Horses do the damnedest things

When I was a kid, I leased a big lunk of a palomino named Dandy. He had a lovely broad white blaze, and one summer day when I brought him in from the pasture, I was horrified to see a bloody scratch all the way across his face. The barn owner gave me some pink goo to treat it, and it worked like a charm, but I'll never forget what she told me that day---that a horse can and will find the only nail in a hundred miles of fence and scratch himself on it. In other words, horses are fragile animals, and freak accidents can and do occur.

Yesterday, unfortunately, was one of those days. In California, the high-class turf mare Nashoba's Key, who won 7 straight races last year, had to be euthanized early yesterday morning after kicking the wall of her pen at Hollywood Park and breaking one of her hind legs. On the other side of the country, super-pony Theordore O' Connor, a 14.1 Shetland/Arab/Thoroughbred cross who competed at the highest levels in three day-eventing and who had recently been short-listed for the USET Olympic team, spooked and fell on his owners' farm in Virginia, lacerating a hind leg beyond repair.

For me, this just drives home a point that I have made to non-racing people after widely publicized break downs. Yes, there is abuse and negligence and doping in racing, just like in any equine sport, but accidents DO happen. Horses take bad steps, slip, crash into trees, get tangled in fences, spook, etc. It's freakish and it's sad but it's an unavoidable part of being involved with these animals. Some of these accidents may be preventable, but some are just that, accidents.

And that leads me back to racing and what is being done to prevent or at least reduce the number of accidents on the track. Both ESPN and NBC broadcast round table discussions with industry experts during their Preakness coverage two weeks ago, and a number of ideas were tossed out---a steroid ban, a re-evaluation of racing surfaces, greater regulation of toe-grabs, etc. The only definitive change in the offing so far is a complete ban on steroids. I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but apparantly even Congress is getting involved... I hope that the racing industry will push through this change and others to make the sport safer and not just revert back to the status quo now that the heat is mostly off. I'll be curious to see what, if any, discussion there is of this subject on the Belmont telecast.

Tomorrow, I'll be delving into the issue of breeding for soundness, or rather, the lack there-of. I was quite annoyed to see that idea poo-pooed by the round table pundits and one vet in particular during the Preakness coverage. I think they're dead wrong to assume that 30 years is too short a time to change the durability of the breed.

More musings on that stud deal

I was 2 months old when Affirmed out-gamed Alydar in the 1978 Belmont, so technically, there has been a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime. I was a smidge young at the time to remember that though, and therefore I am (once again) quite excited about the Belmont two weeks from now. Could this really be the year?

Across horse racing fandom, opinions are mixed, but a surprising number of them are negative regarding Big Brown's chances. I have seen thoughts from people who just think he can’t get a mile and a half but wish him well to those who hope he doesn’t win because he isn’t worthy. Even many turf writers and racing pundits are downplaying his achievements. It only seems to be the horsemen, especially those left in Brown’s wake, who respect him and what he’s done. Poor horse. He has tackled everything thrown at him thus far---quarter cracks, wide trips, distance, far outside posts, traffic, running off the pace, and so on.

I personally think that Brown has a great chance at Belmont in two weeks. Provided he gets a good clean start, that high cruising speed of his will hopefully carry him the first mile and a quarter. Then Kent D can “hit the button” at the quarter pole and let Brown accelerate right on down the stretch. Fingers crossed. Thirty years is a long time to wait.

As for the naysayers who think Big Brown is unworthy to wear the crown, I have to say that while he may not be Secretariat or Citation, there is no shame in being the next Sir Barton or Omaha. A horse doesn’t have to be an all-time great to win the crown, only the best (and maybe luckiest) horse on three days in his three year-old season, and that is no mean feat. Many greats haven’t been able to do it despite being deemed worthy. Yes, the horses he has beaten have not all been wildly talented or accomplished, but Brown can only beat the ones that turn up. I’m afraid I have accused Curlin of the same thing, and I can only say that he, like Brown, is a very good horse, but not yet a great one.

I have heard others hoping that Brown won’t win because he is unlikely to run at four, and a rumor seems to be spreading that he won’t even run after the Belmont. I am very disappointed he won’t run at four, but then again, neither did Secretariat. Brown’s connections have at least said that they’re aiming for the Travers and Breeders Cup after the Belmont, and potentially he will face off against Curlin in the latter, so there is some hope he will finish out the year.

Whatever the case, Brown will stand at Three Chimneys when his career is over, and that is an encouraging thought. Three Chimneys is fan-friendly, and best of all, they ride most of their stallions to keep them fit. If he wins the Belmont, I imagine Brown will live out his days there, regardless of his success as a stallion. If not, he may end up in one of the regional markets in a few years’ time. Boundary has produced a number of useful offspring on the track, and Brown is far and away the best of them, but as a sire of sires, Boundary has done little to show for himself. Brown may buck that trend, too, and be a sensational sire, but I’m not holding my breath, much as I like him. I still think it’s a crying shame to retire a horse with so much ability and potential early, especially when his pedigree is less than fashionable, but IEAH makes no bones about the point of their enterprise---making money. We have to take what we can get in the end.

Big Brown: The Preakness and a Stud Deal...

"IEAH Stables’ Michael Iavarone said the chances of Big Brown running as a 4-year-old were 'none.' "

Terrific. Big Brown will be whisked off to stud at the end of the year if we're lucky, possibly sooner if his feet bother him again or he gets a cold or a hangnail or somebody looks at him cross-eyed... And we wonder why this sport is losing its fan base? IEAH, you suck!

In other news, Big Brown will run in the Preakness this Saturday. What a novel concept, eh? (Can you tell I'm bitter?) He will break from post position 7 in a field of 13, surprisingly just one shy of the gate limit. The field is mostly comprised of also-rans from the Triple Crown trail, but there are a few horses who should keep it interesting. Macho Again comes into the race off a win in the Derby Trial, and though his pedigree would suggest that he could handle the distance, he has yet to win beyond 7.5 furlongs. Icabad Crane has a cool name (there goes all my street cred) and also has a record similar to Big Brown's---he raced once at 2 and the Preakness will be his fifth start. His last outing was a win in the Federico Tesio. He could be dangerous. Late-blooming Lexington winner Behindatthebar is also a threat, and horses like Stevil, Gayego, and Hey Byrn may have a chance to redeem themselves...unless Big Brown runs like he did two weeks ago, in which case, they're all running for second place money.

I don't have a gut feeling about this race, but I think if Brown doesn't bounce, we should see a Funny Cide or Smarty Jones-like romp. If that happens, the Belmont is going to be very interesting. That remarkable mare, Better Than Honor, has produced her third straight Belmont contender in Casino Drive. He won the Peter Pan at Belmont easily this past weekend in a very nice time of 1:47.87. He looked pretty professional doing it, too, considering it was only his second lifetime start, his first having been in Japan. I would love to see a Triple Crown winner this year, despite the looming premature retirement of Big Brown, but I don't deny that I wonder about his ability to go 12 furlongs. If he can't do it, then I will be rooting for Casino Drive to complete a different and altogether rarer triple for his dam---three consecutive Belmont winners.

Whatever happens on Saturday, please let them all come home safe.

Eight Belles: What went wrong?

The 134th Kentucky Derby epitomized the highs and lows inherent in this sport. I was shedding tears of delight when my pick, Big Brown, roared under the wire in front. He overcame breaking from the far outside post, the 20 hole, a wide trip, quarter crack prone feet, a 24 mile an hour headwind in the stretch, and almost a hundred years of Derby history to win off only three career starts. More importantly, he also made two of my friends very happy, winning “their” first Derby for them. I was thrilled.

I was also surprised and pleased to see the filly Eight Belles run a game second, four and three-quarter lengths behind the winner, but still three and a half lengths clear of third place finisher Denis of Cork. I had thought her in over her head in the Derby field, and I was not at all displeased to have been proven wrong. Needless to say, I was absolutely shocked moments later when the commentators announced that she had gone down on the turn as she galloped out. Mercifully, the replay they showed was brief, and the filly was nearly out of the frame because the cameras were tracking Big Brown, but it was still clear to me that she had broken down badly in front. It’s a bizarre thing for a horse to breakdown well past the wire, but stranger still in this accident was the revelation that both of her front ankles had broken. She was euthanized right on the track.

Eight Belles’ tragic demise cast a pall over the race and has left everyone wondering just what went wrong. Fingers have been pointed at everyone and everything, ranging from the track, the jockey, the trainer, the horse shoes, drugs, and pedigree.

The subject of dirt versus synthetic surfaces is a complicated matter, and one for another day when I have more time for analysis, but I will say that polytrack is not the savior it was thought to be. There was a terrible spill at Hollywood Park just days ago on the cushion track that was eerily similar to Eight Belles’ fall. I am hearing about an increase in soft tissue injuries as well, and respiratory problems from kick-back. That said, the Churchill surface is notorious for being souped up, especially on Derby weekend. This year, torrential rains on Friday helped soften it, but more than a few horses have never been right again after running on it. Monarchos, anyone? But again, a subject for another day.

PETA’s attack on Gabriel Saez is laughable. Based on a funny head jerk from Eight Belles in the stretch, they seem to think that she broke down before the wire and that Saez whipped her when he ought to have been pulling her up. The holes in this so-called logic are numerous. The most obvious one is that a horse with a broken leg, or in this case, two broken legs, can not possibly gallop out another 3/8s of a mile. Another problem is a matter of practicality. No one in their right mind is going to encourage an injured animal moving at 35 to 40 miles an hour to keep running when the possibility of falling often results in catastrophic injury to both horse and rider. If nothing else, jockeys don’t want to break bones, puncture their lungs, crack their skulls, or otherwise damage themselves and lose riding time (which equals money) or worse, lose their life and/or the livelihood for their family. And that’s just the cold, hard logic. Most jockeys love horses and have bonds with their mounts and wouldn’t dream of not pulling them up when hurt. Just ask Edgar Prado. His face after Barbaro broke down said it all. You can’t tell me these men and women don’t care deeply about the horses.

As for the strange head jerk, Larry Jones, Eight Belle’s trainer, said after the Derby that that was just a funny quirk the filly had developed, especially if she was moving in toward the rail. I reviewed all of her races, and sure enough, I saw her swinging her head on several occasions---as she switched leads at the top of the stretch, as she moved over toward the rail from an outside path, and even in her last start before the Derby, just a few strides from the wire, as if she were looking at the crowd. It was an odd quirk, no doubt, but clearly not indicative of a mid-race injury.

And speaking of Larry Jones, I will lay some blame at his feet now. He seems to be genuinely grieved for Eight Belles, but I must ask why he never saw fit to give that enormous filly a break. Most classic bound two year-olds---heck, most two year-olds period---get a break over the winter, usually November through January or February, to grow into their frames and mature mentally and physically. Eight Belles never got a break. She raced 9/16/07, 10/15/07, 10/30/07, 11/30/07, 12/23/07, 1/21/08, 2/17/08, 3/16/08, 4/6/08, and 5/3/08, so only 2 to 4 weeks between races, and no break at all over the course of 9 months and 10 races. Obviously, Eight Belles had the endurance to run well in most of those starts, but her legs couldn’t hold up to that schedule despite her talent. What on earth was Jones thinking?! Especially knowing that she came from unsound stock.

After any high profile breakdown, the issue of pain-inhibiting drugs is brought up. As of May 8th, preliminary findings from Eight Belles’ necropsy showed no evidence of a heart attack or aneurysm. Results indicating any foreign substances in her blood will be forthcoming in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

And now the matter of shoes… Recent studies indicate that shoes with toe grabs are a significant factor in breakdowns, and the risk factor rises as the size of the grabs increase. When horses gallop on dirt, their feet slide just a bit, thus absorbing some of the concussion as their feet hit the track. Polytrack apparently absorbs and nullifies that slide, resulting in a harder impact for each foot. Grabs do the same thing when horses run on dirt---they give the horses a firmer grip on the surface and more confidence, but they also take away the impact-absorbing slide. Barbaro had grabs on his back feet when he broke down in the 2006 Preakness. Eight Belles had grabs on her front feet when she worked out before the Derby, and while I don’t know if she wore them in the Derby, wearing them in workouts surely didn’t do her any favors.

Add the problems listed above to the pedigree issue, and it begins to look like Eight Belles was an accident waiting to happen. Her sire, Unbridled’s Song, had soundness issues himself and was raced only lightly at 3 and 4. His name is practically synonymous with unsoundness, especially as it relates to his offspring, and many of them tend to be big like Eight Belles, which only compounds the problem. His sons and daughters are fast and precocious, but at what cost? A number of the most successful ones, Buddha for example, have retired early in their three year-old season because of problems. Or they have a few starts drawn out over 2 or 3 seasons because of chronic injuries like Eurosilver. And some, like What A Song, a grandson of Unbridled’s Song through Songandaprayer, set a world record for 2 furlongs but self-destructed in a morning workout. (And what, pray tell, is the point of breeding a TB to run 2 furlongs? Isn’t that why they breed Quarter Horses?)

So where does this leave us? There are serious issues that need to be addressed if this sport is going to survive. I think that breeding out unsound lines is of the utmost importance. We can make tracks, shoes, and training methods safer, but if the horses are already fragile to begin with, it’s pointless. The American Thoroughbred needs some hybrid vigor---outcrosses to less fashionable but sound lines and imports of new blood could go a long way. A number of good horses have come out of South America in recent years, bred from generations of American and European cast offs. We need to dip back into those lines and others around the world to infuse some stamina and hardiness back into the breed. I do think that the breeding industry needs to take a long, hard look at sires of precocious but fragile horses and try to cull the worst offenders. I would go so far as to suggest gelding a number of them outright.

In the wake of the very public Derby tragedy, the Jockey Club, the NTRA, and a group of jockeys are planning a summit discuss safety in racing. They plan to “review every facet of equine health, including breeding practices, medication, the rules of racing and track surfaces, and to recommend actions to be taken by the industry to improve the health and safety of Thoroughbreds.” It’s an encouraging start, but they had damn well better act on their findings. If this ends up as a lot of lip service in the end, this sport will come under even more fire when the next breakdown happens. I for one don’t plan to shut up about it, and I hope my readers will remain vocal for changes, too.

Who am I?

I am not much of anybody really, just a longtime racing fan who feels the need to speak out about issues facing the sport. I have no special credentials. I’m not a writer or a photographer or breeder, bloodstock agent, trainer, or jockey. I don’t pretend to be an expert on the sport, on horses, or on training methods, and I can’t promise to be eloquent, but I’ll try.

I am, however, a stereotypical horse-mad woman and have been ever since I can remember. I come by it honestly, having a long line of horse-mad women (and a few men) on both sides of my family. I played with toy horses as a kid instead of dolls. I ran around with my friends pretending to be part grand prix rider, part horse, jumping over courses made of sticks and brush and yard tools. When I was old enough, I took riding lessons and participated in a few hunter/jumper shows. I mucked stalls, groomed, fed, watered, cleaned the barns, worked as a pony camp counselor, and wrangled Shetlands at birthday parties to earn riding time. Alas, I have never had a horse of my own, but one of these days I will.

My love affair with horse racing began as a little girl, listening to my dad read C. W. Anderson’s stories to me about Man O’ War, Native Dancer, Stymie, and other greats of that bygone era. The name of this blog, Deep Through the Heart, comes from a phrase he commonly used, referring not only to a horse’s physical heart and lung capacity but also to something more intangible, its courage and determination, and yes, heart. To me, it speaks also of the deep emotional connection I and many fans have to the sport of kings and especially to its stars, the horses. They thrill us, run their hearts out for us, and break out hearts, too. I still remember the day my dad came home from work and told me that Swale had died. He was my first love.

These mighty Thoroughbreds give us their all, sometimes even their lives, and that’s why I’m writing this blog. Through bad luck, bad steps, and sometimes through avarice and bad judgment, some horses come to bad ends, on the track or in a slaughterhouse or through neglect. I am trying to raise awareness of problems in the racing industry, everything from doping to dangerous surfaces to poor breeding practices, in hopes of improving the sport and the quality of life for the horses that are part of it. This is something I have been toying with for some time, and the sad demise of Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby last Saturday finally spurred me to action. Comments are encouraged, and please feel free to share this blog with your friends.