Heroes: The Jockey Club
I am sure that everyone who was almost anywhere back on that first Saturday in May of the Kentucky Derby (or indeed, anywhere near a news cast on television for the week or two that followed) at least has an inkling of what happened to Eight Belles immediately following the conclusion of the race. For those that don’t know, a little bit of quick background. She was a filly running against the boys in a race that in 138 attempts only three other fillies have bested the boys. She ran a tough race and come in second, besting 18 boys and losing only the winner, Big Brown. Shortly after the race she faltered, breaking both front legs and was immediately and humanely put down. The two leg breaks, a bit rare, but having to put down a horse occurs probably to often. The scene of these one on national television brought out everyone.
There are more than enough of the fair share of folks out there who want to ban horse racing all together, eliminate the use of whips completely, probably even a few that want to eliminate the jockeys. Anyway, in a quick move of self-regulation, actually started almost immediately and had proposals made prior to several testify before congress, The Jockey Club set up a Thoroughbred Safety Committee. The committee made public three major recommendations/proposed rule changes on June 17th.
In summary the proposal focuses on elimination of the use of all but a couple of steroids in the usage of horses in the United States. This makes sense, brings us in line with most of Europe, and given the outrage of their usage in baseball and other sports, it falls in line to ban them in horse racing as well. It would seem to indicate that perhaps Big Brown may have been in trouble in the Derby as well if this rule had been in force, given his performance at the Belmont after having been off steroids for approximately five weeks. It is important to note that just as humans have sought every edge in the past, so to have horse trainers/owners. For instance, in the early 1900′s horses were regular and legally ran “juiced” – which was high on cocaine. They were also ran on mixtures of coffee and whiskey. I know the first was made illegal but was at least hinted at having occurred as late as the 1940′s or possibly early 1950′s. Regardless, this indicates a change toward the betterment of the equality of the racing horses and a purity in the natural athletic ability of the horses.
The second recommendation is the limited use and out right banning of certain kinds of horse shoes, especially in regards to the front feet. The shoes in question are those that have toe grabs or caulks at the heels along with a few variations thereof. The basic idea of said shoes are extra traction and hence in theory better transfer of the horses effort into forward motion. However, the suggestion is at least that such shoes on the front feet likely interferes with the natural motion of the thoroughbred horse and especially at high speeds may have too much grab on a perfectly set fast (dry) track. It is also likely that such extra grab and interference could contribute to such injuries as was suffered by Eight Belles, though not conclusive by any means.
The last one is a bit more vague and is applies to usage of the whip by the jockey on the horse. There are certain kinds of strikes that will be legal and certain kinds that will not. I do not think the light use of the whip is a bad thing but I do think the limits of the motion of the arc of the whip are not necessarily a bad thing either. Further, as a horse rider, I can tell you (and as jockeys are professionals) they know, when a tap or two of the whip gives them something or not. One last thing on this – a lot of the truly great horses rarely had a race where the whip was required and when it was it was usually only a tap or two – sometimes just seeing it was enough. A bit more problematic and a certain amount of judgement to decide when this rule applies and not – but I am sure it come about – just as jockeys stopped trying to knock one another off and play rough and dirty when the camera in the late 1940′s started capturing the action for review.
A couple of things I am glad The Jockey Club did not consider. Obviously they did not consider seriously the demise and death of all thoroughbred racing in the United States – to think they (or anyone else would pursue such a thing) is inane. A big emphasis was put on the Triple Crown races being so close together – however I would argue that the distances involved and closeness of the races is part of the true measure of being a champion. Also keep in mind, that horses were historically raced much more often than they are today, sometimes champions like Man-O-War raced upwards of three times inside of well less than four weeks if memory serves me. The Triple Crown itself, prior to really having achieved that title and even in the early years as it did garner that, was often held on floating days – where if I recall correctly again, the Preakness actually fell the week prior to the Kentucky Derby. Where upon completion of th Derby, horses were loaded on a train to ship from Maryland to Kentucky – often paraded in route to and from the train in front of adoring fans.
A couple of things that The Jockey Club still needs to push forward with are the young age that horses are typically started at and breeding practices in general. Both of the above I think contribute to possible break downs of the horses like what happened to Eight Belles. The horsemen have over the years put a LOT of emphasis on the three-year old year of the racing horse. I don’t have so much a problem with that as with the training and hard campaign that a lot two-year olds are pushed toward. I would prefer to see much less stake racing (if any at all) for two-year olds – and a push toward bigger stakes at four-year olds to encourage more development there. The same is true of the breeding – as we have long-legged spindly frail horses that are built for sprinting more than the true classic distances of a mile and more that we so associate with the thoroughbred racing horse. This obviously goes back a number of years, but a little selective breeding (especially horses aimed more at four-year olds and still being fit to race there) it would slowly begin to take hold and eventually become the norm.
