Alan Truex: Roadster thrives on Santa Anita’s slower surface
Updated Friday, April 12
LLANO, Texas — Horse racing has been known for centuries as the Sport of Kings. Now it’s the sport of senators, congressmen and district attorneys.
It’s good the politicians are concerned about horses dying on racetracks. I wish they were as bothered by children dying from firearms, but that’s for another blog. Anyway, as I look at this latest government overreach, I have to say racing had it coming. There’s always been a dark underside to the sport. Some of Ring Lardner’s beloved stories of the 1920s were populated by furtive characters in the shadows of the barns.
And yet, there’s an eternal majesty about horse racing, a celebration of a heroic animal that from the beginning of time has served man and cohabited peacefully with all other species. I’m in a tiny minority, but I enjoy watching the finest horses run and skillful jockeys guide them, whether or not I have cash invested in their efforts.
I’m hopeful that the four-month procession of horses dying in Southern California will lead not to the death of the sport in America but to a rebirth. Belinda Stronach, CEO of Santa Anita Race Park, track, took decisive action in re-engineering the surface of it. In one month of frantic labor the foundation was deepened, creating more of a cushioning effect as hooves pound the dirt.
The most significant result of the recent Santa Anita Derby was not the win by a huge, tenacious colt, Roadster. It was the length of time of the race: 1:51.28 – slowest in 79 years.
Yes I realize we want every sports event to be faster, not slower. But this is one time when slower is better. It means hooves digging a few millimeters more into soft dirt, so a less jarring impact.
There is another structural flaw that must be corrected, and it’s what probably caused the 23rd equine death in the current Santa Anita meet.
Arms Runner, a 5-year-old gelding competing in the San Simeon Stakes, broke down on a turf course that begins, strangely enough, on a hillside. It then crosses a dirt path before connecting to the oval main track. This is an awkward juncture, suitable for a goat but not for a racehorse. Arms Runner’s stride apparently was altered as he transitioned suddenly from grass to dirt and back.
This track was designed 85 years ago, when turf races typically were 1¼ miles and longer. The horses were not at full gallop when they negotiated the tilting patchwork of turf and dirt. It’s different now, with shorter races such as the 6 ½-furlong San Simeon. Arms Runner was running as fast as he could at the time of his fatal misstep.
Too late for him, the track initiated a new rule: From now on, no turf races shorter than one mile.
Which brings us to another issue. Horses in this century are bred for speed, not for stamina and durability. Trainers rely on drugs, such as Lasix, to keep ailing horses running.
Stronach was right to restrict the use of Lasix, with the stated intent of eliminating it entirely from the racing scene. She’s requiring horses to be examined and medically treated by independent veterinarians. And no drugs can be ingested on race day.
Lasix is to horses what steroids were to human athletes in the 1990s. Like steroids, Lasix has medical benefits. It reduces bleeding and the swelling of muscles. But it also masks other drugs. And it enhances performance, providing an edge to the trainers who excel at administering this powerful diuretic. According to trainers at Santa Anita, more than 80% of their horses are treated with it at any given time.
Lasix allows fragile horses to compete. Many who died at Santa Anita were borderline hemophiliac, their gene pools full of speed influences instead of stamina. Which is why races have become shorter over the past half-century. A mile and a half, once a staple of the program, is now rare.
And in fairness to Santa Anita, let’s note that early death has been epidemic at other tracks. During a 39-day period at Del Mar in 2016 17 horses died. And at Saratoga, the sort of deep, giving track that’s supposedly kind to horses, 19 of them died in the summer of 2017.
So it’s understandable that Roadster’s trainer, the iconic white-mopped Bob Baffert, cries out that the Santa Anita malaise is an aberration, due more than anything else to record rainfall.
“You don’t have to burn the house down because the pipes are bad,” he said. “We can get through this.”
Baffert pointed out that excessive rainfall disrupted the training process. Less time for horses on the track, and yet the racing schedule was not cut back. On days when weather permitted training, priority was given to timed workouts, rather than to leisurely jogs or brisk walks — backward as well as forward – to build the horses’ protective muscles. The horses were “worn out,” Baffert said, because too much training was jammed into fewer opportunities.
And sometimes they raced with injuries that were not known at the time. So Stronach has spent heavily on technology to improve diagnostics and more closely monitor the horses’ health. Her efforts are being embraced by many trainers, jockeys and horse owners.
But even if the industry follows her lead, it won’t be enough to pacify all the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
As the organization’s vice-president, Kathy Guillermo, put it: “PETA will never support racing.”
If the sport does everything she wants – bans all whips (euphemistically, riding crops), no matter how soft the material; finds homes for all the horses who aren’t able to race – she still disapproves of horse racing.
So many humans think they know what animals want. For most of my life I’ve been around thoroughbred horses, and my impression is that they love to race. Sometimes when they see cars speeding on an adjacent highway, they start running along the fence line, trying to keep up.
It’s interesting that when they toss off their jockeys during a race, they usually do not stop racing. Sometimes they finish ahead of all the horses who had jockeys urging them on. Of course, it doesn’t count as a win if the horse crosses the wire without a rider.
I don’t mind PETA pushing the politicians to investigate the sins of horse racing, because they should be addressed. But let’s not put words in the horses’ mouths. We should not assume it’s impossible for them to enjoy a career in racing.
