Triple Crown hopeful Barbaro loses... Seriously injured during race

I, too, immediately thought of beautiful brave Ruffian

I cannot think about Ruffian or re-read her story without crying my eyes out. It was the first time I ever got physically ill over an event. There was a time when I loved thoroughbred racing because of the horses. Really loved it. But over time, and I guess as the rose-colored glasses of my youth gave way to adult disillusion, I came to know the hard, brutal side of it.

The cold hard reality is that horses are just commodities to most people in the business. They aren't even called he or she, but it. They are a commodity. Nothing more, nothing less. When their racing days are over, the best runners get a chance at life on a breeding farm. Some are lucky enough to be bought for use in other sports, or for pleasure riding. A few are rescued by caring people and allowed to live out their lives in peace. Most, however, go to be slaughtered for dog food and other products. The same thing eventually happens even to top stallions and mares if they don't produce at stud.

Want proof? Exceller was a top Champion who did not produce, was sold for stud in Sweden and wound up being sent to the slaughterhouse. Go here for more information.

The connections of Barbaro may or may not love him, but they are trying to save him for stud because of the millions of dollars involved. But what if he doesn't become a top stallion? What happens to him then, when the TV lights are long gone? Although it was investigated but never proved, it is widely believed that the great, famous racehorse and stallion, Alydar, was killed by his owners to get the insurance money in an effort to save Claiborne Farm. (These things are hard to prove. How do you prove that, as in Alydar's case, the horse broke his hind leg kicking his stall vs. someone taking a sledge hammer to it?)

Yesterday, in the winners circle on national TV, Frank Stronach unwittingly gave the game away when he rather coldly said, "That's horse racing." Like...shrug. (Stronach, a Canadian and member of Canada's Liberal Party, is one of the biggest powers in thorougbred racing these days. Go here to read a short bio.)

Well, yes, it is horse racing. But the problem I have is that almost everyone in the industry stops there. They rarely go the next step and ask, "How can we improve it?"

Why don't people like Stronach and the Arabs who won yesterday's Preakness (with a Kentucky-bred horse they bought) use their wealth and modern technology to fund research into new safety methods? Maybe track surfaces could be improved to better absorb the shock of hoof strikes. Maybe research would develop new leg wraps that would help support and protect horses' legs, kind of the way pads and helmets protect football players, and the HANS device protects racecar drivers by preventing severe whiplash and neck shear injuries. Maybe organized methods could be developed to provide good post-career homes for horses. Maybe the working conditions of grooms, hot-walkers and the other "little" people who are the backbone of the sport could be improved.

It's not just the safety of horses that's at stake, but the safety of jockeys and exercise riders. And for the money men and women who run the sport, think of the PR value.

Sigh. It's like talking to a wall in that sport.

I don't think it's like talking to a wall, I think, contrary to your post, there are consequences to some of the things you suggest, and some may actually be a detriment.

First of all, a horse's hoof is designed to run on fairly firm turf or dirt. Make it too soft, and they pull ligaments... make it too bouncy, and it changes the way they move. The keepers of tracks are constantly monitoring the surface, grooming it to the best it can be.

Secondly, while wraps can help, they can also hinder. The horse's foot and bone is designed and strengthened by a firm hard landing. Support them from those impacts, and the structures don't grow as strong. Most of the benefit of wraps some horses wear is not in support, but in protection from striking injuries where they strike one leg with the other as they run.

I'm not a vet, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night, but I am a horsewoman, and on those two issues, I know it's more complicated than just wrapping them in bubble wrap and football pads and running them on rubber mats.

They need to run in order to have the strength to run, but there is always danger with horses. Overall, in response to your post, I would propose that the lives of horses have never been better, and the thought about how to prevent and heal injuries never more advanced.

Yes, they are a working animal, and yes, racing barns, like any sport horse barns, are in it for success and money, not charity, but there are in fact people within those industries always watching for overt abuse, fraud or cruelty, and there are charitable movements within and around horses always working to save those who suffer.

The fact that some race horses end up at slaughter is a sad fact, but no sadder than the fact that many former backyard pets and pleasure horses end up there too. It's a tragedy that is to our shame, the way we do not all give horses the retirement or humane end they deserve after their service is over.

The fact is the horse was well made by God or evolution to run, and pads and wraps can sometimes help, but often times they hinder. The fact is catastrophic breakdown like this is rare, and it's rare because the horses are better suited, and the safety much higher, than you would represent with your outlook. More common are wear and tear injuries that are slower to develop and less obvious to detect. It's often a guessing game, to balance the need to condition with the need to rest. Horses are by nature very stoic, with a tolerance and instinct to hide pain that makes keeping them in top form as much art as science.

I have a 24 year old gelding who has navicular symptoms he tries to hide from me. It's not easy to know exactly when and how to treat him, but the fact is, I want him to work as long as he can happily do so. And he'll be better for continuing to work than he would be left to rest. Movement is health, to a horse. He's a lucky one. I will continue to feed him and care for him as long as he wants to live, but not everyone can do that, and not all feel they have a responsibility to keep a horse that can't work. They are still livestock and a working animal, much more dependent on their health to remain useful than a mere pet.

Still, while some people will always do wrong, over all, life has never been better for the horse than it is now. In your grief, don't let emotion cloud your perspective.

I'm not a vet, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night, but I am a horsewoman, and on those two issues, I know it's more complicated than just wrapping them in bubble wrap and football pads and running them on rubber mats.

I'm talking about RESEARCH, not just slapping any old wraps on them, or changing racing surfaces willy nilly. Let me give you one example of what I'm talking about. Secretariat died at the comparatively young age of 19 (born 1970-died 1989) because he got laminitis and they had to put him down due to his suffering. Penny Chenery, his owner, established a perpetual fund (at New Bolton, I believe) for research into developing a cure for laminitis. At the height of his career, Secretariat, his name and likeness were copyrighted. A portion of all proceeds of the sale of Secretariat memorabilia now go to that research fund. Someday, thanks to her love for that horse, her generosity, and her willingness to fund research, perhaps a horse of yours will be cured of laminitis.

If more people in the sport did something along those lines, who knows what breakthroughs might occur. Better still, if the wealthy people who are involved created some kind of joint venture to fund research, not only would the horses benefit, but so would they and all other people involved in the sport.

If we just want to look at the cold, hard bottom line, what happened yesterday is yet another black eye to a sport many people think is dying. The public relations value of funding research into safety improvements as a response to what happened to Barbaro would be immense.

Lastly, there's something very off-putting to me about the way you insist on rationalizing the attitude that it's a sport and injuries happen. We could say that about almost anything.

It's child birth. Some women and babies die.
It's driving. Accidents happen.
It's cancer. People die.
It's baseball. Sometimes the pitch hits the batter in the eye.
It's football. Sometimes players get hit wrong and break their necks.

Hopefully you get the point. The idea is to not just shrug and say bad things happen, let's move on. Like I told you yesterday, the idea is to say bad things happen, but how can we try to mitigate and minimize, if not prevent them from happening. Thankfully, in many areas of human experience there are people willing to do more than shrug and say "it happens."

The disconnect in thoroughbred racing as opposed to ANY other sport I can think of, is they stop with the shrug. They never take the next step to looking for ways to mitigate, minimize and hopefully prevent.

You talk about advances in veterinary care for race horses. I don't deny that whatsoever. But most advances have been in the form of drugs to keep them running, not to prevent or mitigate injuries at their source.

Oh, I give up on you and this conversation. Like I said. A brick wall.

If you're determined to think no one is concerned about this stuff except you, then I guess you'll see what you want to see. My point is "take comfort, many many people are doing what you want to see happen." You're insisting the glass is half-empty because you're sad about this awful accident. You throw things out there like "the surface isn't safe and no one cares" and that's just not true. Lots of people care about the track surface, including the people who's business it is to run races. The truth is, the glass is half full and getting fuller all the time. This catastrophic injury is rare, and the level of veterinary technology available to help Barbaro now surpasses that available for people in some parts of the world. Life is very very good for horses, even race horses.

BTW, there is no cure for laminitis. Laminitis didn't 'kill' Sectretariat, if that's what happened to him... rather, he was put down because of extreme foot pain. Laminitis is a symptom of diet and metabolic overdoses that can happen to any horse. It's caused by too much grass or grain, and sometimes as a reaction to certain medications. It's not a 'disease' that can be cured. Money, if spent on research, would be to study diet and nutrition and educate horse owners to manage pasture exposure, and how to repair the damage that's done to the foot when it happens, but not to 'cure' it.

>Want proof? Exceller was a top Champion who did not produce, was sold for stud in Sweden and wound up being sent to the slaughterhouse. Go here for more information.<

This is an ugly outcome, but what do you propose doing with animals who cannot pay their way and who no longer have people willing or capable of paying the bills?

Ferdinand was sent to slaughter in Japan after he, too, failed as a stallion. This is not pretty. Many horses now sold overseas go with a buy-back clause to spare them this fate.

Gato Del Sol was repatriated from Germany at the end of his stud career by Arthur Hancock, his original breeder.

>get the insurance money in an effort to save Claiborne Farm. (These things are hard to prove. How do you prove that, as in Alydar's case, the horse broke his hind leg kicking his stall vs. someone taking a sledge hammer to it?) <

Trouble yourself to get your facts correct. Alydar had no association with Claiborne Farm, but was bred by and stood at stud at Calumet Farm.

If you want to understand the depth of feeling generated by what happened to Alydar, note that horse people refer to what happened as "murder", as they would to a human.

>Well, yes, it is horse racing. But the problem I have is that almost everyone in the industry stops there. They rarely go the next step and ask, "How can we improve it?"<

Baloney with garlic.

>Why don't people like Stronach and the Arabs who won yesterday's Preakness (with a Kentucky-bred horse they bought)<

The Maktoum brothers have spent somewhere in the neighborhood of a billion dollars on Thoroughbreds. Before sneering at them, do some homework. Bernardini is one of their homebreds, NOT a purchase.

I have read so much ill-informed hogwash in the wake of Barbaro's breakdown. "I care and YOU don't" gets annoying fast.

the surface isn't safe and no one cares

I never said any such thing. I also never said laminitis killed Secretariat or that there is presently a cure for the disease. If you're going to quote someone, at least get it right. You apparently read what you want to read.

Here is what I said about Secretariat and laminitis:

Secretariat died at the comparatively young age of 19 (born 1970-died 1989) because he got laminitis and they had to put him down due to his suffering.
Someday, thanks to her love for that horse, her generosity, and her willingness to fund research, perhaps a horse of yours will be cured of laminitis.

Perhaps a cure for laminitis will never be found, but I sure as heck would not take your word for it.

Lastly, since you want to make this personal, you wrote, "If you're determined to think no one is concerned about this stuff except you..." You seem determined to poo-poo anything negative. Only happy talk will do. What are you? The social secretary for the Jockey Club? Sheesh!

Alydar had no association with Claiborne Farm, but was bred by and stood at stud at Calumet Farm.

You are right. I wrote in haste and a bit of anger. Anytime I think of Secretariat, as I have been on these threads yesterday and today, Claiborne is in my mind also.

If you want to understand the depth of feeling generated by what happened to Alydar, note that horse people refer to what happened as "murder", as they would to a human.

So other than my mistake regarding Claiborne vs. Calumet, you don't deny the essential truth of what I wrote about Alydar. I don't give a fig that horse people refer to what happened to him as "murder." Big effing deal! I'm more interested in what they are doing about trying to improve things. Why are several people here trying to argue, essentially, that the status quo is OK?

One of the most prominent handicappers in the sport, Andrew Beyer, had this to say in his DRF column this morning:

For a sport that struggles to attract new fans and retain its old ones, the events at Pimlico could not have been more devastating. Those of us who remember Ruffian know how such a calamity can affect the national psyche. Racing was riding high in the mid-1970's after Secretariat swept the Triple Crown. And in the wake of Secretariat appeared a charismatic and electrifying fast filly. Ruffian dominated members of her own gender before her match race against Foolish Pleasure, the colt who had won the Kentucky Derby. It was a battle of the sexes that galvanized the nation, and when Ruffian snapped her leg after running an eighth of a mile, the nation recoiled in horror. After the filly was euthanized, countless would-be fans turned away from the sport.
Regardless of Barbaro's ultimate fate, many fans in 2006 will have the same reaction as their counterparts in 1975. They will find it difficult to watch a Thoroughbred race or muster enthusiasm for the sport for a long, long time.

The ONLY thing I have been saying is, instead of leaving it there, maybe modern technology and research will lead to improvements in safety. No one will ever know unless they try.

Also on tape is the fact that Barbaro was moving normally until the injury happened. Actual horsemen notice these things.

The vet did not ask the jockey to dismount. He did not ask an assistant trainer to walk and jog the horse. He did not feel the horse's legs for signs of swelling or bruising. Both Edgar Prado and another jockey said they heard the first break within steps of the start of the race. It took Prado another couple of hundred feet to stop the horse.

Was the initial fracture a coincidence that had nothing to do with the false start? We'll never know. Am I blaming the track personnel for re-loading the horse right away without a vet examining him. No. Hindsight is always 20-20.

As for actual horsemen and what they notice, they are not the problem for the sport. The problem for the sport is all those non-horsemen eyes watching on TV across the country.

>The ONLY thing I have been saying is, instead of leaving it there, maybe modern technology and research will lead to improvements in safety. No one will ever know unless they try.<

Racing is like life. You don't know until you try. And like life, there are no guarantees.

Also like life, it helps to do your homework first instead of slinging around emotional verbiage, much of incorrect, much of it ill-informed. Emotions are easy. Getting the facts and understanding them takes more trouble.

Yes, racing has a PR nightmare. Americans want everything safe, clean, sanitary, and cheap. And they want it NOW, without effort, without patience. They like to emote. They cannot be bothered with the details.

Why is it so important to you to argue against it?

I haven't argued against it. Lets just back off a little and think about what the other is saying. I will if you will, deal? I've never said no one should invest in safety. What I'm arguing with you is about whether you are the only one who cares, because you're not. And I take issue that no one in the industry ever tries to improve safety, because lots of people are making constant improvements in safety.

You barely know enough about horse health and welfare to know a risk or a safety improvement if you saw one. You're reacting on the emotions from a tragic accident. People who do know, and are interested in safety for horses and riders, are in fact also watching these events and will learn from these events. I am interested to find out what THEY discover based on facts, not what YOU speculate might be better based on nothing but your own intuition. My only issue with you has been to stop casting this wide net of disdain for people in the sport of horses as categorically uninterested in the safety and welfare of their animals. It's not true. You and I would agree on everything but for this silly blame game you've been playing since minutes after this incident.

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