Barbaro: The Controversy of American Racing!

There is a very personal piece in the NYT’s that pretty much lays out the differences between U.S. Thoroughbred horseracing and Global Thoroughbred Racing, and the risks inherent in U.S. practices. Now, I was opposed to the use of Lasix on race days back in 1995 when it was legalized. My theory was that if a horse needed medication to run in a race, the horse probably shouldn’t be running, period the end.

Here is the story from the Times at the time:

The season would have been historic anyway because it is built on two months of races leading to the $10 million Breeders' Cup program on Oct. 28, and the barns were already filled with star horses. But history was given a nudge when the State Racing Commission recently authorized the use of the diuretic Lasix on race day, ending New York's stand as the only state banning it but sharpening the controversy over its effects on performance.

Lasix is given to control pulmonary bleeding caused by the stress of racing. And of the 42 horses racing yesterday on Lasix, 27 were first-time users.. The most dramatic improvement in performance was shown in the second race by the winner, Lightning Surge, who ran on Lasix last winter in Florida but since then had run in New York seven times and before yesterday never finished better than sixth.

One of the Lasix users, Corma Ray, won the opening-day stakes, the General Douglas MacArthur Handicap, before a small crowd of 8,145 that welcomed the horses back downstate after five and a half weeks in Saratoga. The race was the first of four stakes on the Labor Day weekend that kicks off Belmont's countdown to the Breeders' Cup.

Corma Ray had been treated with Lasix twice last winter at Gulfstream Park in Florida but had run five times in New York without it, winning once and finishing second on three other occasions. He was also the 3-2 favorite, and he didn't disappoint anyone. He led all the way to win by four lengths over Richmond Runner, who took second place by the length of his neck over Fort Edward.

The winner ran the seven furlongs in 1:211/5 under Jorge Chavez, paid $5 for a $2 bet and earned $33,360. His trainer, Timothy Hills, said there was no mystery to his supremacy: He can run.

The preceding race, by contrast, was won by a horse who has never taken Lasix. He was Yokohama, owned by Madeleine Paulson and trained by Bill Mott, and he outran a small field of four that was reduced to three when Sergeant Hawk was pulled up coming out of the gate. His jockey, Pat Day, reported that the horse didn't seem to be taking his normal stride and quit the race as a precaution. Meanwhile, Jerry Bailey was guiding Yokohama home over Doctor Disaster and Bisbalense, both of whom ran on Lasix.

But drugs are only part of the story. Breeding, training and racing surface are also another part of the difference that leads to more breakdowns in the U.S. than elsewhere.

So, I wanted to share this story from a European trainer, and sometime jockey, who I think pretty much puts the controversy, and there is one in this country as we speak, out front and very personally. It is long, but very informative.

From the Grey Lady:

February 4, 2007

I’m Not Barbaro, for Lots of Reasons

By GINA RARICK

PARIS

THE captivating story of Barbaro came to an end last week when the colt succumbed to complications from the injuries he suffered in the Preakness Stakes last spring. I’m miles away from the drama, but I have a link to Barbaro: he’s standing in the barn across the street from my house in Maisons-Laffitte, France.

My 3-year-old colt, Little Tommy Fella, shares a bloodline. Barbaro’s grandfather, Roberto, is Tommy’s great-great-grandfather. The line goes back to Man o’ War, and still further to the Godolphin Arabian and Byerly Turk, two of the foundation stallions of the modern breed, begun in England.

Like many distant relatives, they have, actually, very little in common — not least because Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby champion, won over $2 million in his brief career, and Tommy hasn’t yet opened his bank account (although I’m confident he soon will). The branch of the thoroughbred that has taken root in America and the ones that remain in Europe are turning out to be quite different animals, and racing on the continents has turned into something like two different sports.

American racing has followed American culture, with an emphasis on short, exciting bursts of speed. In Europe, where organized racing began, tradition takes precedence, with a focus on longer races over rolling turf courses. In the United States, racing has evolved into a statistician’s paradise, dense with timed workouts, speed ratings and dosage figures. On the gallops in France or England, I have yet to see a stopwatch.

That drive for speed has come with some baggage. The rate of fatal accidents on racetracks in the United States is about 1.5 per 1,000 starts, according to David Nunamaker, professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, where Barbaro was treated. That may not sound alarming, but consider it this way: Last season at Arlington Park outside of Chicago, 21 horses died on the racetrack over three and a half months. In California, Del Mar’s summer season was marred by 16 fatalities. By contrast, in Hong Kong, fatalities are 0.58 per 1,000 starts — which translates into the deaths of 26 horses over the last five years. In England, the rate is 0.65 per 1,000 starts.

The série noir of Arlington and Del Mar, coupled with Barbaro’s arresting accident, has caused no small amount of hand-wringing in the United States over how to reduce the risk. Examining the track was the first step, and a result was a rush to rip up the dirt and install synthetic “polytrack” surfaces, which have been used for some racing in Europe for several years. Keeneland in Kentucky was one of the first courses in the United States to switch to the synthetic track, and others followed. California is requiring all tracks to switch to the surface, and Arlington is changing, too.

But while there is anecdotal evidence of fewer injuries on polytracks, it’s too early to declare the surface the solution.

“No one did very much scientific work to prove it,” Dr. Nunamaker said. “People have gotten excited about it, and they’re pouring a lot of money into it. I hope it’s a solution, but I don’t know that it is.”

Most racing in Europe and Asia, where fatalities are lower, is on turf — and not necessarily golf-course-perfect turf. My mare, Well Done Clare, has had the luxury of running at Longchamp and Chantilly, two of France’s premier courses, but she has also had to carry me through amateur races at places like Chalons en Champagne, where tight turns are banked to the outside and only a thin layer of grass covers chalky ground. In the race before ours there, one horse finished in the adjoining hay field after failing to negotiate the first turn. There are more than 250 courses in France, and many are tiny country tracks with wooden stakes or hedges instead of a rail. Despite this, it is rare to see fatalities at such tracks.

Differences in training and breeding are part of the reason. Horses in Europe generally are not trained at racecourses, but in private yards and training centers. They are often ridden miles every day, over different types of surfaces. And breeders are looking for soundness and stamina rather than precocious speed.

Gary Stevens, the retired champion jockey who rode briefly in France a few years ago (and acted in “Seabiscuit”), told me then that he had no idea how tough thoroughbreds could be until he came here.

There’s another big difference between the United States and much of the rest of the racing world: medication. Horses racing in America are allowed to be injected with various drugs on race day, the most common being Lasix, a powerful diuretic, and phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory medication. Many trainers use whatever medications are permitted whether or not they believe a horse needs it. If they don’t, the thinking goes, they will be giving an advantage to a competitor.

Brian Stewart, head of veterinary regulation for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said that while it was impossible to scientifically link drugs to injuries, “we believe medication adds a risk factor, not only to injury, but to inconsistent racing performance.”

Hong Kong has a zero-tolerance policy on any medication in a horse’s system on race day.

“A horse will try his hardest,” Dr. Stewart said, “and if he can’t feel pain he will run through it, increasing the risk of injury.”

Paul-Marie Gadot, director of veterinary services for France Galop, the jockey club under whose rules I compete, put it even more bluntly: “We have the responsibility to make sure the horse is healthy and fit to compete. If it needs medication, it is not fit.”

There are signs that the United States is recognizing that race-day medication might be a problem. Kentucky has trimmed the list of drugs it allows, and California is considering banning steroids in yearlings being prepared for sale.

“Medication has become a bit of a crutch,” said Dr. Rick Arthur, equine medical director at the California Horse Racing Board. “It’s hard to change these things. But people who enjoy horse racing and think about the future of horse racing believe that we are going to have to re-evaluate our stance on many of the medications we permit.”

A rise in the popularity of international racing, with big-money, high-profile events in Dubai and Hong Kong, is also nudging the sport toward a global set of rules.

But Maurits Bruggink, executive director of the International Federation of Horse Racing Authorities, said diplomatically, “Medication is, of course, a very politically sensitive topic.”

Barbaro was running on Lasix in the Preakness, and there is no evidence that this had anything to do with his accident. But his story became a rallying point for improving safety for thoroughbreds.

“Any accident brings public attention to the sport, and the public are less and less accepting that this kind of accident is inevitable,” Dr. Gadot said.

My first hope as a trainer — and sometimes jockey — is that I will never be faced with the kind of decisions Gretchen and Roy Jackson had to make for Barbaro. I’m backing up my hopes with plenty of hay, oats, water and long gallops through the forest, as well as on the track.

My second hope is that Little Tommy might live up to a fraction of his distant American cousin’s potential. Hope is what keeps us all in the game.

Yes, hope is what keeps us all in the game. However, without our valiant companions, the thoroughbred, there is no hope. And we owe it to these trusting companions to do everything that is necessary to keeping them safe and fit.

Precocious breeding, without a commitment to stamina breeding, and medication on race day are not the way to do it.

JMHO, folks!