Quote:
|
Originally Posted by RolloTomasi
Seeems to me, as opposed to dubious vague blood tests and garbage-riddled surfaces, all that's needed to decrease an excessive amount of breakdowns is to have more thorough pre-race examinations by the track vets (something that people assume already takes place, but in reality does not in many instances) and a more strict licensing procedure for trainers/assistant trainers with an emphasis on true horsemanship (as opposed to ability to read a condition book, a racing form, or medication withdrawals and guidelines). You can throw outlawing raceday medication in the mix if you want, but certainly judicious use of medication is more beneficial than harmful.
|
I believe that you are totally offbase in thinking that making it tougher to get a trainers license and a more thorough prerace exam is going to decrease breakdowns in any signifigant fashion. A trainer that has problems with moral and ethics isnt necessarily an incompetent horseman. I dont believe that the level of horsemanship is the reasons that there are breakdowns and I also dont know if there are any more breakdowns now than there were 20 years ago. And no one else does either.
The prerace checks in theory would be a greater deterrent. However there are factors in play here that would keep this from being true. First and foremost is that the vets that work for the commissions are rarely sharper than your attending vet. Simple economics dictates that a vet willing to work for what the commissions pay tends to lead you to believe that they arent the cream of the crop. Maybe they are a guy or girl that simply hasnt had a chance yet but in that case they are probably too inexperienced anyway. Not to mention they have no diagnostic tools at their disposal other than their hands and eyes. Every track that I run at now prerace checks the horses.