Al's Morning Meeting

I have to disclose a few things so you can put my comments in context. I grew up in a horse family.  My great grandfather was a horse racing man, and there is even a Hamiltonian race named after him that has been run for 60-plus years. I own tiny shares in thoroughbred mares and foals. I love racing and horses.

All of that said, the death of Eight Belles after the Derby forces some conversations that the racing world has been having for years and even more so after Barbaro's injury. Here are some issues:

1.) We do not know what caused Eight Belles' ankle fractures but we do know a few things. She seemed to be fine when she finished the race; she galloped nearly an additional quarter mile while cooling down. Like human runners, horses' skeletons absorb a lot of shock in a race. They are vulnerable to injury when they are most tired (although remember Barbaro's injury happened near the beginning of the race when he was accelerating). These kinds of post-race injuries are very rare. 
As Eight Belles' trainer Larry Jones said, "(Breakdowns) just don't happen there."

I am prepared to believe this was one of those things that happens in competitions. But it will not, and should not, stop tough conversations about how to prevent these kinds of injuries. Two Triple Crown deaths in three years on live TV is awful -- just awful. Thoroughbred racing better respond with some safety measures -- and fast.

2. Is it time for poly track? Churchill Downs has been slow to adopt new technology that seems to be saving horses from injuries at other tracks. But research is thin, and some trainers say running on artificial tracks cause tendon problems. It seems to be difficult for horses who train on poly track to switch to dirt and for dirt horses to move to poly track.

But even the time-honored Keeneland track in Lexington, Kent., has gone to the softer, shock absorbing poly track surface. We do not know if Eight Belles' injuries may have been exaggerated by the shock of running on dirt, but a 3 year old's bones are fragile, and they are pounding down the stretch in the race of their life.

An Associated Press story says:

Reports by veterinarians at 34 tracks across the country between June 2007 and early this year showed synthetic tracks averaged 1.47 fatalities per 1,000 starts, compared with 2.03 fatalities per 1,000 starts for horses that ran on dirt.

But not everyone is convinced.

"This is a very big issue and needs to be discussed," two-time Derby-winning trainer Nick Zito said. "You're changing the whole game. Big Brown ran on dirt yesterday, he's going for history. You can't tell me the Polytrack is history. It's not yet, there isn't enough data yet."

That's not saying Zito and other horsemen are not interested in making racetracks safer both for horses and jockeys.

"If you told me, 'Look, we have a device that these horses can run on pillows and never get hurt the rest of lives,' I'd say, 'Where do I sign?' " Zito said. "There's injuries on the Polytrack, too. Now you see why I'm saying it's a big issue."

3. Horses race too much. The winning horse, Big Brown, only raced three times prior to the Derby.  Same for the Horse of the Year in 2007, Curlin. Some of the horses in the Derby had raced seven times prior to the Derby. That means a LOT of racing in their 2-year-old year. At age 2, these horses are babies. At 3, they are like young high schoolers. Owners want results, they want income. They want 2 year olds in training. They want three year olds to produce some income.

4. This death is a huge blow to horse racing at a time when it was already in trouble. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is calling for the jockey's suspension and for the end of thoroughbred racing!

PETA also wants to ban jockeys from using riding crops, force tracks to use polytrack surfaces, delay all thoroughbred training until a horse is 3 and limit the number of races a horse can run in a single season.

5. Whipping is a sore spot for horse racing. PETA, to some horse people, can be seen as "out there," but I have to say, their suggestions are not all that wild this time. The question of what to do about "whipping" a race horse is a serious one. In England, riders cannot raise their hands above shoulder height to hit a horse. They can be fined for excessive whipping. See this story on how whipping became a big issue in England's racing scene. The whole issue became something of a crisis in the racing industry there earlier this year.

The New York Times, a few years ago, included voices from inside the industry that didn't sound too far off from what PETA is suggesting.

I have watched the stretch run for this Derby many times now, and while second guessing can be dangerous, I see no reason for a jock to hit Eight Belles in the stretch. She was comfortably second and was clearly not going to win.

Crops can be useful for jockeys to tap a horse into the gate, and if a horse veers dangerously in a turn or stretch, the crop can correct the move. Excessive and abusive use of a whip doesn't do anyone any good. In fact, I have seen some horses slow down when a jockey stupidly flails away. These abusive riders are known as "stick" riders. They should be banned.

In New Zealand, one animal rights group studied the connection between jockeys that used a whip and horses that won. The study found that the horses that finished first or second were hit much less than those who finished out of the money. Clearly, the study seeks to show there is no place for abuse in horse racing.

I have no problem at all with a crop rule that says it can only be used to correct behavior or running position. At minimum, tracks need to start fining and suspending abusive jockeys and trainers as other countries are doing. This should be a highly public campaign to restore confidence that the racing world is listening. 

I also recommend this piece from Monday's New York Times, written by horse breeder Jim Squires.