This crap tht Moss is pursuing can potentially be more harmfull to the game than any horse breaking down. Think clearly for a second and realize that many of changes that he proposes are a one way street that cant be repaired. The banning of whips for example. Maybe the casual fan doent care for them but the betting public sure will. Get beat in a couple photos when your horse hangs and see how thrilled you are then. But Trever Denman and Jerry Bailey say so? Let them start betting or owning horses instead of just collecting paychecks and their opinions will count.
His use of Barbaro, George Washington and Pine Island as examples of recent famous breakdowns and the thought that the breed is too speed favoring is interesting. Especially considering that they are by Dynaformer, Danehill and Arch, none of which would be considered speed or unsound sires. Throw in the fact that Alysheba and Kris S are broodmare sires on 2 of them makes you wonder about how exactly you will "breed the stamina" back into them?
The lack of "worldwide diversity" is especially interesting since there is more of a mixture of blood throughout the world than ever. Stallions have been shuttling to both hemispheres from the US and Europe down to S. America and Australia and New Zealand. Being that the TB originated from 3 sires it is hard to see where that diversity would come from. Supposedly only the US has a problem with this yet foreign buyers flood our sales to buy American pedigrees.
Calling for sires and dams to be 5 or 6 ignores the economic realities that the vast majority of breeders face and potentially puts at risk horses back into training simply because there are very few owners that can carry a horse and its bills for 4 years or more. If you had a nice, young, well bred mare that happened to get injured in some unusual manner (kicking the wall of a stall, fence, etc) and she was hurt at 3 lets say. Well she would not be able to be bred till she was 6, would not foal till 7 would not have a yearling for sale till 8. Adding in insurance, stud fee and 8 years of care, who could or would do this? Or what about the horse that makes 2 starts per year for 3 years? Are they proving their soundness? Or mares that get some kind of sickness that scars the lungs where it is impossible for them to race? Just throw them out?
The push for the end of Lasix and steroids seems to be contradictory considering he calls the breed much weaker. Since we have such weak horses how exactly are we supposed to get them to run without any help? I will personally benefit greatly if Lasix were to be banned. Yet I can not support the idea because it is just a bad idea. Eliminating the medication doesnt eliminate the problem. Horses will still bleed, likely more will, leading to more layoffs, more owners bills, smaller fields and more form reversals. Sounds great. Naturally he trotted out the old, tired "Lasix may mask other meds" crap for effect, even though that is simply not true in 2008.
The thought that the suggestion of using the Horse racing Act of 1978 as a tool to force states to comply to medication rules is scary. That piece of legislation is the current lifeline of the industry and if it is used a instrument of blackmail once, the politicians will do it again. What about when the jockeys decide they are entitled to 15% of the purse and their lackey in Congress (Whitfield)threatens to withold the signals unless states and tracks comply to that? Or if the federal govt decides to pay for the testing of horses with a 5% tax on all wagers. Or worse? Getting the govt involved is a horrible mistake in any manner. If you think PETA is an opportunist group of scum (which they are) then Congress would really impress you.
I wont even get into the synthetic track thing.
I think it is funny how Dan Wetzel's article which was correct in a lot of ways was labeled junk yet Moss' was revered. Basically Wetzel was saying that this whole thing will blow over because racing is a big business, the hardcore fans are going to keep coming anyway and most of the casual fans at the "big events" are more concerned with drinking anyways . HE is mostly right, Moss is mostly wrong.
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