Holy Crap

[JR]

Really! Shows how much I know. Thanks for the update.

[sighthound]

Another thing to consider, is that running turf is different, both in style and stress on the animal, than running on a constructed dirt over a base track.

The lowest breakdown rate anywhere has always been about 0.5%.  That may be the \"baseline\" rate that will never go lower.  Of course we should always try and protect the horse first.  

It\'s really not too difficult a business model:   expensive horses with big name trainers have richer owners, that tend to be hobby owners, that spend money they earn elsewhere on health care and sports medicine.  Cheap horses do not have that luxury of indulgent trainers and owners with big pocketbooks, and are also responsible directly for literally paying the feed bill on a monthly basis.

[TGJB]

Banning and stopping use of are two different things. Milkshakes were banned in Ky in the late 90\'s. They began testing for them in 2006. Pennsylvania I discussed yesterday.

[magicnight]

The amount of clueless, fact-free assertions that have been been posted here about Monday\'s story in the Times is rather ironic, to say the least.

\"Why not right this story last month if you are really concenrned about Horse Safety?\"

Did you miss this story? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all It ran on the front page of the Times on March 25, 2012.

\"Its to sell papers this week to people who would not otherwise buy perhaps? After all its all business in the end of the day\"

Yes, Tony. The Times bought three years worth of race charts and had some of their best people spend months analyzing the data so they could make a fortune selling some extra copies of Monday\'s paper. If you think writing stories about the mistreatment of horses in a paper that sells for $2.50 a pop is the way to spike your numbers you have zero clue about what drives newsstand sales.

\"Stop the DRUGS STUPID!!! Don\'t Race UNSOUND HORSES...\"

Did you even SEE the article? On page A12, in between the headlines that say \"One Horse, One Week of Injections\" and \"Big Casino Purses Help Push Hurting Horses to the Limit\" is a six-inch high graphic covering the width of the page, showing seventeen hypodermic needles representing the drugs that one horse received in a one-week period. Sheesh!

[NoCarolinaTony]

Jerry You missed the point copmpletely.

I know your politico leanings - its really not about that.

If the author was so concerned about the horse, then write the story sooner rather then waiting for Derby week point.Maybe we could have had action sooner? Seems like something was done after the story was written. Maybe we could have saved just one more animal.

PETA is an extremist organization period. The Michael Gill Penn National Story is Old news...why bring it up now and Make it part of this?

[NoCarolinaTony]

Ok The article I read was dated April 30, 2012. What are you talking about?

And yes I agree we need to stop using the drugs on Animals just to get them race.

[sighthound]

And out of those 17 drugs, tell me which ones are potentially harmful, and which are not, but are only good routine medical care of an athletic horse.

That photo is only there for ghastly shock value.  And frankly, I doubt they were all actually given in one week.  Maybe over a month.

[TGJB]

Tony-- You don\'t know my political \"leanings\". You\'re right it\'s not about political leanings, but you\'re the one that brought political leanings up.

You didn\'t call PETA an extremist organization, you called them \"left of center\". There are plenty of extremists who are not left of center. Ask those who knew people at the building McVeigh blew up, or the abortion clinic in Kansas. And that\'s true whatever your or my \"leanings\" are, or what anyone thinks of the issues involved.

I try to lean objective.

[sighthound]

I think we can all agree that PETA is an FBI-listed domestic terrorist organization that has funded blowing up buildings, right?

[NoCarolinaTony]

I am not getting any of this.

I don\'t disagree, there is an Increase in Aqueduct beakdowns, but this (breakdowns) has been going on throughout the industry for years, for many reasons. Not all due to Drugs, but the majority of those that happened at Aqu seem to have (a one year data point) and we have jumped to the conclusion that it\'s the purse structure thats doing that. Probably right, but not scientifically proven. You\'d have to see all the data on all the breakdowns etc

When Synth/Poly became all the rage, it was put in to prevent Horse Breakdowns back then. Now we are talking about more breakdowns only because it happens to be in NEW YORK, since thats where unless it happens there, no one seems to give a rats behind. When all the breakdowns were happeneing at Santa Anita and all many of the other Cali tracks, The State madated each track  put in Synthetic surfaces, with the intention of it being to prevent breakdpowns.

Breakdowns keep occuring. I agree Increasing the purses for Low Level Claimers and Keeping unsound Horses running is a valid Point. My only poorly stated Point is, this is not really a New Issue. Its been happening for quite some time, now we only seem to care in 2012. It only seems to matter if it happens in New York.

[NoCarolinaTony]

I really dont get it Jerry.

Ok you win. Your Sight, Your Right.

The New Yor Times Is Objective.

[sighthound]

We know the article was written to capitalize on Derby week.  Yes, the Michael Gill stuff is old news.  What I object to, with Joe Drapes writing over the years, is that he seems more interested in eliminating horse racing rather than fixing or helping it.  He doesn\'t seem a fan of the sport at all when he writes about it.

Here\'s what I\'d like to see for racing.  A national organization that oversees the rules like NFL.  Two seats on the board elected by trainers, two by jockeys, two by owners, two by breeders, two by track owners and managers.   Then a President, VP, Secretary, Treasurer elected at large.  All vote but the President, who only votes for ties.

It will never happen, because the individual states will not give up their power or fifedoms.

[magicnight]

Dang, you have been spending a lot of time on the golf course. Envious! Good for you!

The link I provided was to a similar story the NYT ran on 3-25-12 which - you may find this hard to believe - caused an even bigger stink than did Monday\'s article.

[sighthound]

Isn\'t there supposed to be another article in the series next week, too?

[magicnight]

Sight, I was only pointing out that the \"It\'s the drugs, stupid!\" was in fact a big part of Monday\'s article. Agree the visual was intended to make a impact and I will not claim to know the risks and benefits associated with any of those drugs.

I will add, if the purpose of good journalism is to get people talking about important subjects in a substantive way, I think these articles have been extremely effective.