Realistic Change Quite Simple For Racing

[samyn on the green]

Realistic Change Quite Simple For Racing (http://gregcalabrese.blogspot.com/2008/05/realistic-change-is-quite-simple-for.html)




In the wake of the Eight Belles tragedy, there has been a tremendous amount of talk about the safety of racing. Some of the talk has been moronic, uninformed while some has been on-point. It is important that some changes are made at this time while the spotlight is on racing and the game has tremendous public opinion leverage. The changes must be realistic and directly effect the results while not causing any undue economic harm to people that are struggling to make ends meet within the industry. Over at Paul Moran's blog Mr. Moran posted a letter from a fan that was completely on-point (http://paulmoranattheraces.blogspot.com/2008/05/open-letter-to-racing-industry.html) and I would like to echo that fans sentiments here. Ross A. Fowler really got it right and I hope his letter becomes the axis of change in the industry. The focus in the wake of the Eight Belles death should be on banning all raceday medications and a focus on safer dirt tracks. These are workable areas where the industry can affect real change.

Safe dirt surfaces exist. This wheel does not need to be re-invented. At Saratoga the cushion is deep and it is rare to see a scene like the one we witnessed in the Kentucky Derby 134. If dirt tracks are maintained like Saratoga with a deep cushion and not compressed hard as a rock every time it rained, a safer surface would be a result. We all know it rained hard the day before the Derby and the morning of. The track maintenance crew was out there sealing Churchill's dirt track down to a hard super-highway to make it impervious to the rains. When horses run over this hard super-highway we get Eight Belles type incidents. If Churchill had the most modern drainage system there would be no need to seal the surface every time it rained. The focus should be on, optimum drainage and a deep cushion. A sound surface is well engineered from top to bottom. We do not need slow synthetic surfaces with drugged up unsound horses toiling from wire to wire, in a unformful poly-procession. Dirt form has been established as the form of American racing and safe dirt surfaces are available if tracks have the knowledge and ability to install and maintain them. Poorly maintained surfaces like the old dirt at Santa Anita, Del Mar and Arlington should have been engineered with Saratoga as a model. They did not need to be scrapped for the poly-track band-aid cure with its empty promises of no maintenance and fewer injuries. Adding safer, deep dirt surfaces to existing tracks will protect the integrity of the horses legs while protecting the interest in the game.

The second change that needs to be made is on raceday medication. The USA should adopt European medication standards and ban all raceday medication. Now is the time while the public sentiment is huge, the leverage is there to change the game. This is a realistic change that can happen soon. Most of the world races clean of drugs, with American horses racing on a mix of lalix, bute and who know what else we are the cesspool of equine substance abuse. The time is now to stop taking shortcuts and get back to fundamental horsemanship. The long term repercussions of drug abuse in the thoroughbred are beginning to dominate American bred thoroughbreds as generation after generation of drug aided inferior stock enter the gene pool. Stop the legal drugs and everything else will fall into place.

Realistic change should focus on these two areas of concern. There is a wide range of nonsense out there concerning use of the whip, moving the triple crown to four year olds, synthetic surfaces and increasing the minimum age of racing to three year olds. These are all band-aid approach measures that ignore the core reasons of the problem. It is impossible to legislate the type of horses that people buy and mandate a market that focuses on sound stamina horses. However the NTRA and the tracks can legislate that horses run over a safe dirt surface and do so without any drugs in their system. This is real attainable change for the greatest game and it should be done now while the leverage is there.

[pandy]

When I first watched races on synthetic tracks, I wrote in my blog that this could change the way horses are bred. The synthetic tracks favor horses that are bred for endurance, not speed. In his recent DRF column Jay Hovdey said the same thing. He also said that you can forget about Breeders changing their strategy because they are solely motivated by money, and the only way the breed will become more durable is if more tracks to go synthetic surfaces. I have a feeling that despite the horrible winter meet at Santa Anita, these injuries will result in more synthetic tracks, and eventually the breeding will get better.

[trigger]

One of the actions the racing industry should take is to establish an equine research and safety foundation funded by a % (1/4%?) of all handle.
A independent group including race people and "outsiders" (veterinary researchers,etc.) would decide what projects would get funded based on applications from researchers (like the Vet that cared for Barbaro), engineers, and the like.
Who knows with some funding, perhaps a way to better way to protect a horse's ankles could be developed or an truly independent study of artificial surfaces vs dirt surfaces could be done. The possibilities could be endless.
BTW, this approach is somewhat similar to how the federal National Institutes of Health(NIH) operates in their fight against disease.

[Kelso]

Safe dirt surfaces exist. This wheel does not need to be re-invented. At Saratoga the cushion is deep ... Adding safer, deep dirt surfaces to existing tracks will protect the integrity of the horses legs while protecting the interest in the game.

... Most of the world races clean of drugs, with American horses racing on a mix of lalix, bute and who know what else we are the cesspool of equine substance abuse. The time is now to stop taking shortcuts and get back to fundamental horsemanship.

Good ideas - good letter. Thanks for posting.

Questions:
- How does Saratoga deal with rain? Does it have one of the better drainage systems, to go along with that deeper cushion?
- Does anyone know of an accessable, online record of injuries and/or fatalities by track ... addressing either racing only or races plus workouts?
- How do the Europeans deal with steroids? Total ban? Sometimes/always?

Thanks again.

[trigger]

One of the actions the racing industry should take is to establish an equine research and safety foundation funded by a % (1/4%?) of all handle.
A independent group including race people and "outsiders" (veterinary researchers,etc.) would decide what projects would get funded based on applications from researchers (like the Vet that cared for Barbaro), engineers, and the like.
Who knows with some funding, perhaps a way to better way to protect a horse's ankles could be developed or an truly independent study of artificial surfaces vs dirt surfaces could be done. The possibilities could be endless.
BTW, this approach is somewhat similar to how the federal National Institutes of Health(NIH) operates in their fight against disease.

Found this after I posted, a small step in the right direction:

"Jockey Club Creates Safety Committee to Study Equine Health"

http://sports.excite.com/news/05082008/v0647.html

[InsideThePylons-MW]

Maybe we can keep raising the takeout 1% for each of the sport's problems and then there will be no horse racing.

[InsideThePylons-MW]

Anybody who supports that letter is a moron!

The entire money to solve the problem is raised from raising takeout.

All of the racing industry which this letter is being forwarded to will only see that they can solve their problems for "free" by raising takeout.

Tote system, jockey insurance, drug testing, racehorse retirement, etc can all be funded by raising the take 1% for each.

When take gets to 50% there will be no more sport to "save"

Morons!

[samyn on the green]

We are not morons, we are idiots, get it right sizzle chest. Where do you get your numbers from this 1%? The testing is already done so that will cost a total of 0%. The tracks are already maintained but they have to be maintained with safety in mind. You are making that number up, completely pulled out of your rear end with no meaning. Lets face it the roof is leaking, racing has to fix the roof they have the money to do it. Anybody who supports that letter is a moron!

The entire money to solve the problem is raised from raising takeout.

All of the racing industry which this letter is being forwarded to will only see that they can solve their problems for "free" by raising takeout.

Tote system, jockey insurance, drug testing, racehorse retirement, etc can all be funded by raising the take 1% for each.

When take gets to 50% there will be no more sport to "save"

Morons!

[InsideThePylons-MW]

We are not morons, we are idiots, get it right sizzle chest. Where do you get your numbers from this 1%? The testing is already done so that will cost a total of 0%. The tracks are already maintained but they have to be maintained with safety in mind. You are making that number up, completely pulled out of your rear end with no meaning. Lets face it the roof is leaking, racing has to fix the roof they have the money to do it.

Obviously you did not read the letter about which your post is about.......Amazing!

From the letter..............

So what can be done? First and foremost, the banning of all drugs, including legal ones such as Lasix and Bute as they can be used as masking agents for other illegal drugging methods. Second, the testing of every horse, in every race for every known performance enhancing substance, via a sampling of urine and blood. The key industry opposition to this in the past has been cost. I would gladly pay a 1% higher takeout on all bets made to cover the cost of such an endeavor that would assure the integrity of the game. I would gladly also pay a further 1% designated to equine health research.

I guess I pulled that right out of my asss when I actually took the time to read the letter you posted about. Idiot! Are you happy now? :bang:

[InsideThePylons-MW]

From your blog......"Ross A. Fowler really got it right and I hope his letter becomes the axis of change in the industry."

So I guess you read the letter or think you read the letter.

So the axis of change you support is raising takeout to pay for all the problems?

[LottaKash]

I agree wholeheartedly with trying to fix the system that is broken and breaking down even further day by day......

But, and a big one is that, our culture has been seduced by the big drug companies, out athletes are on drugs of all sorts, and it is rampant among our younger athletes, people over the age of 60, are on at least 4 medications, our children are being injected with vaccines that contain heavy metals, including Mercury, our drinking water is so chemically treated with flouride and God onlys knows what (a known carcinogen), our more active children are being drugged with Ritalyn, a forbidden substance for children in most sane nations, and it is a substance that has as many controls over it as Heroin and Morphine...There is a major push by Big Drug to sell supposed cholesterol lowering drugs, over the counter, when there is no link to heart problems due to cholesterol, and people with low cholesterol levels are subject to more disease than those with higher levels that were once considered normal....and so many people were taken in by the "Bird FLU Hoax".....

I could go on and on, but, let's face it folks, the drugs in America are here to stay, and nothing will change that, until this country wakes up in all of the aforementioned areas.

Drugwise Americans have been taken for a ride....We have the most Drug companies of anywhere in the world, and yet we have more Cancer, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and Heart Disease, than all of the other countries in the world...COMBINED......

As handicappers we have to learn to live with it, and perhaps, find a way to make this reality work for us, instead of continually ranting about it......

For me, my profits as a spot player are pretty consistent these past few years, and this despite the drugs......

This is reality.......and,.... "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away"........and, this reality, most definitely, will not change in the forseeable near future......

Sadly,

[KMS]

How do grass breakdown percentages compare to those on dirt?

[InsideThePylons-MW]

Anybody who supports that letter is a moron!

The entire money to solve the problem is raised from raising takeout.

All of the racing industry which this letter is being forwarded to will only see that they can solve their problems for "free" by raising takeout.

Tote system, jockey insurance, drug testing, racehorse retirement, etc can all be funded by raising the take 1% for each.

When take gets to 50% there will be no more sport to "save"

Morons!

1% for saving OTB

Maybe we can "hope his letter becomes the axis of change in the industry" like SOTG and raise takeout another 2%.

Anybody that supports raising takeout to pay for anything is a moron.

[Tom]

Anybody that supports raising takeout to pay for anything is a moron.

Anyone who suggests raising it should be run out town on a rail....it shows they have no credibility and a basic lack of intelligence to begin with.
Racing will be very safe in 10 years - when everyone abandons this stupid excuse for a game and goes to real gambling outlets. This industry will never get it....never. It will kill itself, especially as we near 5-6-7 dollar gas.

[rrbauer]

Fowler's piece is fine so far as controlling drugs and improving the racing surfaces. We don't need any takeout increase to do what should've been done all along.

Understanding how we got here is a better start. This whole drug thing and sealed-surface thing started when some circuits decided that year-around racing was needed to make more money. It's ironic that over the past 40 years, as racing days increased, track surfaces became harder (to achieve consistency), and drugs like bute and lasix were administered in ever-increasing quantities to mitigate horses' physical problems, that average starts per year have dropped from about 11 starts per horse to about 6 starts per horse.

Or, is it ironic? Maybe a horse's physiology is telling us something when it bleeds and has problems breathing. Maybe a horse's physiology is telling us something when it is sore and not moving with a smooth gait. Horse bleeds-what is the cure? Give it lasix and get it back out on the track. Have to run for purse money and pay the bills. Horse is sore-what is the cure? Give it bute and get it back out on the track. Have to run for purse money and pay the bills.

Racing secretary needs to fill races. Rain is in the forecast-what is the
cure? Scrape the track and roll it to let the rain run off. Put some of the cushion back and voila we have a fast track and everyone is happy and nobody scratches. The five- and six-horse fields are intact. Everybody is happy.

Or, are they? The number of truly successful racing meets can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet we have more racing than ever. The proverbial oxymoron: More is less. Diminishing returns are in full swing, handle is contracting and for the evidence of "hard times" look no further than the battles between racing associations, horse owners' groups and
internet wagering outfits over how much of the takeout from the horseplayers' pockets each is "entitled" to. Is the move to synthetic racing surfaces driven by concern for the horse; or, is it driven by concern for the economics of conducting year-around racing?

Stop drugs? Sure. Improve racing surfaces? Sure. No brainers-right? Sure. But, they won't fix racings problems, because they are symptomatic and can be attributed to the real problems: Greed, ignorance and a desire for the status quo.

Reduce racing days by thirty (30) to forty (40) percent to make the product more attractive to the betting public and at the same time reduce expenses and get rid of marginal operations? Adjust takeout distribution to reflect economies of scale and provide the best customers with the best prices? Stop increasing prices to customers to mitigate (and sometimes reward) management failures and to perpetuate operating inefficiencies?
Wow! Hard stuff. Sounds like work to me.

Sounds like business stuff, eh? Let me close with this question to help you and I'm using this question because it addresses the type of action that the people who run racing (or control the people who run racing) view as a solution: Do you think that the proposed takeout increase for New York racing is going to remedy the problems that got NYRA into bankruptcy
and got NYC OTB to the brink of extinction?

And, in the context of your answer, I don't live in New York,
but let me remind those who do: This is an election year!

[DJofSD]

How do grass breakdown percentages compare to those on dirt?

I'm curious to know this too.

One of a couple of reasons why I'd like to see the comparison of turf v. other surfaces is b/c a grass surface is not maintained the same way as traditional dirt or the newer artifical surfaces. While grass is cut and occasionally the entire surface replaced, it is never "opened" or tilled. I suspect there is a phenomena that comes from, of all things, backyard gardening. It is a roto-tiller effect. It results from using a roto-tiller using the same depth of cutting year after year. After a while, a layer is produced just below the level of the blade penitration that becomes hard. It never gets touched by the blade and the accumulated effect is to compact the soil producing this boundary layer. Good gardeners will use a spade, manually, to vary the depth of the soil turned over. No hard boundary layer is produced.

Another difference between the surace the blade runner traverse and the one the sod plodders run over is on the turf, to even our wear, a temporary rail is used. A different part of the surface is used over the coarse of the meeting unlike dirt racing. I just wonder if any one has ever studied the frequency of dirt surface breakdowns relative to the distance from the finish line. My hypothesis is the horses breaking from the gate, by definition, are spread out over the width of the coarse. As they approach the turns, the jockey will try to save ground therefore decreasing the width of the track actually used by the runners during the race.

I suspect but do not know there is an element of track maintenance that has not been considered that could be in need of change, such as varying the depth of the opening of the track. Maybe the process used at Belmont is different than elsewhere. But knowing this industry, we'll never know and those salient differences will be closely held as competitive advantages.

[joanied]

Found this after I posted, a small step in the right direction:

"Jockey Club Creates Safety Committee to Study Equine Health"

http://sports.excite.com/news/05082008/v0647.html

I'd love to see a list of all the committees the industry has now...seems every week there is a new :eek: committee to study this or that...and that's one of the problems...too many committees that do just about nothing...they talk up a storm, yet nothing much ever gets accomplished...we don't need more committees, just need these committees to actually get something done.:bang:

[joanied]

Fowler's piece is fine so far as controlling drugs and improving the racing surfaces. We don't need any takeout increase to do what should've been done all along.

Understanding how we got here is a better start. This whole drug thing and sealed-surface thing started when some circuits decided that year-around racing was needed to make more money. It's ironic that over the past 40 years, as racing days increased, track surfaces became harder (to achieve consistency), and drugs like bute and lasix were administered in ever-increasing quantities to mitigate horses' physical problems, that average starts per year have dropped from about 11 starts per horse to about 6 starts per horse.

Or, is it ironic? Maybe a horse's physiology is telling us something when it bleeds and has problems breathing. Maybe a horse's physiology is telling us something when it is sore and not moving with a smooth gait. Horse bleeds-what is the cure? Give it lasix and get it back out on the track. Have to run for purse money and pay the bills. Horse is sore-what is the cure? Give it bute and get it back out on the track. Have to run for purse money and pay the bills.

Racing secretary needs to fill races. Rain is in the forecast-what is the
cure? Scrape the track and roll it to let the rain run off. Put some of the cushion back and voila we have a fast track and everyone is happy and nobody scratches. The five- and six-horse fields are intact. Everybody is happy.

Or, are they? The number of truly successful racing meets can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet we have more racing than ever. The proverbial oxymoron: More is less. Diminishing returns are in full swing, handle is contracting and for the evidence of "hard times" look no further than the battles between racing associations, horse owners' groups and
internet wagering outfits over how much of the takeout from the horseplayers' pockets each is "entitled" to. Is the move to synthetic racing surfaces driven by concern for the horse; or, is it driven by concern for the economics of conducting year-around racing?

Stop drugs? Sure. Improve racing surfaces? Sure. No brainers-right? Sure. But, they won't fix racings problems, because they are symptomatic and can be attributed to the real problems: Greed, ignorance and a desire for the status quo.

Reduce racing days by thirty (30) to forty (40) percent to make the product more attractive to the betting public and at the same time reduce expenses and get rid of marginal operations? Adjust takeout distribution to reflect economies of scale and provide the best customers with the best prices? Stop increasing prices to customers to mitigate (and sometimes reward) management failures and to perpetuate operating inefficiencies?
Wow! Hard stuff. Sounds like work to me.

Sounds like business stuff, eh? Let me close with this question to help you and I'm using this question because it addresses the type of action that the people who run racing (or control the people who run racing) view as a solution: Do you think that the proposed takeout increase for New York racing is going to remedy the problems that got NYRA into bankruptcy
and got NYC OTB to the brink of extinction?

And, in the context of your answer, I don't live in New York,
but let me remind those who do: This is an election year!

Great post
:ThmbUp: :ThmbUp: :ThmbUp: