Kentucky Horse Racing Commission Votes to Ban Cert
Research has shown toe grabs cause increased risk of injury to racehorses.
On July 14, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission voted unanimously to limit toe grabs on the front horseshoes of all Thoroughbreds in training or in competition on Kentucky racetracks. A toe grab is a stud on a horseshoe that serves to improve traction for racehorses. Under the new rules, a toe grab stud--or any other traction device--that's higher than two millimeters would be banned. The rule change still needs to go through the legislative rules process and a public comment period, but if finally approved, it could go into effect this fall.
The rule was recommended by the commission's health and safety committee, which looked at years of scientific research that demonstrates a significant increase of horse injuries when toe grabs are used. The rule change follows a Jockey Club recommendation to ban toe grabs. Officials said five other states already have adopted such a rule.
According to news reports, Eight Belles, the 2008 Kentucky Derby runner-up who broke both front legs in that fateful race and was consequently euthanized on the track, was shod with toe grabs. It's unclear whether the toe grabs led to her catastrophic injuries.
(c) 2008BowTie, Inc.
Kentucky governor dissolves state's horse racing authority
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear eliminated the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority on Thursday and replaced it with a new oversight group for the state's equine industry with a slightly different name but some of the same members.
In a news conference in Frankfort, Beshear said he wanted the new Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to take a more hands-on role in changing horse medication rules. Kentucky is among the high-profile holdouts from a push to ban steroids for racehorses.
"Kentucky's signature industry is in crisis and immediate, aggressive action is necessary to preserve its integrity," Beshear said. "The actions I have taken today reflect my continued commitment to strengthening horse racing in the commonwealth."
Among the noticeable absences from the racing commission's new board is former vice chair Connie Whitfield, the wife of Republican congressman Ed Whitfield. Connie Whitfield didn't immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press.
Mrs. Whitfield led a subcommittee under the racing authority looking into drug rules, and her husband had emerged as one of the most vocal federal lawmakers about the changes he believes the racing industry needs to make.
The congressman suggested at a Commerce panel hearing last month that if the horse racing industry doesn't get aggressive in banning steroids and improving safety, Congress might have to get involved, using a federal law that grants simulcasting rights to state racing groups.
Federal attention has focused more than ever on steroids and safety this year because of the horses that finished first and second in the Kentucky Derby, Big Brown and Eight Belles.
Big Brown's trainer, Rick Dutrow, acknowledged giving his star horse steroid injections each month leading up to the Derby and Dutrow now faces a suspension in Kentucky for alleged medication violations from another horse in his stable.
Eight Belles broke down after her second-place finish in the Derby and was euthanized on the track, sparking massive attention on safety. A review by The Associated Press concluded the top racing states have reported the deaths of at least 5,000 horses at thoroughbred tracks in the United States since 2003.
Beshear's news release announcing the change Thursday only listed the members of the commission without providing any details about whether it will operate differently from the former racing authority. Officials at the racing authority's offices referred questions to executive director Lisa Underwood, who didn't immediately return a call.
Among the members of the authority retained by Beshear was chairman Robert Beck of Lexington, who he appointed to the post earlier this year. Tracy Farmer of Midway was named vice chair.
A governor's revamp of the racing board in Kentucky has precedent.
Former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, the Republican predecessor of Democrat Beshear, abolished what was then named the Kentucky Racing Commission after he took office in 2004 and replaced it with the racing authority. Connie Whitfield was among Fletcher's appointments.
Fletcher's Democratic predecessor, Paul Patton, also appointed or reappointed the entire commission shortly before his last month in office.
(c) 2008 The Associated Press
Saving horse racing from itself
Drug use and physical abuse are rampant in horse racing, and have been for years. But it took the very public breakdown and death of Eight Belles after this year's Kentucky Derby - two years after Barbaro's tragic demise - to ignite a firestorm of public outrage over the state of horse racing.
Congress now is stepping in and calling for the sport to clean itself up by banning all performance enhancing drugs, examining its breeding and training practices and creating a national oversight body that would establish and enforce a set of uniform industry regulations for the 38 states that now offer horse racing and wagering - all with their own set of rules.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, told witnesses last week at a House subcommittee hearing called "Breeding, Drugs and Breakdowns: The State of Thoroughbred Horse Racing and the Welfare of Thoroughbred Horses," that he intends to introduce such legislation. Stearns, who has more than 1,000 horse farms in his district, has the right idea at the right time.
"This is a wake-up call for you," the congressman told witness before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. "There's abuse in your industry."
Stearns cited a report by the Association of Racing Commissioners International that shows 3,035 horses have died at U.S. horse tracks in the past five years. Chided Stearns: "Are you going to tell me this is okay?"
A report by The Jockey Club shows that the average number of races each horse runs annually has dropped from 11.3 times in 1960 to 6.3 times last year. Witnesses, from trainers to owners to racing commissioners, attributed the drop to, first, widespread use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs and, second, to inbreeding and racing horses too young.
"Without a doubt, medication has changed our sport and presented us with profound challenges that threaten the game itself," said Richard Shapiro, chairman of the California Horse Racing Board. "For the sake of speed, and for having the fastest horse on the first Saturday in May, fewer horses are bred for durability, longevity and stamina. E The game has become more 'horse breeding' than 'horse racing'. To give you a personal example, my family bred and owned the first horse to earn a million dollars bred in California, Native Diver, who raced 81 times and won 34 stakes races - a record that still stands. Today, the career of a stakes-caliber horse is considered long if it runs 25 times before retirement.
"Over the past 40 years we have traded the time-tested regimen of hay, oats and water for a virtual pharmacopoeia - Lasix, Clenbuterol butezolidin, Clenbuterol - that has created . 'The Chemical Horse.'E"
Widespread drug use and, in the worst cases, the abusive running of horses that are injured but doped up is facilitated by the different states having individual rules regarding the use of steroids and other performance enhancers. Hence, there is a dire need for a national governing body to ensure all in the industry, from veterinarians and trainers to owners and track operators, are working - and following - from the same set of rules.
Drugs, of course, are a good start. But in-breeding has weakened the thoroughbred breed in the United States, a point acknowledged by most of the witnesses before the House subcommittee. And, again, there is no one body in charge of a $40 billion industry. No wonder things are amok.
The gross mismanagement of the nation's oldest wagering sport is causing the public to lose interest and confidence. Who can blame them? Too many in horse racing won't compete fairly, won't sensibly govern themselves and, shamefully, won't treat their star athletes humanely.
Congress has, as Stearns put it, "the hammer" to bring the industry in line because, through its legislative blessings, the horse industry can take bets over the phone and through interstate off-track betting, which alone accounts for more than $13 billion in wagering a year.
Stearns and his congressional colleagues should use their legislative hammer to facilitate the clean-up of horse racing. Drug use and animal abuse are unconscionable in an industry with such a noble and proud history, and it's obvious the industry is too fractured among its many self-interested factions to adequately police itself and save horse racing from itself.
(c) 2008 Ocala
Churchill Downs fined $15,000 for Derby loading infraction
The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority fined Churchill Downs Inc. $15,000 for allowing an unapproved assistant starter to load Pyro in the Kentucky Derby last month.
Under the agreement approved Monday by the authority, Churchill does not admit any wrongdoing.
"It's one of our major fines," said Lisa Underwood, KHRA executive director. "There was more than one person who in their official capacity made a mistake."
She said that Pyro's trainer, Steve Asmussen, and the assistant starter, Clinton Beck, would be appearing before stewards.
Underwood said state regulations specify that the starter assigns assistant starters, with no prior knowledge beforehand of which horse they will be on.
That was apparently not the case with Pyro.
According to an authority release, "KHRA staff interviewed witnesses and the stewards reviewed isolation tapes of Pyro being loaded into the starting gate. They concluded that there was no evidence of inappropriate behavior by Beck during the loading."
Underwood said the authority was informed of the situation several days later.
"The questions raised concerned the procedures by which staff are hired and assigned to start a race," said Steve Sexton, president of Churchill Downs racetrack and executive vice president of Churchill Downs Inc., in a statement. "We were eager to cooperate in the review and to swiftly address the KHRA's concerns regarding these procedures. We believe this agreement is an acceptable resolution for both the KHRA and Churchill Downs. We are particularly satisfied with their conclusion that the actual running of Kentucky Derby 134 was handled appropriately."
"We are satisfied the running of Kentucky Derby 134 was not impacted by the assignment of the assistant starter to this particular horse," Underwood said in the release.
In other regulatory matters, a hearing involving trainer Patrick Biancone scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed indefinitely.
The authority had been planning to consider whether Biancone violated terms of an agreement signed last fall. Biancone was essentially barred from training racehorses for a year after authorities found a vial of cobra venom in his barn at Keeneland.
(c) Herald Leader
Horse Racing | Big Brown breezes 5 furlongs at Belmont
ELMONT, N.Y. - When it is showtime, Big Brown always comes through.
The Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner pleased his connections and impressed about 200 media members and spectators Tuesday in his only official workout for Saturday's 1-1/2-mile Belmont Stakes. The colt, who is undefeated in five career starts, breezed 5 furlongs in 1:00.03 under exercise rider Michelle Nevin on a warm, humid morning at Belmont Park.
"We're happy. He went very, very good," Nevin said. "He was a little rank, trying to do a lot early, so I had to take a pretty good hold of him. The last couple of days, he's been galloping a little rough. He was ready to go, and I'm glad it's done. He came home quick."
Big Brown will try to become the 12th Triple Crown winner in the 140th running of the Belmont. Not since Affirmed in 1978 has a horse swept the U.S. classics for 3-year-olds.
Like Nevin, who said she was "a nervous wreck" before the workout, IEAH Stables founder Michael Iavarone was edgy. "I didn't get much sleep," he said. "This was the last hurdle. I think now we can step back and let it all unfold before the race."
Iavarone called the colt's healing quarter crack "not an issue" and said there was no blood. Nevin said she looked at the left-front foot while heading back to the barn and saw no evidence of discomfort. Plans call for hoof specialist Ian McKinlay to apply an acrylic-and-fiberglass patch on Big Brown's hoof Friday.
"Everything is right on target," said Rick Dutrow Jr., who trains Big Brown. "He is by far the best horse in the race."
Japan-trained Casino Drive, who is 2 for 2, is viewed as perhaps the biggest threat to Big Brown's Triple Crown quest. Casino Drive won the Grade II Peter Pan Stakes by 5-3/4 lengths over Mint Lane on May 10 at Belmont.
"I don't have a good fix on that horse, but I know that the horse is not at the top of his game. There's no way," Dutrow said at a news luncheon in Manhattan. "I've seen this horse. My friends around the stables have seen this horse. There's just no way this horse can beat Big Brown in a horse race. That's impossible."
Dutrow had made similar remarks last week, causing a bemused Nobutaka Tada, the racing manager for the owner of Casino Drive, to respond: "He seems to know our horse better than we do."
Notes
* The Belmont Stakes post-position draw is today.
* Eight Belles will be interred at the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville, near the grave sites of several Kentucky Derby winners. The 3-year-old filly broke two ankles shortly after finishing second to Big Brown in the May 3 Kentucky Derby. She was euthanized on the track at Churchill Downs.
Track officials said a tree will be planted in honor of Eight Belles and her remains will be buried at its base. The memorial is planned for the museum's courtyard.
2008 The Seattle Times Company
PETA chastised Clinton for derby bet
Spurred by the death of Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- about 30 members of which showed up at Pimlico to protest last weekend's Preakness -- have stepped up their call to end horse racing.
When PETA president Ingrid E. Newkirk heard that Hillary Clinton had placed a Kentucky Derby bet on Eight Belles -- the horse that broke both her ankles and had to be euthanized -- she dashed off a letter earlier this month.
"I hope that everybody will go to the derby on Saturday and place just a little money on the filly for me," Sen. Clinton told supporters in Jeffersonville, Ind., ABC News reported. "I won't be able to be there this year - my daughter is going to be there and so she has strict instructions to bet on Eight Belles."
"Horse racing is as indefensible as dog fighting, and Sen. Clinton must step up immediately and condemn it as animal abuse," said Newkirk. "Eight Belles and countless other horses abused in the racing industry suffer horrendously and die just so that people can bet on them as though they were poker hands."
"PETA takes no position on whether you win or lose the race you are in," the letter said, "but we call on you to publicly reject betting on such hideous spectacles of domination over wonderful animals who deserve more than pain and death for human profit and amusement."
(c) BaltimoreSun
INSIDE HORSE RACING
Tim Layden
Posted: Friday May 2, 2008 11:59AM; Updated: Friday May 2, 2008 1:51PM
Five-minute guide to the Derby
THE RACE -- The 134th Kentucky Derby, the most storied and important horse race in the world. It's also, by consensus, the most difficult to win.
THE STAKES -- Immediately, more than $1.4 million from a total purse north of $2 million. Long-term, immeasurable value as a stallion.
THE CHALLENGE -- Each of the 3-year-olds in the field will be running 1 1/4 miles for the first -- and in many cases, only -- time in their careers. They will be running in an overcrowded field of 20 horses, also for the first -- and only -- time in their careers. They will be running in front of 150,000 (or more) spectators. It is an experience unlike anything for which they can be prepared.
THE STORY LINE COMING IN -- Is the precocious, lightly raced Big Brown, with three victories in three lifetime starts, the freakish superstar that so many in the racing game are hoping to find? Can California-based Colonel John duplicate his terrific form from synthetic surfaces on dirt, a surface on which he has never raced? Can onetime Derby favorite Pyro recover from a disastrous finish on PolyTrack in the Blue Grass Stakes? Other than these three, no horse in the field is listed at better than 15-1 on the morning line. Can any of them outrun expectations and steal the Derby? And will it be Eight Belles, trying to become the fourth member of her gender to win the Derby and the first since 1988?
HOW THE RACE SHOULD UNFOLD -- It's almost impossible to predict every aspect of such a typically wild race. However, there appear to some foreseeable elements to Derby 134:
- Several fast horses are far outside the endless Derby starting gate, including Big Brown, who took the No. 20 spot when he could have taken 18 or 19. Inside him are quick runners Gayego, Recapturetheglory and Cowboy Cal, all of whom figure to run near the front. Bob Black Jack, who might be the fastest horse in the field, is not far away in 13. This all but guarantees at least a very solidly honest first half mile that will stress the fastest horses in the field and could set the race for a stalker or a closer. "I don't think it's going to be a ridiculously fast pace,'' says trainer Todd Pletcher, who saddles Cowboy Cal and Monba. "But it will be an honest pace to the first turn.''
- Colonel John has the No. 10 spot, which should enable Corey Nakatani to place him comfortably in the middle of the pack, saving ground without getting involved in rodeo.
- Pyro and the Michael Matz-trained Visionaire are also well-placed in the nine and eight holes. Both are closers and could potentially be well-placed.
- At some point past the middle of the race, the likes of Bob Black Jack, Cowboy Cal and probably several others will tire and begin to fade. Will Big Truck be one of the faders? Will Colonel John be well-placed enough to move up?
- Good luck is a significant factor in almost every horse race, but geometrically more so in the Kentucky Derby. A year ago Street Sense was taken to the lead on the rail by jockey Calvin Borel. It was a gusty move, aided by the fact that he was never stopped by a horse tiring in front of him. In 2005 the gifted Afleet Alex had to check up several times in the running of the race. It is impossible to know how these things will occur.
The Picks
1. Colonel John -- This California horse has shown the late speed that often decides the Derby. Worries remain about his ability to race on dirt, but not about his ability to get the 1 ΒΌ miles. He has trained beautifully in Louisville.
2. Denis of Cork -- Make it a 1-2 finish for Irish-born trainers, as Denis of Cork's trainer, David Carroll, and Colonel John's trainer, Eoin Harty, were both born into horse racing families in Ireland. Their fathers raced in steeplechase events against each other. Carroll wanted Denis of Cork to get another prep race before running poorly in the Illinois Derby, but he has run well here in training.
3. Tale of Ekati -- Some handicappers dismiss his Wood Memorial victory as simply picking up the pieces of a fast pace created by distance-challenged opponents. The guess here is that Tale of Ekati got better with that race and has gotten better since.
As for Big Brown, if he can win the Kentucky Derby having started just three times in his life, with chronically sore feet, starting from the outside post position, then he is truly a freakish racehorse. I think it's too much to ask. He will be asked to run too fast, too early, or he will encounter heavy traffic and bumping for the first time in his career. If he can overcome all of this, I'll be first in line for a ticket on his bandwagon and starting beating drums for the Triple Crown. But I don't think he can do it. Not in this race.
Copyright (c) 2008 Time Inc. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
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