Page 8 - 25 May 2012

gypsy the hoarder
protecting our industry from those that would steal it away.
by Stacy Pigott
We left the closet door open, and racinos and governments started to step up and take what they want.
If you are a regular reader of this column, you know I adopted a greyhound named Gypsy last month. Gypsy quickly stole my heart with her gentle soul
and loving personality. And then she stole all of the dog toys, whether they belonged to her or my other dog, Jewel... and my slippers... and a throw off the couch... and a pillow. It isn’t unusual for me to come home and find all of Gypsy’s treasures in a pile in the backyard, or lined up in a neat row next to her dog bed. At first, I wondered how she managed to get some of the larger items through the doggie door and into the backyard. And then, one day, I caught her.
Gypsy decided she wanted the throw blanket that was next to me on the couch. Without a sound, this 65-pound dog slowly walked up to the couch and, with a slight glance in my direction, took the corner of the blanket in her mouth, and pulled. Slowly, deliberately, and methodically, she drug the blanket off the couch and through the doggie door. This was no “grab it and run” operation, this was a carefully thought out plan of attack. It was like watching a well-orchestrated crime taking place.
Since then, I have learned to “Gypsy-proof” my house. The throw blanket stays folded on top of the couch. The laundry hamper has a lid. The closet is off limits. On most days, I can keep Gypsy’s treasures limited to dog toys and designated blankets. But there are those days when I forget and leave the closet door open, and Gypsy the Hoarder is back in business.
In a way, it reminds me of the struggles we face in the horse racing industry. We do our best to protect our valuables, such as live race days and purses, but then we leave the closet door open and face a new attack.
In the week leading up to the Kentucky Derby, the New York Times released the second part in its exposé series on horse racing. There were no dead horses on the front page or condemnations of the Quarter Horse racing industry. Rather, the article talked about money—casino money.
Under the headline “Big Purses, Sore Horses,
and Death,” the NY Times investigative report-
ing team told the story of cheap claimers raced too often—raced to death in some cases—because of the lure of lucrative purses enhanced by casino money. NY Times readers were introduced to horses such as Melodeeman, a Thoroughbred that set a track record at Aqueduct in his younger days. At age 10 he was still racing, albeit at the lowest claiming levels, which is where he eventually broke down. It is a story, the
article claims, repeated at racinos across the country. The article states: “Since the casino opened at the
end of October, Aqueduct has seen a sharp rise in
the number of horses injured and killed. Horses have broken down or shown signs of injury at Aqueduct
at a rate of 10.2 per thousand starts, or more than double the national rate of 5.0 per thousand starts for thoroughbred racing, according to a Times analysis.
“Similar trends are evident at some tracks around the country. The five casino tracks in New Mexico have rates for thoroughbred breakdowns that are double the national average, with Ruidoso Downs and Zia Park topping the list with 12.5 and 12.1, respectively, per thousand starts.”
While there were some who vocally warned against industry reliance on casino money, horse racing, for the most part, welcomed casinos and the higher purses they offered with open arms. We did our best to protect what we could, making sure laws, rules and contracts included horse racing.
Then the carefully-orchestrated attacks began. The NY Times article is one of the most publicized diatribes against horse racing, but it is far from the first. It started slippers-and-shoes small—short commentaries decrying the subsidizing of horse racing by casinos. But then we left the closet door open, and racinos and gov- ernments started to step up and take what they want. The Ontario horse racing industry is fighting to keep slot revenues from being pulled away by the govern- ment. In Indiana and Pennsylvania, there are proposals to slash horse racing subsidies.
Daily Racing Form columnist Andy Beyer wrote, “At a time when the horse racing business has suffered serious a decline, one segment of the sport is enjoying a bonanza. These are great times for horsemen in states where purses are subsidized by revenue from slot machines... However, the status quo is unsus- tainable because more and more politicians will be asking: Why should we subsidize a sport that so few people care about? Why should we help an industry that won’t help itself? And Thoroughbred racing can offer no good responses to these questions.”
The racing industry must protect ourselves from those that would steal our industry away. We cannot continue to repeat the same old rhetoric. We must have acceptable responses to the questions we face about casino subsidies, breakdowns, race-day medications, illegal doping, and the rest. It’s time to develop answers to the tough questions, and close the closet door.
8
SPEEDHORSE, May 25, 2012
UNDER WRAPS