The
Kentucky Derby, horse racing’s annual Big Day, is drawing near, but these days
most of the talk around the turf isn’t about the prospects of the likely
contestants but about a grimmer topic—race-horse mortality. Specifically, it
concerns the spate of equine fatalities that shut down Santa Anita Park outside
of Los Angeles, one of the sport’s premier venues, for most of March, and has
the entire industry walking on eggs.
From late
December through February 21 horses died at the track from injuries suffered
either racing or training. The track shut down for six days to investigate but
another fatality quickly occurred after it reopened and a shutdown of 17 more days
ensued. Two days after it fully reopened
on March 31 still another death took place to bring the total at the meet to
23.
Racing
continues at Santa Anita but so does the furor over the deaths, and not just
animal-rights activists are wondering whether the sport is worth the trouble. It’s
a question worth asking even though for economic reasons it isn’t going away easily;
with U.S. annual revenues of about $50 billion, close to a million jobs and tax
hauls vital to many states, racing is in the “too big to fail” category, at
least for now.
Things could to be done to make racing safer
for both its animal and human participants, race jockeying being among the most
hazardous of occupations. The costs would be to slow down the sport and
necessitate a revision in the calculations that go into the betting that
sustains it. Paying it will be much discussed in the months ahead.
Truth is, however, that equine
fatalities always have been and probably always will be a part of racing. The
thoroughbred race horse is poorly constructed for its tasks, with skinny legs that
barely support the weight they carry (between 1,000 and 1,300 pounds) at the
speed at which they run, which is more than 40 miles per hour at best. A horse’s
legs are complex things, containing about 80 of the animal’s 200 bones. These
and the muscles and ligaments that support them are put together in ways that
are easily disturbed; a single misstep on track or in pasture can cause a
catastrophic break.
Further, unlike humans and other
animals, when a horse breaks a leg he usually must be destroyed. Surgical
advances have added to the list of leg-bone breaks that can be repaired, but
because horses spend their lives standing, and don’t like standing still, the
immobilization needed to heal fractures often is impossible. Euthanasia thus
becomes necessary.
One change recommended in the Santa Anita
investigation—a ban on race-day medications—is likely to be implemented. This
would affect mostly Lasix, a drug that reduces the common pulmonary bleeding
that can impede performance and is widely used in the U.S. but not in other
countries. Increased limitations on anti-inflammatory medicines, and on
anabolic steroids, also have been proposed. They can amp up performances and mask
injuries.
Track conditions also were
examined, and while no firm conclusions were drawn some trainers thought that
the heavy rains in California this winter made Santa Anita’s dirt strip
dangerous. This might seem counterintuitive because mud is assumed to be softer
than dirt, but as the noted trainer Bob Baffert told Sports Illustrated
magazine, a heavier track tires horses and “when horses get tired, and they’re
struggling to get around, that’s when they get hurt.”
There’s a solution to the track
question, but it’s been resisted. Beginning about a dozen years ago, in name of
safety, some tracks replaced their dirt strips with so-called synthetic
surfaces, usually consisting of sand, recycled carpeting, rubber pellets and
plastics. The blend permits better drainage and just about eliminates muddy
racing conditions. It worked to cut horse fatalities about in half from the
year-in, year-out North American average of about two in 1,000 starts reported
by the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Data Base. It still does at Woodbine Park
near Toronto, Canada, where it remains in use.
But some horsemen complained that the
synthetics varied too much by time of day, tracks complained about costs and maintenance
difficulties and bettors said it spoiled their calculations, so most of the
bigger tracks that tried it, including Santa Anita and Del Mar in California
and Keeneland in Kentucky, had it removed. Reviving it is sure to be part of
the current debate.
The overriding safety problems, of
long-term origin, are the sport’s emphasis on speed and reverence for its speed
records. They are the main reasons North American tracks have insisted on
keeping their jockeys tiny, in contrast with the European ovals that permit higher
body weights. It’s also why the tracks don’t permit such common-sense
jockey-safety measures as additional uniform padding and protective gear. It’s
a wonder that the Jockeys Guild doesn’t insist on such protections.
The need for speed has led breeders
to emphasize swiftness over stamina in their mating decisions. Old-time horses
used to race far more often than existing ones; the great Seabiscuit ran 89
times in his six-year career (1935-40), three or four times the annual rate of
current racers. But while trainers race
their horses less frequently than did their decades-ago counterparts, they send
them out for more timed workouts, which may be more stressful. Indeed, the
theory of some human-exercise experts that the closer an athlete comes to peak
condition the greater is his chance of injury also might apply to horses.
As a horse player I’d hate to have
picking winners become tougher than it already is, but as a human being I only
can support a safer sport. Whatever the changes, we’ll figure them out
eventually. If we weren’t persistent and long-suffering we wouldn’t be there in
the first place.
