Graded Stakes Committee answers SLewis

[FenceBored]

Slewis noted in a couple of threads a change to the rules on toe grabs in Delaware. The change, which slewis supports, violated the requirements of the American Graded Stakes Committee on the subject. Slewis was trying to get somebody, anybody, to say how this would impact Delaware Park's graded stakes.

And now ... we have ... an answer.

The AGSC announced three changes. It suspended a requirement that states and/or racetracks must adopt the Association of Racing Commissioners International model rule on toe grabs effective July 22, 2009; ...
-- http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/52092/graded-stakes-committee-makes-some-changes (http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/52092/graded-stakes-committee-makes-some-changes)
So, slewis, there it is. Rule suspended.

[slewis]

Thanks for staying on top of this.

There are a couple of key issues here Id like to refresh.

First, they really didn't have any choice in extending the rule to graded stakes races.
If they didn't, there would be a very very serious hypocracy (not that that's stopped the racing elite before).

The hypocracy was that they were not going to take graded status away provided ANY GRADED RACE run would NOT allow horses to wear any "traction shoe", ie toe grabs of any height.

This of course poses the question, if they (the Safety Alliance) really cares about equine safety, then it's ok for tracks to allow the "dangerous" shoes for their maiden and claiming races, but for the stakes races....no no no.
Which suggests quite obviously that the life and safety of a claimer is not as important as that of a Graded Stakes runner.

So without looking REALLY foolish and hypocritical, they extended the use for ALL dirt races of MINIMAL toe grabs BUT NO ..ABSOLUTELY NO mud calks.

I stick by my original statements and challenges to industry officials to stop masquerading this policy as a "safety issue" and start calling the ruling what they truely intended it accomplish...
To prevent trainers who want to use traction shoes (primarily various types of mud calks) to give THEIR horses a perceived advantage over trainers who dont want to shoe their horses with anything but a flat shoe.

The next issue I have is the size of the toe grab (known as a "low toe") is so small, it's not really helping much at all.... so the Safety Alliance is willing to give in. But note that the trainers who use these traction shoes (like Nick Zito) still think this compromise is unacceptable.
I personally spoke to Nick on the issue the other day and he still feels his horses are at greater risk by NOT being able to race in a shoe designed to give more traction.

Rick Violette who represents the NY horsemen thinks this ruling is a step in the right direction and he feels that is just a matter of time until the rules are reverted back prior to the safety alliance compliance.
He has told me that as more data starts to flow in from tracks, especially NYRA, that the breakdown and injury statistics have had NO significant change since these rules went into effect.
Something I pretty much proved in my 8 yr report.