The oldest racetracks in the United States date back to the mid 19th Century--
Keeneland, Fair Grounds and Saratoga Race Course are still standing, and some
pretty grand facilities (and some pretty humble ones) have come and gone in
that time.
The breeding of thoroughbreds in this country, for the sake of argument, also
extends back to the early nineteenth century, possibly earlier on a smaller
scale.
Frank Whiteley\'s prime was probably just before racing caught my fancy, but in
the 1950s-60s-70s he laid his hands on some pretty impressive horseflesh: Tom
Rolfe, Damascus, Ruffian and Forego.
Lets say again for the sake of argument that breeding of performance equines
began in earnest in the year 1800-- a nice round number.
Between 1800 and 1980 the breed evolved, capped off by the Decade of Champions--
the 1970s, which featured three Triple Crown winners plus Alydar plus
Spectacular Bid (the Bid was denied the Triple Crown when defeated in the
Belmont by Coastal, trained by Frank Whiteley\'s son David). In England there was
the Minstrel and Nijinsky II, both of whom descended from the gritty little
Canadian, Northern Dancer.
One might say that horses were sounder during these golden years, but Forego
was far from a sound animal. The truth is that purses were smaller and trainers
had to keep horses in training to support themselves and their families and to
retain their owners.
In 1980, Leroy Jolley,unfazed by his first hand experience of seeing Ruffian\'s
demise, saddled Genuine Risk to upset colts in the 1980 Kentucky Derby.
The whole notion of improving the breed has been abandoned: Some of the results
of this abandonment: the perceived necessity of synthetic surfaces and some
very poor racing in the major venues. The abandonment of the notion of
improving the breed is what underlies all of the problems mentioned in the post
Derby threads relating to the mediocrity of this years 3YOs and the horrific
catastrophic breakdown of Eight Belles.
It could be argued by your train of logic that the Saudi Prince is not merely snapping up the best American breds to win races but to take care to breed them properly and keep the species from evolving with the weaknesses discussed. He has such a passion for them. I read an article last year that said something along those lines but dismissed it because I was feeling patriotic, and angry about losing another spectacular animal to the Prince. Maybe it is us Americans who need to change how we do things. It is my understanding that other countries do just fine with hay oats and water.
Very good post.
You are absolutely correct when you note that the goal of improving the breed has somehow been lost. In its place has come the quick money guys who breed for speed and two year in training sales, politicians and race track executives who only want to increase revenues, horses who can only withstand training/racing because of medications and breeding stock who earned their way to the breeding shed by virtue of their use of drugs. These drug dependent, speed bred horses then pass on their genetic failings to future generations.
It\'s funny you mention this because I am just getting started in the breeding business and our first mare just dropped her first foal (a gulch filly out of a touch gold mare for what it\'s worth).
Anyway, I visited the baby on the farm last week and the farm manager asked me what the plans were for the baby and when I said we were keeping her to race, she looked at me liked I had six heads. She said, \"that\'s so unusual these days.\"
Now, I have bought a bunch of horses out of the yearling and two year old in training sales so I am most certainly aware of how popular these sales have become but I guess I was still surprised that it was that unusual for a farm manager to hear that we are planning on breeding to race.
Girly:
I am on record as saying that the Sheikh could cure many ills in American
racing. I mount my prayer mat and face Mecca each day hoping this man, who
loves and appreciates the Throughbred, will somehow become involved beyond his
role as a horse owner.
Instead we have:
The bankrupt, oft indicted and still without a permanent deal NYRA.
The \"visionary\" Frank Stronach, who will soon join the other legendary penny
stock racetrack entrepreneur Robert Brennan as a Racing footnote.
The California gang, with their suspicious (to me) sudden rush to synthetic,
the controversy from which has neatly concealed the prevalence of performance
enhancing trainers on that circuit and who have IMO done Racing irreperable harm
by not switching back to dirt, at least for the next 2 BCs.
Some will feel uncomfortable with a major owner of racing stock having such an
influential role in Racing. Stronach has worn both hats, but has unfortunately
had more success as an owner/breeder than he has as a Racing pioneer. In olden
days, Mellon, Phipps, Vanderbilt, Whitney and others owned successful stables
while actively pursuing Racing\'s well being.
So, Girly,drop your political and cultural feelings at the door,
throw \"Midnight at the Oasis\" on the old Victrola, get down on your prayer mat
and repeat my mantra for the immediate improvement of American Racing:
\"Sheikh MO/ Sheikh MO/ Sheikh MO\"
Didn\'t he just buy a large property right next to Saratoga Track, with enough room for a practice track? Or was that his brother?
If history ever turns back in time, so that someone has a decent chance of making alot of money racing a horse, then we\'ll go back to having sounder horses.
When stallions were booked to 30-40 mares, obviously racing made more money.
Blame the widespread use of the efficient equine reproductive ultrasound on the demise of soundness - with it, mares can predictably be covered once, hours before ovulation, rather than twice or even three times in the spring.
That doubles or triples the number of mares that can be bred by a stallion for the same amount of time in the shed. Now increase the number of mares a bit more and why race at all?
Big purses, spread over a series of reasonably spaced races, are the answer to improving racing soundness. We\'ll not ever see that. Corporate sponsors are running forever from horse racing this week.
Anyway, RIP Frank Whiteley
Not sure that Keeneland dates back to the mid-19th century. I think Pimlico does.
Although Pimlico does not trigger romantic thoughts in the way the other old tracks do, it does have a certain blue-collar charm (and the crabcakes are pretty damn good).
Tying this back to Mr. Whiteley, I suspect that Pimlico held certain of his affections.
Personally, I am feeling a little nostalgic as we are coming up on 30th anniversary of the only time I have seen live a triple crown winner winning a triple crown race. Was at Pimlico in May 1978. Unfortunately, I was betting Believe It. Fortunately, my stakes were much lower in those days. I had no clue at the time how special the moment was and that 30 years later I would not have seen another bit of history like it. Also could not have in anyway contemplated writing about the experience to millions of strangers through something called the internet. In fact, I could not even imagine tote tickets being anything different than colorful mechanically punched pieces of paper off a magical roll of paper