2019 Galloping Triple Crown thread

Happy Derby week, y'all.

But it's not happy times for the industry at large.

Horse Deaths Are Threatening the Racing Industry. Is the Sport Obsolete?

 

The answer to the question is yes.

I was watching an equestrian event from (I think) MSG on CBS Sports network yesterday and it occurred to me that you can indeed have horse-based sporting events that don't tend to kill off the competitors.

 

My brother, who can read the ink off a Racing Form, really likes By My Standards and Spinoff as horses who can not only light up the board in exotics but have a chance to win. He thinks Win, Win, Win can be a factor if it can overcome the bad starts it has been plagued with in the past - not a good trend in a huge field.

 

I'm picking Valentine
Cause on the morning line
The guy has got him figured at 5 to 9

 

Izenberg with a great story plucked from the time machine. Revisiting Justified and his jockey, Chris Antley.

Kentucky Derby 2019: For jockey and horse, there was triumph 20 years ago, then heartbreaking tragedy for both

 

Scratch Omaha Beach.

 

You can find cruel practices in any equine sport and there are some that have had issues with horse deaths (google eventing or endurance).

I think the difference is that these other horse sports are just that, where it’s more ego and competition that’s driving things, while thoroughbred racing truly is an industry today. There are tons of excellent horse people involved in racing, but it is also a business and, as such, the horses need to pay for themselves. This means racing them before their bones are fully formed, racing too frequently, the overuse of drugs. Running horses younger and in shorter races puts the premium on speed over endurance and the bone required to sustain horses in longer races. This in turn promotes a gene pool in American horses that favors less over more bone, which in turn produces a more breakable horse.

There also is a smaller market for retired or unsuccessful racing thoroughbreds than when I started riding. Almost everyone rode them back in the day. Today, warmbloods predominate in dressage, jumping and eventing, although I think if the US was still producing a lot of “sportier” thoroughbreds, you’d see more in jumping and eventing.