More Positive Racing News From Mountaineer

[Rupert Pupkin]

'Industrial Scale' Slaughter of Australian Racehorses Revealed

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mass-sl...004101570.html

[Kasept]

Because they can't help but operate in an underhanded manner, a put up job by PETA. To quote Turo Escalante, "What a surprise"..

I give Vickie Keith of the National Thoroughbred Welfare Organization a lot of credit. She said fix was in from the outset.

From DRF..

[knickslions2]

Big surprise. PETA is nothing but a collection of uneducated scumbags.

[Dahoss]

Obviously PETA is despicable but does it really change anything? Why are we celebrating that PETA might have staged the photo? Anyone pay attention to Mountaineer at all and some of the nonsense going on there? I’m no Pat Cummings fan but he sums it up pretty well here.

https://www.paulickreport.com/news/t...ide-nightmare/

Frankly, PETA has an even bigger voice now because of the disaster at Santa Anita this winter that was handled about as poorly as a situation can be handled. Hollendorfer still can’t run horses in his name in New York or at any TSG track. You couldn’t walk into Saratoga this summer without being met by protestors. The CHRB covering up Justify’s positive, regardless of how inconsequential it was. Should I go on? Sure most horses are treated well, but too many are not. Where is the outrage from the industry leaders (whoever they might be) to take a stand?

When is the time to acknowledge things have been getting worse? I’m not sure putting our guard up works anymore. There is a lot of good in the game but pretending the bad doesn’t exist seems shortsighted. I don’t have many answers but I also don’t make a living in the sport. I just love it and have for over half of my life. I participate in it with my hard earned money but even I am beginning to wonder at what cost? Whenever anything bad is brought up, the answer can’t be “but we do this good.” It has to be “we can and will do better,” and then doing better.

Kudos to Santa Anita for doing better, but it took a monumental crisis for it to happen. Sorry for the ramble but if a lifer like myself questions his own participation sometimes, what does that say about others? Those of you that know me know how I feel about racing. I just want it to be better. The horses and all who participate deserve it.

[Kasept]

What's your solution Hossy? Close all the C tracks? Propose something.

By the way, understand that these frantic calls to create a general panic aew all designed to do one thing: Feed into the Jockey Club glee for their ill-conceived 'Integrity Act', USADA and an undermining of the state regulators. Good luck to everybody with that plan that horseplayers will be 'asked' (made) to pay for.

[Dahoss]

Your response is EXACTLY what I’m taking about Steve.

Why do I need to propose something? Am I being paid by the industry? How about holding the people that get paid for this stuff accountable and not a bettor like myself? Where are their solutions?

Your inclination to bite back anytime something negative is said just pushes people like me away who have spent a long time and a lot of my money in this game. Haven’t I earned the right to be disgusted by some of the stuff that I see?

I appreciate and understand that you like to look at and highlight the positives. But it’s okay to acknowledge that everything isn’t always rosey.

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by Dahoss

Your response is EXACTLY what I’m taking about Steve.

Why do I need to propose something? Am I being paid by the industry? How about holding the people that get paid for this stuff accountable and not a bettor like myself? Where are their solutions?

Your inclination to bite back anytime something negative is said just pushes people like me away who have spent a long time and a lot of my money in this game. Haven’t I earned the right to be disgusted by some of the stuff that I see?

I appreciate and understand that you like to look at and highlight the positives. But it’s okay to acknowledge that everything isn’t always rosey.

Bite back? I'm just asking you for input.

[ScottJ]

Originally Posted by Kasept

What's your solution Hossy? Close all the C tracks? Propose something.

Let's consider Barrier Trials. Rather than gate drills or workouts, use Barrier Trials to establish a minimal level of competition that must be met for horses that have been off the track for 12+ months. This would prevent the uncompetitive situations cited in the article by mandating that reasonable racing standards (perhaps ~50-51 seconds for 4f) can be met.

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by Kasept

By the way, understand that these frantic calls to create a general panic aew all designed to do one thing: Feed into the Jockey Club glee for their ill-conceived 'Integrity Act', USADA and an undermining of the state regulators. Good luck to everybody with that plan that horseplayers will be 'asked' (made) to pay for.

I agree that there are several concerns with the proposed federal legislation, but the current system of state regulation is not working and needs to be overhauled or, at a minimum, improved dramatically. Of the four most significant racing jurisdictions (New York, Kentucky, California, Florida), how many of their racing boards are doing an adequate job of oversight? Not a majority. And things don't get better with many of the smaller jurisdictions.

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by parsixfarms

I agree that there are several concerns with the proposed federal legislation, but the current system of state regulation is not working and needs to be overhauled or, at a minimum, improved dramatically. Of the four most significant racing jurisdictions (New York, Kentucky, California, Florida), how many of their racing boards are doing an adequate job of oversight? Not a majority. And things don't get better with many of the smaller jurisdictions.

It's definitely a mixed bag of adequate, passive, zealous, overzealous, indifferent.

One element of the state regulatory body discussion that is difficult to navigate is the political appointee v. industry participant. People attack agencies like California/CHRB over the abundance of interest-conflicted, but there's equal disdain for bureaucrat functionaires who land on commissions and are without a clue about what they're commissioning. So, what's the answer?

Florida, bizarrely, has virtually no commission and is regularly the most difficult place to get things like the model rules initiative implemented.

ARCI does the best job it can to promote responsible, active regulation. Understand first and foremost that the states are not going to relinquish their control because it means a loss of significant revenues. And you have to work within those parameters to shore up deficiencies in the jurisdictions.