In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Belinda Stronach, president of The Stronach Group, calls the 40+ deaths at Stronach-owned Santa Anita last year a “wake-up call” and that safety should outweigh all other concerns. With that in mind,…
An updated list of some of the more damning (and thus, beneficial) statements from those within horseracing: Various direct quotes from those within and around the racing industry… “Those efforts [reforms] seem to be paying off as the breakdown rate,…
In a column in HorseRace Insider Tuesday, (racing) journalist and lifelong handicapper Mark Berner renounced his beloved “sport” – yes, renounced, as in he’s done. And here are some of his reasons why: “The horseracing industry runs on a pack…
According to the Collins Dictionary, “stupid” is “lacking in common sense, perception, or normal intelligence”; “slow-witted.” With that as backdrop, I call your attention to a recent op-ed from former jockey and current analyst Donna Brothers in the Paulick Report.…
Within Racing, at least the parts that incessantly talk of “integrity,” owner/breeder (with a Derby winner on his resume) Barry Irwin has a stellar reputation. A self-described member of the “hay-oats-and-water crowd” (no raceday meds/doping), Irwin is the proud recipient…
On his HorseRaceInsider site, John Pricci recently shared an email he received from a racing-related friend in Saratoga Springs, home, of course, to Saratoga Race Course: “Horses are dying. We all should be uncomfortable about that. Thoroughbred racing is worth…
In a recent The Racing Biz article, pro-racing (obviously) writer Teresa Genaro perfectly relays the moral qualms an ever-increasing number of lifelong racing fans are experiencing these days. She explains that in the “dreadful” Aqueduct winter of 2012, “the one…
At the International Conference of Horseracing Authorities in Paris October 7, these statements from Dr. Rick Arthur, equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board (my comments in bold): “Social ethics toward animal use have changed dramatically during the…
Recently, WBAL in Baltimore accompanied area politicians on a tour of the Laurel Park backside – more specifically, the living quarters for the backstretch workers. That they live this way in an industry littered with billionaire owners and millionaire trainers…
Yesterday, The New York Times reported that Justify failed a drug test after winning a 2018 Santa Anita race – about one month before the Kentucky Derby. Assuming the Times’ information is correct, had the results been expeditiously disclosed and…
A “commentary” in Monday’s Paulick Report, presented with my replies in bold… “Don’t Let Animal Rights ‘Terrorists’ Make Horse Racing Go The Way Of Circus Elephants” – by Alan Pincus, an attorney in Pennsylvania “I went to work at 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…
