This phrase has been on my mind lately as it pertains to racing. News of IEAH stables plans to create a hedge fund out of their “holdings” (Big Brown, Court Vision, Kip Deville, just to name a few) is what solidified it. That’s not say that they’re the only ones, but they certainly aren’t trying to hide behind any notion of love for the sport or their “holdings”.

Meanwhile, the games have begun and it’s open season on racing… surely the biggest form of sanctioned animal cruelty not only exist but to be celebrated as entertainment for the wealthy. Off with their heads!

On the other side of the fence you have the “horses break down, it’s a sad part of the game”. Both arguments are reductive and frankly won’t change anything if they’re not tempered with some realistic data about what the problems are and how to address them. But where to start?

Start with Jim Squires current piece in The Rail, entitled a Horse Lovers View From Inside The Industry. As Swifty said during our morning phone chat “I wish everyone in America would read this piece”.

It’s also true that American thoroughbred racing demands more of its animals at an earlier age than other countries and puts more pressure on them mentally and physically than do the other breeds. The tragic breakdowns that dismay the public invariably occur in the two- and three- and four-year-old races to animals that have for the most part been in training since they were 18 months old.

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Why do we do this? Because we are always in a hurry to make our fame and fortune, whether we are raising animals, trading stocks, pioneering software or driving to the corner grocery. In my life I have seldom heard anyone say, “don’t go so fast, no need to hurry.” And in horse racing, it’s almost never the trainer who is in a hurry. Certainly not trainers like Larry and Cindy Jones or Michael Matz, whose horses have suffered spectacular injuries before worldwide audiences. In fact, it is usually the owners who are in a hurry, although there is no reason to believe this is the case in either the Barbaro or Eight Belles tragedies.

Yes, the cash out mentality. On a post about over medication earlier in the year I received this comment from a trainer that reinforces this notion:

i train horses on the southern California circuit. sadly overmedication is the rule rather than the exception. horsemanship was valued 20 years ago and more but today many of the high profile trainers depend on veterinarians to make all their decisions. i can’t just blame trainers or vets because many owners make unreasonable demands of the trainers and force their actions with little concern for the welfare of the horses. i wish that we could enforce a zero tolerance policy towards drugs. the sport would be a lot better and many horses might live a few more years.

But let’s not get reductive, there are many pieces to this puzzle. Fellow TBA-er Superfecta points out what in my mind should be obvious to anyone serious about addressing issues:

Sometimes injuries just happen – even the sturdiest breeds of horses can take missteps and break a leg (or two); the fact that the US doesn’t do a follow-up on every injury (as is required in many other countries) is one reason we simply don’t have the numbers to say what is drug-related, shoe-related, breeding-related or simply dumb-luck-related. We should.

It’s hard to address issues when they are unknown. This inflames the “they just happen” vs. “it’s cruel and it should stop” war. Being able to determine the percentage of true accidents vs. true accidents that might not have happened given sturdier breeding stock, over medication, tracks that play like highways and/or training too early would be a step towards being able to actually TAKE ACTION to address these issues that MUST be addressed.

But the owners aren’t the only ones who have this mentality, we see it elsewhere too. One of my personal favorite Derby blogs, Take Off That Silly Ass Hat (with an almost Nostradamus like url) sums it up like this.

Every racetrack in America soups up their main track to some extent for its respective big day(s) of racing. Times at Belmont are usually quick on Belmont day. But the track at CD on Derby and BC Day would be a huge running gag if the results weren’t so freaking tragic. After Pine Island and Fleet Indian both broke down in the same race in BC ’06, I hoped I’d seen the last of the paved highway in Louisville. Today, with the Elite Squadron race and the eventual breakdown of Eight Belles, it apparently is still an issue.

Over the summer last year the New York Horseman’s association took issue with NYRA about their insane over sealing of the track and the effect it was having on the horses. As speculated over at Take Off That Silly Ass Hat, it seems like track officials are interested in creating scenarios where records are broken as a last ditch effort to get people to their tracks at the expense of the horses.

The list goes on, over whipping, “legal” and illegal drugging, having 20 horses in a race to begin with! We can’t go on paying lip service to the safety and well being of horses without addressing it and addressing it in a way that’s not reactionary.

For instance, what are the implications of using artificial racing surfaces that are akin to chemical dumps? What does it do the horse, jock and track staff that have to breath it every day? I know I wouldn’t want to be a person in a position to actually have to make these decisions, I’m sure the pressure to react is intense, but substituting one bad situation with a potential other one doesn’t sit well either. The bottom line is we need to make decisions with with facts, which means we have to actually have some facts.

I work in a corporate setting and have for (too) many years. It’s the same thing, no one wants to analyze problems let alone actually address them. Everything is a reaction to “show progress”…. i.e., a band aid. We need patience, hard work and dedication to solve these issues… not people in a rush to cash out.