Endings and Beginning
Making the rounds tonight I was struck by a few items.
I noticed that 5 yo Adieu died last week at Ashford Stud, the causes are unknown (or unreported until more is known). Her racing career was just before I started to follow racing and her winning efforts were not found on YouTube but I figured that many of you were probably familiar with her.
Adieu, an El Corredor mare out of Irene’s Talkin, by At the Threshold, scored wins over eventual champion Folklore in the 2005 Astoria Stakes at Belmont Park and Spinaway Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course before winning the Frizette Stakes (G1) at Belmont.
Trained by Todd Pletcher for owners Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith, Adieu also won the 2006 Delaware Oaks (G2) as a three-year-old. She won five of ten starts and earned $907,934.
Buried in that article (grrrr) was a small note about La Traviata’s retirement to Ashford and that she’s in foal to Mr. Greeley (or as Val would type, Mr. Greenley!).
I was blown away by her performance in the Victory Ride at Saratoga last summer, see for yourself:
Rest in peace Adieu and best of luck on the new beginning to La Traviata.
Over at Owning Racehorses, fellow TBA-er Ted has a post up on behalf of a friend who’s helping an owner do the right thing and find a nice placement for their horse. Check it out and forward to anyone you know who might be able to help or even provide a nice home!
Along similar lines, there’s an account of a recent rescue over at Paul Moran’s blog that reminds us all that luck has far too much to do with whether or not a thoroughbred race horse has a happy ending.
And finally, a story I can only take as a sign that things might just really be beginning to change, Jeremy Rose was suspended for 6 months for misuse of the whip.
Jockey Jeremy Rose was suspended for six months following a stewards’ hearing the morning of June 24 for whipping his mount Appeal to the City in the face during the third race at Delaware Park June 23.
Stewards hardly ever enforce whip rules, although it’s tough to overlook a whip in the face, particularly when it causes hemorrhaging. I would love to see stewards enforce the rules of just plain old over whipping, particularly when the horse is clearly not in the race. But in the meantime, I’m willing see this action as one tiny step in the right direction.
Posted by dana on Jun 24 2008
Filed Under: Farewell, Get Well Soon, TBA, 2008, The Whip, YouTube, You Can Help, Retirement, Breeding, Rescue, Race Replay, Injury, Racing
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I saw both Adieu’s Spinaway and La Traviata’s Victory Gallop. Super-sad about Adieu. What a bummer.
In brighter news, a friend told me recently that La Traviata and Rags to Riches, both in foal, are sharing a paddock at Coolmore, and there’s a photo of it somewhere. Can’t find it, though…
Yeah, I was bummed and I never even saw her run!
That photo sounds pretty great! I took a quick look around Coolmore’s site to no avail.
Rose story is a horror show. Seems these ugly incidents are all lining up for a reason: to beget the beginning of a thoroughcleansing.
Feel better instantly, Appeal to the City.
We’ll have to see if other jurisdictions reciprocate.
“True hope is swift,and flies with swallow’s wings;
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.”
-Shakespeare, King Richard III
I’ll say it again: to newcomers our sport looks like people with sticks beating horses to make them run. Ban the whip.
E - I hope you’re right!!
winston - indeed, and nice!
ljk - you know, I’ve been in the ‘ban the whip’ camp and am pretty sure I still am but I had a thought last week when I was walking my dog.
I live in a city (NYC to be exact) and occasionally I see people walking their dog off leash. While there’s a small part of me that understands that impulse (wanting to replicate the pack, perhaps) I always have the same reaction… “they don’t have any control of their dog”. While their dog might be perfectly well mannered, another dog might not be and how would they get their dog out of harms way? Thinking along these lines made me understand the logic of the argument that the whip can be used appropriately for safety and/or control.
However, I’m still not convinced that even with stricter rules AND the stewards enforcing them better, that you keep the whip to use only for control. And, is there enough control via the reigns? I’ve never ridden a horse so I can’t comment from experience.
dana-
I have no experience riding racehorses, but in every other riding discipline I can think of, the bulk of the rider’s control ideally comes from the leg and seat, with the hands/reins used to assist in steering and to halt forward motion. Jockeys give up a lot of control and stability by having virtually no leg on the horse, so I can buy the argument that the whip is very useful from a control standpoint. That said, I don’t know why American racing can’t adopt stricter standards for whip use. It seems to work for the rest of the world.
Does anyone know when we’ll hear how the crop experiment went at Colonial?
Dana,
What a good site you made. I am a horse owner/show with 7 and and 8th ready to come out of the oven. They are not TB”s though. I too became a handicapper starting last fall with the TV strike. I ordered cable just for TVG, I’ll be working in KY at a military base near Churchill for a year and decided to go whole hog into TB’s and some standardbred. I found myself almost adopting the jockey’s, as a rider I can pick out who is really skilled, and trainers with a real program like Todd Pletcher and like doing the math. At 53 I am into this and spread my enthusiasm around me adding a couple more people are into it. But boy these last few weeks have been agonizing. My breed also has perception problems and I feel slapped on both sides. What I wanted to convey to readers is this last weekend some 5 or more horses were put down on TV in 3 days and a bunch of jockeys. I am disheartened that the news for the jockey most hurt, Tammi Piermarini wasn’t anywhere. Thank God I was watching TVG and heard she was alive at least. What is this total black-out for female jockeys. What a trooper she is 41 and she will recover and boot back up. But why isn’t she on top line of ESPN. Anyone else notice this?
leg - thanks for the insight! I agree about American racing as well, I wasn’t impressed with the Jockey Club’s recommended whip changes either.
Miss Deb - thanks for the kind words! I didn’t see the news about Tammi Piermarini, I don’t have TVG (it’s not an available option on cable in nyc). I just did a little googling and found this, but yeah… that should have been a little easier to find.