Green but Game » Derby Trail

New Poll, Biggest Current Problem in Racing

I wouldn’t be surprised if this poll ended up unanimous, but let’s just see.

In our last poll, put up admittedly close to the Derby, Z Humor turned out to be a winner after all with top vote count for biggest surprise as Derby winner with 4 votes. Not far behind was Recapturetheglory and Eight Belles with 3, although 2 of those votes for Eight Belles came in after the race (way to show some respect people).

Cowboy Cal, Anak Nakal and Bob Black Jack all received 2 votes while Adriano hit the board with 1 vote.

Thanks to all who voted, except for maybe the two that voted for Eight Belles after the fact, didn’t your mama raise you right?

Posted by dana on May 04 2008
Filed Under: 2008, Poll, Industry, Greed, Drugs, Fans, Derby Trail, Kentucky Derby, Racing

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It’s Official…

Derby 2008 was the Worst Derby Ever.

As I said over at John’s post about Sour Grape Kool-Aid, I’m not quite ready to deal with Big Brown the horse vs. Big Brown the implication. My friend Joan sent me this before the Derby:

Here’s all I have to say about this year’s Derby: if Big Brown wins, which he won’t unless all of the stars in the sky are out of alignment and the racing gods are out to pasture, I’ll be sick to my stomach. Because if he does, the “me too!” school of copy cat management will ensure we see more lightly raced horses next year and a new decline in the Derby fields going forward.

Mix in a trainer with a “checkered past” full of violations, an owners group that wants to go public and a whole lotta crass bragging and they make Curlin’s connections look like sissy suburban kids trying to look tough.

Big Brown ran a thrilling race, one I’ve watched less than my customary race replay watching habi-trail due to general upset-ness and the need to process what the F just happened. Not that anyone is going to show up in the Preakness, but I still want to a few more things, for example, how would he do in speed duel? Can he really rate as nicely as he did yesterday when he doesn’t have to?

Usually, I would have gone to the The Office with Swifty, but as fate would have it he had a function to attend out of town. I went to my beloved Belmont with Jessica & Teresa… I had a great time with them but let me say that I won’t be going back to Belmont, or any track, to try and play a card at another track unless I can get a table with my own TV.

One bright note was that as we entered we ran into Alan from Bug Boys on his way out. It was nice to have an impromptu mini-TBA meet-up and we agreed that we would plan to meet up at Belmont some time soon.

I played the card here and there with no success. My biggest issue was that I couldn’t find a good place to settle in and get to work. I really need to have a home base in these situations. When I’m going to the track to play the card it’s easy, I pick a spot in the stands, put my crap there and I get down to business. For the Preakness I’ll definitely be back at The Office with Swifty, and hopefully Jessica and Teresa too.

Another “feature” of the day was that the snazzy new GIANT flat screen TVs (which are really nice) didn’t have the sound up so we had to watch in silence as the Derby unfolded. Jessica liked Gayego, Teresa liked Cool Coal Man and we all know I liked Pyro. As they turned into the stretch it was clear none of them were in the mix. At first I thought Big Brown was Court Vision, which was exicting but then I saw the saddle cloth. It really looked like Eight Belles could have caught Big Brown for a second, but it was not meant to be.

The simulcast signal didn’t have the breakdown so we had no idea it had happened. We were very busy expressing our outrage and dismay for the many disgusting implications a Dutrow/IEAH win with a lightly raced colt with bad feet had for our beloved sport which is already teetering on doing itself in without this.

Oddly, there also was not a lot a celebratory trash talk going on that one would expect in simulcast outlet. From what I can tell most of the folks on our floor were rooting for Pyro. A few minutes later Swifty sent me a txt saying “who broke down?”. I called him immediately and he said there was a horse “laying on the track”.

It took a few minutes to figure out what was going on but when he told me my heart sunk. I think the worst part was having to walk back over to Teresa and Jessica and tell them.

With the exception of Pyro, I felt pretty good about my read on the situation. Denis of Cork ran a great race with Bo-rail giving him almost exactly the same ride he gave Street Sense last year. Tale of Ekati did well and Anak Nakal improved.

Here’s what I did:

Pyro to win
Pyro exacta boxed with Tale of Ekati, Court Vision, Z Fortune, Eight Belles and Denis of Cork
Exacta box of Tale of Ekati, Court Vision, Z Fortune, Eight Belles and Denis of Cork
Tale of Ekati, Court Vision, Z Fortune, Eight Belles and Denis of Cork to win
Pyro over Anak Nakal, Visionaire, Gayego, Big Truck and Smooth Air
Pyro boxed with Colonel John

One surprise was Recapturetheglory. Although I guess it wasn’t a surprise since the splits were slower than I anticipated and my notes about him were that he needed slower splits to do well. His owner/trainer said that “he left most of his race in the paddock” as he acted up a bit and didn’t respond well to the crowd. I would have loved to have seen what he could have done had he brought most of his race with him!

Speaking of which, I’m still bummed about Pyro. It looked like he had the room and but no gas in the tank. Blinkers Off over at Railbird, easily my favorite Derby reporting, noted Friday that ~~there was a rumor floating around the backstretch~~ a little birdie told him that Pyro has “chips”, as in bone chips. If they come out with this news in the next few days I will be even more grossed out than I already am, if that’s possible, with the cash out mentality that’s ruining racing and horses.

Here’s my take on the Eight Belles tragedy… let’s not fool ourselves, it could have just as easily happened in the Oaks. Good bye Derby 2008 and good riddance!

Posted by dana on May 04 2008
Filed Under: Churchill Downs, TBA, Wrap Up, Court Vision, 2008, Industry, Hype, Farewell, Pyro, Derby Trail, Belmont, Handicapping, Kentucky Derby, NYRA, Simulcasting, Racing

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The Cash Out Mentality

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.

…

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.

Posted by dana on May 04 2008
Filed Under: Greed, TBA, 2008, Industry, Drugs, 3yo, Breeding, Fans, Derby Trail, Racing