its a disaster waiting to happen..its a miracle they havent had one yet. There is talk of capping the field at 12 horses like the Breeders Cup Classic. This sport is in dire shape...people simply wont put up with horses being injured. Ive been a life long fan...but i simply cant stand to see the accidents. I know that they lose more off the track..at the farms, than they do racing, but its still awful. This sport never fully recovered after what happened to Ruffian in 1975..it is getting better..theres been alot of changes to the whips and their use..plus, they are starting to ultra sound all 4 limbs just prior to the race...NO EXCEPTIONS. It can be such an amazing sporting event..yet also the worst too...
14. 14 is standard limit because of starting gate capacity.
Blaming Ruffian is naive. Starting in the ‘70s people do not identify with horses. People who actually used them in their daily lives had died off, and their children who heard about it were getting older. The next gen had zero identification with horses and the downturn in attendance coincides with that.
People far overrate Ruffian in multiple ways, including this. She is not the reason people turned away from racing. It’s because people could no longer identify with the horse.