I think if there was a governing body it might help. If a trainer is banned in Kentucky, ban him in NY and Ca.
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The problem I have with the 60 Minute story is that I think it implied that breakdowns are only caused by illegal drugging. And undoubtedly some, probably many are. But not all. There are other factors.
I seriously doubt that Ruffian was on drugs. However, I have heard that the track was made super, super fast (i.e., hard) that day to get a fast time, which may have contributed to her breakdown. And then there is the “s*** happens” factor, which we know occurs too often with horses.
So suppose hypothetically there is a war on drugs in racing, reducing the use of illegal drugs to zero. (Just suppose.) And horses still break down. What will be public think? That drugs are still being used? That racing should be banned, since eliminating drugs did not work?
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I don’t think this even matters.
Illegal drugs are a problem. Hard stop. No, they aren’t the only problem, but oh my gosh it’s low-hanging fruit for reform as far as I’m concerned. If you can’t get a handle on something that’s irrefutably wrong, how on earth is anyone going to tackle the more complex problems, like overuse of therapeutic medicines? And how can we possibly expect to gain public favor if we keep looking like we allow blatant cheating?
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I agree, @Texarkana. The illegal drugs are a place to start. Only to start, more must be done.
Like overuse of legal stuff. If 3 year olds need multiple joint injections to compete…
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But isn’t it the breakdowns that will kill racing not illegal drug use (if there is no correlation to drug use and horse deaths?). You cant “see” illegal drug use. You can see a horse with a fatal injury.
No doubt, the bettors care about the illegal drug use but I suspect factored it in their betting patterns based on win percentages.
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Plus make the drug rules uniform for all the states.
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Yes and no.
I used to think the same as you-- go on, ride those 2yos, but don’t do any speed work. That’s how I start my sport horses. They learn to WTC, but largely spend most of their rides out hacking and trail riding, walk and trot. Compared to the race horses, they are unfit and would probably not hold up as well for speed work.
Studies have shown that growing 2yo TBs must be worked at speed to develop the bone they need for racing. I did a LOT of research into this when I started 2yo racehorses this year and prepped for sales-- which I fundamentally disagree with but economically understand the need. What I learned is that to build proper shin bone, the cannon must strike the ground at force at nearly a 90* vertical angle to the ground. This happens at a sprinting pace. Walking and trotting and cantering gently, you notice when the horse’s foot contacts the ground, the cannon bone is at a forward angle, allowing (lighter) concussion to be absorbed by the hoof, joints, and soft tissue. The cannon bone itself is mildly stressed. If you want the cannon to strengthen its front face, to go from “round” shape to the stronger oval shape with thickened dorsal side, you’ve got to put some stress on that bone to encourage remodeling. Stress = sprints. This remodeling is most effective prior to age 3; ultimately the studies say if you want strong, sturdy, durable racehorses, you must prepare them adequately.
That doesn’t mean you willy-nilly run the pants off them, buck shins, or injure them. It’s still important to build up fitness and conditioning with trots and canters before you gallop. That’s partly why they are started under saddle before 2yo-- to get in a couple months of basics and jogging, and good breakers will develop proper use of the body (straightness, carriage, push) as well. But when they are ready to gallop, introducing weekly sprints and systematically increasing speed or distance is important. Equally important is knowing when to back off, slow down, or give the young horse a break-- and that goes for older horses, too.
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I have never seen horses race once a week in my 30 years in the industry. They don’t even write races once a week in the condition book so if you did want to race once per week you would have to ship from track to track to do so. Nowadays horses race less times in their entire careers than horses ran in their two year old year back in the days of Seabiscuit.
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I think this is a good point. My non-horsy friends all commented on the breakdowns, and did not necessarily make the connection to drug use that 60 minutes was trying to make. Their comments: “Isn’t racing horrible?”
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I read the story of Stymie, the wonder horse trained by Hall of Famer, Hirsch Jacobs. Granted, this was some time ago, but my understanding is that Jacobs felt that running a race was better than what today might be a timed work. Therefore, his horses raced a lot. I do not know anything about the breakdown percentages for him, however, his method worked for him. His horses won a ton of races. He also bred some very nice horses whose names still appear in todays pedigees.
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I remember reading somewhere as a kid that his name was the origin of the term stymied, for somebody who is completely shut down against unbeatable odds, since that’s what this horse did to his opponents.
It’s always interesting to find out about the intersection of horse related terms and day-to-day language. Like the term hands down winner coming from the idea that a jockey who is winning easily will put his hands down in the stretch instead of urging the horse on to the wire.
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Upset
Wired/Wire to Wire/Down to the Wire/At the wire
Trifecta
Favorite
Odds On
Even Money
Vetted
Across the board
Won by a nose
Front Runner
Closer
Set the pace
In the homestretch
Sorry, this is always a fun topic!
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several of those became Dick Francis novels
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There was a time when I would know the exact plot just from the title of all those Dick Francis books, but I have not read them for a long time by now. Come to think of it, it might be time for another visit to that bookshelf.
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I think I have them all. I used to travel for work, and in the hotel one night, I discovered on Masterpiece Theater one of his Sid Halley books had been turned into a tv program. I was instantly hooked. I went out the next day and bought a couple of them. I could finish one a night. I loved those books!
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They were great.
I will say I liked the earlier ones better when he was still really focused on racing. Some of the later ones when he went off on tangents about art or winemaking or whatever did not grab me quite as much.
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“Stymie” comes from an old 19th century rule of golf, which is now obsolete. It was for when a player’s ball was blocked by another player’s ball.
I know of this because my husband is a golfer, and I’ve heard the term before.
The horse Stymie was probably named after the rule, which was still in existence when the horse was alive.
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Thanks much for the detailed explanation about the remodeling of bone. Really interesting.
So basically, along with improving track surface, the last sentence (above) is how we can get a handle on the problem. This, unfortunately, says to me that we won’t solve the problem. If all trainers were like you and put the horse’s well-being first, we may have never had the issue to begin with. But there will always be those who put money first at the expense of the horses by not backing off training or giving breaks when needed.
So, I’m back to not having any ideas on how to fix things.
No idea where I got that impression about the smaller tracks. That’s a relief to hear. Thanks for clarifying!
There are a ton of changes we could make.
The problem is, no single change is going to “solve” the problem. Horses are horses and will always be at risk of catostrophic injury, especially when running at top speeds.
And you know what horse people hate? Change. Don’t get me wrong, horse people are quick to embrace change when you can instantly see the results… but “greater good” type stuff where the results aren’t immediately apparent? Pssh. Good luck with that.
I mean, just look at what has happened with artificial surfaces in this country. That data is pretty irrefutable that they are safer than dirt when it comes to catastrophic injuries. But if you ask actual horsemen who had their track’s surface changed? In a lot of instances, you’ll get more complaints than anything… to the point where I have heard a lot of arguments that artificial surfaces “cripple” horses so badly that they are unusable after racing. Now, I don’t want to discredit these trainers in the trenches… but I’ve been a part of riding and caring for horses training on artificial surfaces for close to 20 years at this point and I can’t say any of the ones I knew were “crippled” because of the surface. So it makes me question if the surface is truly the problem for these trainers.
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