H. Allen Jerkens Memorial
 

What in the world is going on with all the breakdowns? Been a racing fan and handicapper for 40 years and I've never seen the likes of what we've witnessed this year. And, a lot of them in front of a national television audience.

Very sad day for horse rider,connections and the jerkins family and us.

Continually and recklessly breed spindly legged sires to spindly legged broodmares and guess what happens?

given the stock
 

Saratoga MUST plan to stop dirt racing

one of it's main focuses is 2 year olds, pushed to run as fast as they can

good on NYRA building a Tapeta surface at Belmont, this is the future but there's no way NYRA can say it is doing all it can if it continues running races on it's Saratoga dirt track (and it needs to add more drainage to the turf courses as well)

for me, in the meantime, I'm going to focus on Woodbine, where horses don't fall over themselves on a regular basis and millions of dollars gets wagered

and HK and Europe, where horses run on the turf and safety is more of a focus, and horses don't constantly breakdown in front of the fans of the future

EARLY SPEED FRACTIONS
 

I cannot disagree with your point on dirt racing in the US. My non racing friends see this stuff and I try to explain the problems with hard dirt, not synthetic, not grass and when horses like this one come in off sub 44 fractions, and they cannot be rated into hard dirt vs. turf or synthetic, it is going to happen and the reality is the deaths per 1,000 data is much better as has been calculated on synthetic for example. Moreover, the exposure on TV is just bad timing, but the faster runners in these sprints are more likely to be in expose races, so that is reality.

That was an extremely painful one for me following Maple Lear Mel and the breakdown earlier in the card. I'm still shaken. I'm not sure it's worth it for me anymore.

The times they are running on the dirt today are likely faster than any they’ve ran this meet, including the undercard races. Why they felt the need to soup up the track is mind boggling.

On the heels of the CD bloodbath, this game needs some serious changes.
I have little interest in it anymore.

I'm with you too - throw in Havnameltdown on the Preakness card. Brutal breakdowns in graded stakes races on national television- these aren't $4,000 claimers being run into the ground by unscrupulous owners, trainers and vets away from the general public. Their death counts too - this just puts it right in our, and the public's, face about the equine cost involved here.

This one really shook me up. It was too much too soon. I'm actually having a physical reaction. I'm sick to my stomach and felt fearful during the Ballerina when I should have been enjoying a great race.

You are right about the stake races too.

Even the 4K claimers count, but in the back of my mind I always felt like if we could improve the quality of racing and vet care over time we could eliminate a lot of this, but these are the best horses in the country and they are dropping like flies. It's brutal.

PETA doesn't need to do anything if the industry keeps shooting itself in the foot in front of a live national TV audience.

Same here. I think I'm just about done.

I felt like turning the TV off for the rest of the day, but my wife wanted to keep watching. There's an old saying in racing that slow horses don't get injured, it's the other ones. I don't know how true that is, but some horses seem like they're just too fast for their own good. Flightline was like that. When I watched him, I got nervous like I expected him to explode at any minute.

Make sure you let them know when the next breakdown is going to happen.

I wonder if retiring horses so early to the breeding shed is contributing to this? Could it be breeding infirmity? Especially retiring horses that don't race past 2.