Quote:
Originally Posted by cmorioles
As for the physical thing, if a horse has a problem, the vet should be able to verify it, right? If they can't, they should run. How hard is that? Obviously, you know better than I do, and the vet should be lean to the side of the horse safety. I have no problem with allowing scratches for surface changes. Hell, if enough scratch, just cancel the race. I'm not sure why it is set in stone that a race has to be run. Racing really needs to step in the 20th century, then maybe we can work on the 21st. I know there are P3s and P4s and more, but damn, just make them an all. Tracks get killed on those races, why are they forced to run them?
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The issue is that identifying a physical issue is rarely black and white. The state vets are already overrun with paperwork and the duties of their jobs as it is without having to attempt to verify illness or lameness. Not to mention that the really black and white cases arent the ones that wind up being scraped off of the track. It is the more subtle issues that are the issue. For example I had a filly that recently broke her maiden and after that got sick. Gave her about 10 easy days and she came back training great. Her race didnt go and we were in a holding pattern with her. Worked her the other day and she just didnt go as good as I would have liked to see. Not terrible, not lame, just not quite as good as before. Vet went over her and didn't find much, certainly no smoking guns. I passed on entering her a few days ago because I still wasnt happy with her and I am able to do that because she is owned by a great guy who gives me a lot of leeway. However had I not been suspicious or out of town or whatever, my assistant (or anyone really especially a trainer under pressure by their owners to run) may have felt she was good enough to enter (perhaps had she changed hands and they didnt know her as well) and she would have passed the vet check. AND if I had gotten cold feet tried to scratch her and there was a examination that the state vet did in order to verify lameness she most likely would have been found to be racing sound. Anyway we re-examined her yesteday and the vet said that perhaps we should xray her knees. Found the start of a hairline fracture that almost assuredly would have turned into a slab fracture had she run in a race. Of course we know that this is hardly the case in many scratches but does show the potential issues that may arise.