No easy answers
 

I wonder if the 'barista asking questions' is the same one that always gets Graham Motion's name wrong..

Bill Parcells and Melanie Giddings had an easy answer Sunday. They were on the sales grounds looking at yearlings to buy tonight.

If you're involved in the game and don't have the ability to provide explanation to outsiders that legitimately inquire, then you lack the conviction or passion to be involved.

As for moral responsibility concerns, as a point of reference, while Saturday's card was being run about 800 veal calves, aged 14-16 weeks and kept tethered to limit muscle strength, were slaughtered for francaise and scallopini. Then another 800 Sunday.. and today.. and tomorrow.

Also, an estimated 5,000 Premarin mares in North America remain imprisoned, forcibly pregnant and immobile for their harvested urine for estrogen replacement therapy, their foals a by-product sold for meat.

But please go on about moral responsibility and the ever-decreasing number of horses that die in competition.. now less than 400 a year.

After that impressively self-important opening salvo (her job is to tell us what's what...in iambic pentameter, apparently...), all we got was a big ol' nothing burger.

And yet she was on the threshold of a door that could have led to at least some semblance of an "answer" when she made the observation that breakdowns almost never happen because of one bad step but that the trainer Giddings would never push the envelope (which looking at it from a strictly objective angle is a bit presumptuous IMO).

But let's just take it for granted that the trainer didn't ignore any obvious signs of physical problems. Given that, if a breakdown is almost always preceded by a pre-existing lesion then in many cases the signs of impending injury are either very subtle, transient, or subclinical & therefore very difficult to detect. Had Voss followed this line of reasoning, she could have segued into campaigning for the need for the widespread use of advanced diagnostic imaging currently available (& sometimes required) in precious few jurisdictions around the world that have been shown to identify these previously "under the radar" hot spots.

But instead, she chose to be a drama queen. Not surprising to be honest, her "pieces" in the past year or so have been mostly wannabe investigative journalism focused on topics that tear down the sport as a whole. Pretty sure she thinks she's "trying out" for some mass media gig or something...

THX Rollo.. You're the tops.

And 100% on the disguised concern for game's well being as auditions for another gig.

Yeah, she is a champion of the oppressed.

" Horses went to the track this morning like always, although the people seemed a little quieter than usual. But the question that will always follow that is, should it be part of the game? And if you can't have one without the other, should you have both?"

What does this even mean? Is she saying horse racing should cease to exist? Things don't happen in a vacuum. If there were no horse racing there would be no reason to breed thoroughbreds and horses like Maple Leaf Mel and the thousands of others wouldn't even have a life. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she wrote that while still in the fog of that day.

Unlike people & small companion animals, horses are unable to cope easily with broken legs among many other insults (its the punchline of many a Far Side cartoon). This goes for any horse, wild or domesticated. It's an evolutionary thing, not a racehorse thing...

In a way, Voss's question is this: If horses are not capable of dealing with broken legs, should horses be allowed to exist?

That doesn't mean that we shrug our shoulders & accept breakdowns as "part of the game"...that's BS. Racehorses are exposed to stresses that put them "on the road" towards injuries. That has to do with the fact that they are athletes. This is something athletes of all types deal with by the very nature of athletic endeavor.

So in another way, Voss's question is this: If athletes are at a higher risk of injury than a non-athlete, should we have sports?

It's not "part of the game", it's part of the reality of horses & athletic pursuits, and people who deal with horses for a living should be educated & prepared in ways to identify & prevent scenarios where horses can be hurt or else they shouldn't be dealing with horses in the first place...

It's a bit scary that Voss--whose job it is to educate us & console us with poetry--doesn't recognize any of this.

This post and really this thread is why I consider you to be the greatest poster in message board history. That's a compliment, I promise.

There have been a lot of really funny people that have come and gone, some intentionally and some not so much. You're hilarious, but also smart as hell and you have the ability to convey what can be complicated things in a way idiots like me can understand.

:tro:

Where can I buy a Premarin cow for Antonella? The poor thing, not the cow, is experiencing a lot of internal Climate Change.

Thanks for the kind words. I much prefer coming up with cheap one liners & referencing Seinfeld but the sad fact is that most turf writers & many so called "horsemen" don't really have a clue about this sport (which makes it easy to tear them apart).

These message boards took a massive hit with the advent of social media but many left on here including yourself are much better handicappers than me & obviously care about the sport as much as I do, so there's always something new to pick up on.

Plus Freddy...

Have a heart

iOOOOOOO!

I laughed..

I will not be marginalized