Santa Anita Shuts Down

[Dahossdaboss]

Originally Posted by davew

Why do maidens need to compete on it?

Why not? What is the rationale for not running maiden races down the hill?

[davew]

Originally Posted by Dahossdaboss

Why not? What is the rationale for not running maiden races down the hill?

They are more inexperienced. They take longer to load, are not used to running in heavy traffic, have larger fields, and generally are more apt to do something odd or unpredictable.


But you are correct, there is no rational for restricting the races on courses that cause the most problems. The impact values must be negligible since horses are going to have catastrophic breakdowns anyway.

[Dahossdaboss]

Originally Posted by davew

They are more inexperienced. They take longer to load, are not used to running in heavy traffic, have larger fields, and generally are more apt to do something odd or unpredictable.


But you are correct, there is no rational for restricting the races on courses that cause the most problems. The impact values must be negligible since horses are going to have catastrophic breakdowns anyway.

Sounds like you’d like to do away with the downhill course all together, despite what you said earlier.

I’d be interested in seeing the breakdown rate on the downhill course of maiden races and non maiden races. My opinion is the maiden races have fewer breakdowns, but maybe someone has the data. Would your opinion be the same if the breakdown rate is lower?

I know this, neither race where horses went down yesterday were maiden races. And of the 22 before the shutdown I think maybe 1 was on the downhill course if that. Your posts are an overreaction to what is going on.

[airford1]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

And yet, the 737 MAX is currently grounded due to public outcry.

Higher Kill rate per incident. I guess.

[taxicab]

So...
Where is this whole thing going now ?
I truly believe Santa Anita can't make an intelligent decision if it was staring them straight in the eye.
Can anybody on this board list one thing that TSG has gotten right since this gigantic mess began ?
In another post somewhere Dahoss called the SA brain trust "Belinda Stronach and her band of idiots"........nail meet head.
I just don't see this thing getting better as time goes on.........there's not a business out there that can survive when every decision maker at the top makes the wrong move over and over again........and that's exactly what the TSG is.
And they blew it again Friday.
On the first day back a trainer had a hot test.
What the band of idiots should of done is made it public,and banned the trainer on the spot to show they weren't messing around.
They didn't(what a surprise).
All they did was scratch all of his horses in the North/South over the weekend.
Just take a look at which barn had all of their horses scratched this weekend and you'll see who it is.
So where are Belinda and company at currently ?
TSG now has to jump through PETA/Politician hoops to stay open in California.....and it looks like PETA is calling for a synthetic track return @ Santa Anita.

[airford1]

I believe that Santa Anita is in a "Hope" plan now and that is not a business plan. Santa Anitas failure will carryover to the rest of Horse Racing.

[Fager Fan]

Originally Posted by taxicab

So...
Where is this whole thing going now ?
I truly believe Santa Anita can't make an intelligent decision if it was staring them straight in the eye.
Can anybody on this board list one thing that TSG has gotten right since this gigantic mess began ?
In another post somewhere Dahoss called the SA brain trust "Belinda Stronach and her band of idiots"........nail meet head.
I just don't see this thing getting better as time goes on.........there's not a business out there that can survive when every decision maker at the top makes the wrong move over and over again........and that's exactly what the TSG is.
And they blew it again Friday.
On the first day back a trainer had a hot test.
What the band of idiots should of done is made it public,and banned the trainer on the spot to show they weren't messing around.
They didn't(what a surprise).
All they did was scratch all of his horses in the North/South over the weekend.
Just take a look at which barn had all of their horses scratched this weekend and you'll see who it is.
So where are Belinda and company at currently ?
TSG now has to jump through PETA/Politician hoops to stay open in California.....and it looks like PETA is calling for a synthetic track return @ Santa Anita.

Can't you just tell us instead of making us go searching a bunch of charts for scratched horses?

[taxicab]

Originally Posted by Fager Fan

Can't you just tell us instead of making us go searching a bunch of charts for scratched horses?

No problem.
William E. Morey.
I wanted the post to focus in on the band of idiots.
TSG went on and on about how they wanted to protect the horses,clean up the medication abuse........do what's best for the safety of the horse........etc/etc.
And what happens ?
First card on the return,after the horsemen had been warned to keep it clean(optics don't ya know)..........needle play.
Ugh.

[taxicab]

From Friday.......DRF.

http://live.drf.com/nuggets/47471-sa...-morey-runners

[AlsoEligible]

Originally Posted by taxicab

TSG now has to jump through PETA/Politician hoops to stay open in California.....and it looks like PETA is calling for a synthetic track return @ Santa Anita.

Which will be hard for TSG to dodge, since there is empirical evidence that synthetic is safer. So if they're truly about putting the horse above all else, then what excuse can they come up with not to make a change?

PETA is also drawing a link between this latest breakdown and Lasix, another area where TSG shot themselves in the foot. Bad enough that they decided to make Lasix a scapegoat, but if you're going to make that claim, and issue a grand sweeping proclamation to ban it, then at least stick to it. Instead they caved within 48 hours....so now we've still got horses dying who are still on this drug that TSG said was an issue, and they have no answer on why they're still allowing it.

Originally Posted by castaway01

The problem is, "Breakdowns happen" is done as an excuse to the public. ... We need something better than "Horses always die" because that logic's going to lead to the end of racing through legislation and in the voting booth (rather than due to it's long-discussed natural death from lack of interest). Honestly, we should be able to do better.

This post is 100% spot on. Too bad Tim Ritvo isn't listening:

“This is going to have a ripple effect everywhere,” [Ritvo] said. “Unfortunately, I’d like to say a horse death will never happen again, but it will. It seems with each one of these, the outcry gets stronger and stronger."

https://www.latimes.com/sports/more/...401-story.html



Yeah, no shit Tim. And as long as the response is "it'll happen again, I don't know what else we can do", it sure as hell isn't going to stop. All that's doing is giving PETA more leverage to make demands under public pressure. Oh, you don't know what to do? Here, try banning whips, meds, switch to synthetic...who knows what's next.

The number of own goals that California has kicked in the past month has been ****ing astounding to watch. No doubt in my mind, voters in 2020 are just going to throw up their own green tarp and put this incompetent industry out of its misery. Part of me will be relieved to see it, even if it means finding new work.

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally Posted by AlsoEligible

No doubt in my mind, voters in 2020 are just going to throw up their own green tarp and put this incompetent industry out of its misery. Part of me will be relieved to see it, even if it means finding new work.

Christ man, give it a freakin' rest.

The sky isn't going to fall, no matter how much you want it to.

[AlsoEligible]

I’m sure a bunch of guys at greyhound tracks in Florida were saying the same thing two years ago. If you don’t think the same thing can happen in the most populous (and liberal) state in the country, I don’t know what to tell you.

We’re a month away from the time of year when racing gets its biggest spotlight, and we’re already on the front page of ESPN, CNN, NBC, ABC, Fox News, NYT, Washington Post, etc...for all the wrong reasons. But sure, everything’s fine.

[cutchemist42]

https://pullthepocket.blogspot.com/2...l?spref=tw&m=1

Pull the pocket article on Google Trends about the news.

I think people are being naive if they dont think theres a chance the sport is voted out of existence in California.

Like I've said before, in this day and age it's good racing isn't mainstream as there are many that would be disgusted with the "normal" breakdown rate.

[Fager Fan]

Originally Posted by taxicab

No problem.
William E. Morey.
I wanted the post to focus in on the band of idiots.
TSG went on and on about how they wanted to protect the horses,clean up the medication abuse........do what's best for the safety of the horse........etc/etc.
And what happens ?
First card on the return,after the horsemen had been warned to keep it clean(optics don't ya know)..........needle play.
Ugh.

Thanks.

[Dahossdaboss]

Originally Posted by AlsoEligible

Which will be hard for TSG to dodge, since there is empirical evidence that synthetic is safer. So if they're truly about putting the horse above all else, then what excuse can they come up with not to make a change?

PETA is also drawing a link between this latest breakdown and Lasix, another area where TSG shot themselves in the foot. Bad enough that they decided to make Lasix a scapegoat, but if you're going to make that claim, and issue a grand sweeping proclamation to ban it, then at least stick to it. Instead they caved within 48 hours....so now we've still got horses dying who are still on this drug that TSG said was an issue, and they have no answer on why they're still allowing it.



This post is 100% spot on. Too bad Tim Ritvo isn't listening:



https://www.latimes.com/sports/more/...401-story.html



Yeah, no shit Tim. And as long as the response is "it'll happen again, I don't know what else we can do", it sure as hell isn't going to stop. All that's doing is giving PETA more leverage to make demands under public pressure. Oh, you don't know what to do? Here, try banning whips, meds, switch to synthetic...who knows what's next.

The number of own goals that California has kicked in the past month has been ****ing astounding to watch. No doubt in my mind, voters in 2020 are just going to throw up their own green tarp and put this incompetent industry out of its misery. Part of me will be relieved to see it, even if it means finding new work.

So what is the solution? Synthetic tracks, no lasix and no whips?

After the first horse breaks down and PETA has its leverage again than what should be said?

The reality is it’s always going to happen. IMO that is where TSG and horse racing in general has missed the boat. It comes down to honesty.

I’d love to see an industry leader (whatever the hell that is) say, “ Look, as much as we hate it, breakdowns are an unfortunate reality of the sport. But, what we are committed to do is limit them as much as possible by initiating these measures. We love horses, they are our family. We are going to do everything in our power to keep them safe so they can continue to do what they were bred to do.”

The public is clueless. They get sound bites and twitter messages and run with it. The truth is no matter how clean the sport is and how safe a surface, we are always going to have breakdowns. The only way to stop it, is to ban horse racing all together.

NASCAR wasn’t banned after Dale Earnhardt died. But what the industry did was get together and put together safety measures in place to try and prevent it from happening again. Real measures, not smoke and mirrors nonsense like TSG did with lasix and whips.

Maybe the industry should get together and realize what is happening in California can be turned into a positive thing where actual change happens. Change a lot of people have called for, for a long time. Or....it can be the beginning of change none of us want to see.