Among the many wrongs of horseracing – the drugging and doping; the whipping; the buying, selling, trading, and dumping; the killing, of course – perhaps the worst of it is the everyday, unremitting cruelty of confinement and isolation. Dr. Richard…
In a recent letter to the editor of The Washington Post, Jim Gagliano, president of The Jockey Club, the most powerful organization in racing, and Shawn Smeallie, executive director of the oxymoronically-named Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity, took issue with…
Governor Gavin Newsom of California, in Monday’s New York Times: “What happened last year was unacceptable, and all of the excuses be damned. We own that going into the next season, and we’re going to have to do something about…
In a recent Paulick Report article on the annual meeting of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), it was revealed that “The Stronach Group, TOC and [the] California Thoroughbred Trainers separately hired crisis management consultants,” and that “the Breeders’ Cup…
The Horseracing Integrity Act speciously suggests that all that stands between horseracing and integrity is a national drug program overseen by a central organization. First, drugs in racing is a divisive topic within the industry. In a recent Cronkite News…
Forced (by the media – thank you) to answer for the nine dead horses so far at Saratoga – on pace to easily outstrip its historical average of 14 per summer – NYRA propaganda czar Patrick McKenna, according to the…
As all familiar with this site know, I estimate that upward of 2,000 horses are killed racing or training across America every year. One of the factors affecting my estimate is the missing data on morning training (some states claim…
I respect hard work, always have. Much of this appreciation for industry stems from my childhood and the indelible influence of my grandfathers. Both arrived at Ellis Island as boys – not knowing a stitch of English and with but…
Last Wednesday, Ray Paulick penned an opinion piece in his eponymous Paulick Report entitled “Horse Racing At The Crossroads: Reform Or Die.” Sounding the alarm (again), Paulick rightly points out that the media is swarming and not letting go. “We’ve…
While I can certainly appreciate the usefulness, if not downright necessity, of social media, personally I am loath to engage, preferring instead to say what I have to say here and through more traditional media platforms. Fortunately, we at HW…
I have from the outset argued that death on the track is inevitable; while the numbers will fluctuate from meet to meet, track to track, state to state, death for the industry in the aggregate is unfailingly constant and, more…
Allow me to put a spin on an old legal adage: If you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. If you have compassion on your side, argue compassion. If you have neither, use some rhetorical flourishes and…
