Racing's Biggest Problem? Arguably, Injuries

On Friday they announced that Strong Contender, a Grade I horse entered in the Donn Handicap against Invasor was retired due to a tendon injury described as a tear. Aside from the question as to why rich owners keep giving that nice gentleman John Ward good horses which he ruins as predictably as the sun comes up, the story of Strong Contender and the Donn provides another small sample of what plagues the sport. From Lukas, Baffert, and Frankel on down they're unable to keep the good horses or most horses running.

Forget about the early retirement of Bernadini. The vast majority of stakes horses retire due to injury most way too soon. For every hard knocking nine year old still going to post there are a hundred others that fell by the wayside due to injury. Check the Derby fields a year later and see how many still race.

I'm just musing here what all this does instead of making a study. Of course, first thing, the injury problem deprives the fans of their horses, and the races frequently of competitors. Injuries make the sport "less" of an attraction than it might be. They reduce the fan base as a direct result.

Some stats from vague memory, they'll be close: 50% of two year olds in training never make it to their first race due to injury. 50% of an entire foal crop never race primarily due to injuries. Once they get to the races they drop out due to injury at the rate of about 50% every single year.

If you are an owner for any of the various reasons to be an owner, does this sound like any way to spend your money? Investing in horse racing is like digging for oil. Mostly you strike dirt. I suspect most owners could take losing races and even losing money. But, losing their horses ends their investment and their hopes, and drives them from the game.

Racing has many and various problems. To RR the biggest, and I doubt there is any question of it, is the injury problem and its ripple effect through the sport. This problem robs thoroughbred racing both of its equine and human participants. If those 1000 horses on the Woodland's back stretch this fall had been owned by local Kansas Citians, perhaps a rabid bunch of enthusiastic ex-athlete owners with their own little professional franchises, who root their horses on, bring their families to the racetrack, and collectively contributed financially, horse racing in KCMO might be thriving instead of the mordant simulcast operation it has become.

With the injury rate this scenario of owner participation will never happen. I've been amazed over the years the short shrift this problem gets from industry leaders. It's nice to have a symposium on catastrophic break downs and listen to the same old tired research about toe grabs done by someone who's never owned a horse, but where is the concern for injury rates generally and a systematic approach solving the problem.

I keep expecting such as Ray Paulick at the Blood Horse or one of the Phipps, or the Van Clief's or maybe one of the Race Track Presidents, the big breeders in Lexington, or somebody to pick up the ball that the present training establishment injures quickly almost everything that comes through. The silence on the issue is so deafening at the top that RR wonders sometimes if it's all his imagination. Then, back to reality, and the article on Strong Contender.

Today's Training:
2/4/07 Day 3: 4f riderless pasture sprint.
2/5/07: Day 1: Rest
2/6/07: Day 2: Attempted pasture sprint failed to materialize. Sometimes horses are into it and take off. Today, they were neither into it or willing to extend themselves under the ground conditions. So, mild exercise slightly better than nothing at all.