bad day at CD

[MaTH716]

Why is ESPN running the news of the breakdowns on the sports ticker on the ESPN news channel? Does someone up there work for PETA? Or are they going to start reporting about every horse that breaks down, because if that's the case I didn't see the blurb about the horse that went down in the 2nd at Hollywood on Friday night. Just seems strange.

[Cannon Shell]

Made the cover of the Louisville Courier journal. The worst part about this kind of coverage is that despite any and all efforts to control drugs, breeding practices, etc these things will still happen on occasion.

[SilverRP]

So a horse has something wrong with him. Connections drop him, race him, he breaks down, and nothing will be done??

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by SilverRP

So a horse has something wrong with him. Connections drop him, race him, he breaks down, and nothing will be done??

Proving that something was wrong is the problem. The horse passed the pre race exam. If you can prove that a horse was injured prior to the race then you may have a point.

[Bigsmc]

Originally Posted by SilverRP

So a horse has something wrong with him. Connections drop him, race him, he breaks down, and nothing will be done??

What horse doesn't have something wrong with him/her? Every one of them has something wrong, some to a greater degree than others.

[10 pnt move up]

This is why its a big deal that racing better at least due its best to address, rather then the usual ignore and people will forget about it manor in which they seem to handle other issues.

The scroll on ESPN under the horse tab and on ESPN news was "two horses euthanized after breaking down at Churchill downs today" it gave the specifics as well but dont remember. Then it says "Sailors Cap wins 600k Colonial Turf Cup".

ESPN and all shows/sites care about ratings, they track that Big Brown loses the Belmont story and it gets 500k hits, then the story about Larry Jones having a drugged horse and it gets 750k....well you know where there coverage goes.

The congress can take up tons of important issues but if its something the public does not really care about then they will certainly bring up something that tugs at peoples emotions and this clearly does, and especially during an election year.

If horses keep breaking down on national TV and racing just has "panels" to discuss it, as they do with say the NTRA players panel and nothing ever happens, then this is going to get worse before it gets better. Just ask Barry Bonds and baseball how it worked out for them just trying to ignore the problem for decades.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by 10 pnt move up

This is why its a big deal that racing better at least due its best to address, rather then the usual ignore and people will forget about it manor in which they seem to handle other issues.

The scroll on ESPN under the horse tab and on ESPN news was "two horses euthanized after breaking down at Churchill downs today" it gave the specifics as well but dont remember. Then it says "Sailors Cap wins 600k Colonial Turf Cup".

ESPN and all shows/sites care about ratings, they track that Big Brown loses the Belmont story and it gets 500k hits, then the story about Larry Jones having a drugged horse and it gets 750k....well you know where there coverage goes.

The congress can take up tons of important issues but if its something the public does not really care about then they will certainly bring up something that tugs at peoples emotions and this clearly does, and especially during an election year.

If horses keep breaking down on national TV and racing just has "panels" to discuss it, as they do with say the NTRA players panel and nothing ever happens, then this is going to get worse before it gets better. Just ask Barry Bonds and baseball how it worked out for them just trying to ignore the problem for decades.

If you think that there is a solution to horses breaking down, I would love to hear it.

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

If you think that there is a solution to horses breaking down, I would love to hear it.

Certainly there is nothing that can completely eliminate the problem, but we could start with drug free race day medications. We all know horses are running when they should not be. Another thing that needs to be done is racing meets need to be scaled back and the yearly number of races run need to be reduced, so when horses are not running because they are in pain they are not forced to run to fill races. race tracks need to support these bans but a reason they put up with drugs is they need all these races to fill and if a little pain killer is needed I don't think they care as long as the races fill.

I think tracks is some states were allowed to get harder and harder, such as California, and in the long run led to training race horses for quarter horse speed which is not a good thing if you have to run more then four hundred yards.

I think trainers should be punished like they are in Hong Kong for drug violations.

I think its ridiculous that horses are hit 30 times down the stretch, its legal now but that does not make it right.

I think the breeding industry is a sham right now, its a meat market mentality that starts when they look at the pedigree match ups right through the two year old sales. I could go on and on.

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

If you think that there is a solution to horses breaking down, I would love to hear it.

The first thing they should do is not allow horses to race under medication. In countries like Germany it is not even possible to stand a stallion which has raced under medication even 1x.

If you need medication to race you shouldn't race. Right now very unsound horses can compete at all levels because they have medications to mask the pain.

Then you get unsound horses just producing more unsound horses.

Vindication was unsound and I assume he will produce plenty of unsound horses.