FASTHORSES Blog The Magazine for Thoroughbred Racing Fans

Fri, 10 Nov 2006

An Open Letter to the Powers That Be in Thoroughbred Horse Racing and Breeding

I've sent this letter to both Blood-Horse and Thoroughbred Times. I don't know if either of them will have the balls to run it. I know yours are made of brass so I thought maybe you would.

My website is ThoroughbredJunkie.com. Because that's what I am. I'm hopelessly addicted to Thoroughbred horse racing. However, it may be time for me to seek out rehab.

I've always loved horses. My 30+ year love affair with horse racing began when I saw Secretariat on the cover of a magazine. Since then horse racing has been a constant presence in my life.

My involvement in racing has ranged from obsessed fan to CHRB licensed employee.

Lately I feel like I'm watching my best friend dying a slow agonizing death.

Industry leaders cry and wring their hands that racing is losing it's fan base. Yet no one seems to have an answer. Integrity is a word I've heard tossed around a lot lately. So where is racing's integrity to it's fans?

There is some thought that racing's problems lie in televised breakdowns. It is feared that racing is seen as horrific and cruel. Breakdowns are a big issue. However, they are not the only one. Polytrack and the like are just a band-aid, not a miracle cure.

Somewhere along the way the Thoroughbred quit being a RACE horse. Somehow Thoroughbred's have gone from being bred to race to being raced to breed. The tail is wagging the dog.

Bernardini's retirement is another large part of what's wrong with this sport. Racing keeps saying it needs a Triple Crown winner to gain national attention and put it back in the spotlight. Why? So as soon as he crosses Belmont's finish line he can be retired to stud. Now you see him, now you don't! Yeah, that's going to help.

Ask yourselves this? Are tracks closing because the grandstands are full of people waiting to see a horse race and there are no horses to run, or are there plenty of horses and no one in the grandstands. Let's face it, without people to fill the grandstands there is no need for horses to fill the stalls.

Two of racing's biggest problems are the breakdowns and the early retirement of it's marquee runners.

So by now you're saying, it's easy to point out the problems, how about a few solutions. I've asked myself what can be done to save my dying friend. Racing and breeding have a lot of ills. The cures are out there. The only problem is that they are going to taste bad going down.

Here are a few starter ideas.

Eliminate all race day medications. Hay, oats and water only! If you can't get a horse to run on that, then it's time to look for a new job. Survival of the fittest.

If you absolutely must have your meds then stamp the papers of those horses that use them that they are a non-breeding animal. Keep the drug dependants and cripples out of the gene pool.

Do away with breezes at the 2 year old sales. There is no reason why a baby needs to run an 1/8 th in under 10 seconds. Last time I checked Thoroughbreds don't race an 1/8 th of a mile.

Stop year round racing.

Limit stallions books to 50 mares.

Quit shuttling stallions.

Scale purses so they increase as a horse ages.

Require that a horse be at least 5 years old before being used as a breeding animal. If the Jockey Club can refuse to register a horse that was conceived by AI, then they can refuse to register a horse that was conceived before either parent was 5 years old.

Put a cap on stud fees.

You need more organizations like Trudy McCaffery's Kids to the Cup. Racing is ignoring a huge demographic. Girls. Young girls love horses. I was 10 when the love affair started. I know several young women who now work in the industry who were part of Kids to the Cup. It is a fabulous idea. Girls are passionate about horses. Get them passionate about racing and they will stick around for a lifetime. Here is your new fan base. But they are not going to stay if their favorite horses don't.

By now you are shaking your head and saying, nope, no way, it's never going to happen. It won't work. There is no way to do it. No way to enforce it.

Well then what? Because I've got to tell you, what you're doing now isn't working.

For the first time in my life I find myself asking if it isn't time to just walk away from racing.

And I'm not the only one.

JoAnne McKenzie
www.ThoroughbredJunkie.com

posted at: 21:02 | path: | permanent link to this entry