Remember two days ago when I said this:

If I had a holiday wish this season, it would be to see the industry support it’s own more often and particularly in the high profile circumstances where non-racing related charities tend to get the most support by our industry. Not only would it help raise awareness for the racing related charities, it would probably be some inherent “positive” marketing by showcasing an industry that’s concerned and supportive of it’s equine and human athletes.

An editorial entitled “Out of the Gate” in today’s New York Times is a prime example of why I said it.

When the Kentucky Derby rolls around each year, few ordinary fans are aware of the grisly waste of horseflesh that underpins the self-proclaimed Sport of Kings. One of the unacknowledged traditions of racing has been wholesale neglect of glorious thoroughbreds once their competitive days are done. Notions of happily ever- aftering in the bluegrass are largely myth.

While the editorial makes some fair points it hung a lot of sweeping generalizations on one (horrifying) case (Paraneck Stables). Is there a problem? Yes. Should the industry being doing more to address it? Hell yes. Are there places in the industry already taking measures to address the issues? Yes, and one is cited in the editorial but not without taking a shot:

The crackdown is welcome but late in coming to a multibillion-dollar industry that can make a humane show of ministering to its celebrity champions while gracelessly relegating thousands more to destruction at the bidding of “kill buyers” who work the sport’s fringe.

To make matters more annoying, a friend recently pointed out to me that a non-racing charity that is frequently supported by racing on it’s biggest days, Susan G. Koman “Race for the Cure”, has some corruption issues of it’s own!

But back to racing:

As the upstate scandal spread across the Internet, equine care charities and ordinary people have been helping the victimized horses to sweet resurrection as ranch retirees and recreational companions.

They are shepherded by pioneer protective groups like the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. The foundation has been saving thoroughbreds since 1984, when it began buying horses for rural prisons, to be cared for by minimum-security inmates. “The little guy just wants to run free,” one inmate said of his horse. “And I don’t blame him.”

What I find so galling about the Times editorial is that they fail to give direct mention to places like Another Chance 4 Horses, which actually “broke” the Paragallo story by posting it on their site (from there Paulick picked it up). Yet they cite the (deserving of praise) Columbia-Greene Human Society by name as if they were the only ones involved. As often as the industry fails to support it’s own, the Times minimizes groups within the industry working on the problems, or so it seems to me.

So c’mon owners, tracks and industry organizations, let’s support our own not only big race days but always! Next time you send out a press release check and see if the charities you’re supporting support those within the industry trying to address it’s issues… and perhaps then the New York Times will be forced to editorialize about it!

Update: Upon seeing this tweeted reaction to the NYT editorial and googling, I was pleased to find this passage about some of the excellent things a few tracks are doing to address “aftercare” (as it seems it’s called):

In the area of caring for horses after their careers, Turfway Park has a “surrender stall,” where horsemen can leave horses, “no questions asked.” The track supplies food and hay until the Kentucky Equine Humane Center retrieves the Thoroughbred. Also cited in this area were Woodbine, which commits a percentage of purses to aftercare; the jockeys at Monmouth Park, who commit a percentage of their mount fees; as well as the New York Racing Association tracks and California.

Great stuff, let’s see more of it!

Additional Update: Finely makes a similar point by citing what happened to dog racing in Massachusetts.

It is a cautionary tale for every other animal-related sport that doesn’t do nearly enough to protect its competitors while racing and guarantee them safe, dignified retirements after their careers are over. Sadly, horse racing falls into that category.

Posted by dana on Dec 27 2009    
Filed Under: Industry, 2009, Media, Rescue, Retirement, Racing

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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“Is blogging dead?” was a question posed by my esteemed colleague John of The Race is not to the Swift. He rightfully points out that other options such as Twitter and Facebook are easier outlets than blogging. Indeed.

I commented that as an example, I had posted several tweets of stuff I encountered while twirling around the web last night and had I not been on Twitter that they would have probably ended up as a blog post. As an experiment, of sorts, here’s what I probably would have written had I not had twitter:

While poking around on Hulu after finding an explanation of a tote board to post over here, I found this interview with Mike Watchmaker on Charismatic’s Triple Crown Bid on Charlie Rose. This made me wonder if Charlie Rose did any interviews prior to Big Brown’s Triple Crown attempt, and alas he did!

Since I didn’t really know much about Charismatic or racing in 1999 in general, I looked a little further. I watched the 1999 Belmont to see if any of Watchmaker’s predictions were right (they were not).

And imagine my surprise when I discovered the Charismatic / Chris Antely story, which I knew nothing about! Upon checking out Charismatic’s wiki page I discovered that an ESPN 30 for 30 episode is currently in development on the Charismatic / Antley story (thanks to @raceday360 for the ESPN link), very exciting! Apparently, there’s also a book on the saga entitled Three Strides Before the Wire (via @BklynBckstretch).

And as if all this wasn’t exciting and interesting enough, Haskin also has a compelling post about trainers who are still working that “once ruled the sport“. A true and proven talent not being able to sell themselves and ending up in relative obscurity is not a new phenomenon and certainly not limited to horse racing. History is littered with examples of artists, writers, musicians, etc who suffered the same fate, but as Jessica put it:

I still look at Turner and marvel, that trainer knows what it is to win the Triple Crown.

Here’s a recent trainee of his, Reforestation, hitting the board at 48-1 in the 2009 Grade 1 Prioress at Belmont.

Turner trains for Castle Village Farms, if money bags owners won’t work with the last trainer to win a Triple Crown there’s no reason why you can’t!

Posted by dana on Dec 04 2009    
Filed Under: Big Brown, Internet, Racing History, 2009, Twitter, Steve Haskin, Legend, Belmont, Triple Crown, Belmont Stakes, TV, Racing

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Just like the holiday lights that went up in my neighborhood a week and a half before Halloween, it seems as though the Derby hype has gotten under way, thus far this year in the form of American Lion. Almost all of the coverage of Hollywood Prevue has been focused almost exclusively on the winner, American Lion, while noticeably overlooking the second the place finisher Get My Fix. Was I watching the same race?

Sure, American Lion handled the class jump, but did he really tame his foes? All of the articles do a good job of mentioning that he was a bit green/unfocused and that there’s time (before the Derby!) to get those issues ironed out, but isn’t it a little early to put all your eggs in one basket? I thought Get My Fix ran a much better race.

Get My Fix didn’t look green at all biding his time at the back of the back and then closing aggressively at the end. Why not ask Joe Talamo what he thought of the effort? I did! Although I doubt he’ll answer me… but if he does I’ll let you know!

But back to my point, I don’t mind the beginning of some Derby coverage at this time of the year. In fact, I think this is the first year where I’ve really started to pay attention to the Juvies with an eye towards next year. Along the same lines Davidowitz has a good DRF+ post on his end of the year observations about the current crop of 2yos. But if you read the news coverage of the Hollywood Prevue without watching race, you might get the impression that American Lion’s effort was more impressive than it really was… or at least than it seemed to me. Solid? Yes. Promising? Sure. Best in the race? Not in my opinion.

It could also be that American Lion is by Tiznow and Get My Fix is by Posse, even I know that means that Get My Fix is less likely to get the classic distance, or depending on how you look at it, be a “failed router” (aka sprinter/miler). And let’s not overlook American Lion’s maiden race at Keeneland, which was impressive, but how have the rest of them come out of that race? Oh, and Eoin Harty does seem to do well with a Tiznow from Winstar. But does the coverage have read like a Winstar press release?

In the end American Lion could turn out be the better horse, only time will tell. And only time will tell if Get My Fix can stretch out or not. If he doesn’t it wouldn’t be so horrible to have another Kodiak Kowboy to look forward to! Regardless of whether he’s “distance challenged” or not, and regardless of whether he ends up on the Derby trail, I’m looking forward to Get My Fix’s next out. If nothing else he’ll certainly be a better value than American Lion!

Posted by dana on Nov 23 2009    
Filed Under: Hype, YouTube, 2009, Joe Talamo, Eoin Harty, Steve Davidowitz, 2yo, Derby Trail, Race Replay, Hollywood Park, Media, Racing

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Carol Cendeno, winner of the Philly Park Female Jockey Challenge (EBarnes624)

While you can find plenty of accounts of Careless Jewel’s triumphant performance in the Cotillion at Philly Park, you’ll have to look a little harder to find anything about the other jewel at Philly Park on Saturday, the first annual Female Jockey Challenge.

In fact, the only thing I’ve found about it outside of Female on the Horse, Flickr and Live Journal was an article at Philly.com by Dick Jerardi:

All 11 races on the card will be for fillies and mares. Races 1, 2, 4 and 8 will feature only female riders in a jockeys challenge. The track will donate $25,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast-cancer awareness organization.

Had I not seen this great photo set at Flickr by way of Raceday360 this morning I would have forgotten about it completely, apparently like everyone else! GbG fav Carol Cendeno won 3 of the 4 challenge races to take this year’s title.

From what I can tell jockeys Tammi Piermarini, Janice Blake-Baeza, Ashton Fitzpatrick, Jill Jellison, Jenna Joubert, Carol Cedeno , Tara Hemmings, Shannon Uske, Joanne McDaid, Jackie Davis, Anna Napravnik and Maylan Studart competed in the challenge. That’s quite a formidable group!

While it’s certainly hard to compete with 5 G1 races carded at Belmont in the height of Breeders’ Cup prep season, a little coverage would have been nice. Apologies if there was some coverage that I missed (please leave the link in the comments!), my online grazing time has been a touch diminished these days.

It looked like a lovely day, complete with autograph signing, bringing home long shots and plenty of thumbs up. As it turns out, it isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened, Hoosier Park used to do a Female Jockey Challenge, and in fact still might, unless they’ve radically changed their concept of “Ladies Day” in recent years.

From the 2007 Hoosier Female Jockey Challenge:

Here’s hoping that next year will be a little more widely covered!

Posted by dana on Oct 05 2009    
Filed Under: 2009, Carol Cedeno, Media, Jocks, Racing

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Didn’t think I’d be using this photo again anytime soon! (Charles Pravata)

I love Lava Man. I have the above shot of him by Charles Pravata (from the 2008 DRF Calendar) up in my office where I can stare at it at length. If hard pressed, my answer to the question “who is your all time favorite horse” might be Lava Man as I arrived on the scene just as he was at his height. And to be honest my initial thought when I saw the crazy news about him was “heck yeah!”.

Like everyone else I went to the initial post (dated September 21st) and there weren’t a lot of details (that have since been added), which lead to speculation on the worst… the worst motives, the worst outcome, the worst everything. But then reports starting pouring out with details about crazy things like stem cell therapy and donating winnings to retirement funds.

From the Thoroughbred Times:

“He had to continue training at Magali as part of the stem cell treatments,” O’Neill said. “They found they were able to actually grow back cartilage. No one knew that was possible, so it’s exciting that this treatment may be able to help other equine athletes in the future.

“He really took to the treatment and it has done wonders for him. The doctor said that he is and will be the strongest horse in my barn. I couldn’t put into words how good he looks and how happy he seems to be back in training.”

If and when he runs, all of the trainer earnings will be donated to CARMA (California Retirement Management Account) so people don’t think this is all about greed.

And then there was his crazy first reported work out. Maybe there is something to this stem cell business or as a friend emailed to me upon reading the initial news “That poor horse. His ankles are like glass and he is DONE being a racehorse”.

So, what do you think, is it cool or alarming… or a little of both? I come down somewhere between “Concerned but hopeful” and “Stem cells? Very Cool!”. Of course, if it ends like it did for Gorgeous George there will be plenty of anger and hate to go around. They do seem to love him and want him to be happy so let’s just all keep our fingers crossed that Lava Man has an enjoyable and SAFE stay at fantasy camp.

For some back story on the story, namely how the heck does a horse like Lava Man go under the radar with something like this, check out Ed DeRosa’s account at his Big Event Blog. And on a Jockey’s note, Corey Nakatani must be happy with this news!

And finally, in our last poll, Fav Summer Racing, our east coast bias was showing!

I was too lazy to type all that out, but thanks as always for participating!

Posted by dana on Sep 24 2009    
Filed Under: Poll, Corey Nakatani, Doug O'Neill, Claimer, 2009, Omnisurface Stars, Jockeys TV Show, Geldings, George Washington, Retirement, Wooo!, Lava Man, Injury, Charles Pravata, Come Back, Racing

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