have a problem and we are going to fix it. To do nothing of
substance is unacceptable and will convince a large segment of the
population that horse racing, as a New York Times columnist suggested, isn't
that different from animal fighting. Horse racing must: 1. Ban all drugs.
How can the sport possibly justify allowing horses to race on steroids,
painkillers and diuretics that dehydrate the animal? With the exception of
Canada, no other country in the world allows anything but hay, oats and
water. There can be no doubt that the proliferation of drugs, illegal and
otherwise, in the sport has contributed to the increasing fragility of these
animals. 2. Control excess use of the whip. I doubt very much that the
actions of Gabriel Saez in any way contributed to the death of Eight Belles,
but the sight of a jockey beating a horse in the stretch with a whip
contributes to racing's image problems. People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA) has already come out demanding that Seaz be suspended for his
use of the whip. Jockeys insist the whip is necessary to help control their
mounts, but do they really need to beat the tar out of a horse to make them
run harder than they would without the punishment? Is that not inhumane?
Many countries have rules against excessive use of the whip and jockeys who
have broken those rules have received severe punishments. The same must now
be done in this country. 3. Convert to synthetic tracks. Synthetic tracks
are obviously not perfect and they will never prevent all catastrophic
injuries, but they are considerably safer than traditional dirt surfaces.
Would Barbaro, George Washington and Eight Belles still be alive had the
Kentucky Derby, Breeders' Cup Classic and Preakness been run on a synthetic
surface? The answer is, quite possibly. Eight U.S. tracks have synthetic
surfaces, but there has been no movement to convert any additional tracks
from dirt to synthetic. Maybe it's time for more racing commissions to do
what they did in California, mandate that tracks must convert to a synthetic
surface. 4. Promote longer races. The breeding industry continues to
accentuate speed over soundness and stamina, no doubt another contributing
factor to the alarming rate of catastrophic injuries. Who can blame them?
There are great rewards out there for fast, precocious horses who need not
go any further than a mile.  Once, the Jockey Club Gold Cup, one of the most
important races on the calendar, was run at two miles. No more. Even the
mile-and-a-quarter distance is starting to disappear. The only way breeders
are going to start producing sounder, sturdier horses is to create a system
where those horses have much to gain on the racetrack. We can start by
making the Breeders' Cup Classic a mile and a half, the Breeders' Cup
Distaff a mile and a quarter and increasing the distance of many other major
races. 5. Take meaningful strides to stop the slaughter of horses. Though
there are some very generous and good-hearted people in the sport, the
industry has, by and large, a deplorable record when it comes to dealing
with the issues of caring for its retirees. Retirement organizations are
largely left to fend for themselves, scraping pennies together will little
financial support from the industry. The result is there is not enough money
out there to prevent the deaths of thousands of racehorses each year in the
slaughterhouse. People are tired of seeing horses die. Perhaps some of the
reactions that have come from the Eight Belles situation are over the top,
but that's not the point. Horseracing has to react to public sentiment,
something it has never been very good at doing. It has to do so because it's
the right thing to do for the horses and because it has to deal with a
public relations nightmare. Are we that far from the point where sponsors
pull their ads from Triple Crown telecasts because of pressure put on them
by animal rights activists and/or the media outcry over all these deaths?
Horseracing has come to a crossroad. It had better go down the right path.
Bill Finley is an award-winning racing writer whose work has appeared in the
New York Times, USA Today and Sports Illustrated. Contact Bill at
wnfinley at aol.com <mailto:wnfinley at aol.com> 


  _____  

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