To whit:
Feinstein renews calls for suspension of racing at Santa Anita Park. Horse Racing Nation
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Monday renewed her call for an "immediate moratorium" on racing at Santa Anita Park, where three equine fatalities in nine days have track safety issues under the magnifying glass again."How many more horses must die before concrete steps are taken to address what is clearly an acute problem?" Feinstein said. “I once again call for an immediate moratorium on racing at Santa Anita. We need a thorough investigation of practices and conditions at the track before any more races are held."
I'm going to point out a thing or two here that is not a defense of the Stronach Group, whom I deplore, but only serves to show just how silly and convoluted the current drama surrounding horse racing really is.
First, these attacks against horse racing are coordinated. When you have multiple groups spouting the exact same talking points you cannot assume that they are being honest when they say their complaints are occurring in a vacuum. In fact, all of the people who spoke in front of the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) who claimed to be a "private individual, without affiliation to any group" who then proceeded to spout the same talking points were not being truthful. These people were coached what to say.
Second, the goal of PeTA and other groups is NOT safe horse racing. It's NO horse racing at all in the United States. Much like the lies they repeatedly told about the circus, they will not stop until they reach their goal. And yes, I have first hand knowledge of former circus behavior. I've seen how the animals were really treated and it wasn't in the same manner as heavily edited video from PeTA activists. In almost all cases the animals were treated better than the humans who worked there. (The latter was the REAL controversy surrounding the circus, that never got any media play)
Finally, You cannot trust a group like PeTA when it comes to animal welfare issues. They are not legitimate actors in the game. In fact, PeTA has been directly responsible for more animal deaths than any of the groups they claim to be against. PeTA are bomb-throwers, their job is to make noise and try to disrupt traditional American culture. They could give two-figs about animal welfare.
All of this doesn't mean that the complainers are wrong.
In fact, in one important aspect, horse drugging and overall welfare, they could be onto something.
Even more pathetic is the horse industry's response. I Am Horse Racing is saccharine and overly sweet, but it doesn't even begin to address the problems that the industry is having. It's great that everyone involved is "3rd generation" and "loves horses" but that doesn't mean that every trainer, doctor, horse guru is operating under the same pretext.
The horse racing industry's failure to get control of the racing drug problem is problematic at best, damning at worst. The entire industry is built not around the customers, but profit for the suppliers. What that creates is an ungoverned, uneven playing field and a dearth of consistent, fair, regulations under which the suppliers operate.
Because of this the betting markets are skewed, viewed as unreliable under the most generous reading. But many consider them unfairly skewed, which has led to a shrinking customer base frustrated by late-moving tote-boards, inconsistent race stewardship and, even worse, increasingly high take-outs which make profitability in gaming extremely difficult to attain. We haven't even broached the subject of breakage and it's detrimental effect.
Now, horse racing has reached it's nadir. It is now a sport with an aging fan base who has taken few good steps to attract an younger audience. It is operating primarily on income driven from slots, and the locations that do not have them fall further and further behind. Media coverage is non-existent, except for organizations who are profiting off the sales of historical data, which are free in other sports. Bettors are stuck with a devil's choice of high-takeout wagers, or high-takeout "jackpot" wagers which are almost impossible to hit.
The tracks that have tried to buck the high-takeout trends get little attention or action from the very bettors and horse players who grouse about these things. In many cases the gripers are no longer betting, and are just (pardon the term) continuing to beat a dead horse for attention.
This is one of those increasing events in the world where, no matter who wins, we are all losers. Because the eventual winners in all of this are going to either be the "Bad folks" at PeTA, or the "Bad Folks" running horse racing. Evil, always, wins. The arc of history in sports does not bend to justice or fairness, it bends toward greed.
Horse racing in America in on the precipice of falling victim to it's own greed, and the powers in charge could give a damn as long as they can move overseas and continue their practices there.
Dianne Feinstein doesn't care about horses, she cares about votes. And right now she thinks that there are more votes to be gained by trying to demolish an industry (which, by the way, would lead to the death of thousands of horses who suddenly don't have a purpose in life).
I'm going to close with this: One of the largest criticisms leveled against horse racing in recently held CHRB meetings, and one that (amazingly!) was uttered by dozens of "independent citizens" was that the horses in the races were "non-consenting participants." (seriously, ALL of these supposedly unrelated people used the exact same words). Their argument centered around the belief that these horses did not want to be there and that, given the choice, they would not run.
To those people I have always said that they should actually go watch a horse and see what they do in a pasture. They run if you've never seen one.
To them now I say, watch Bodexpress in the Preakness, who unseated his rider at the gate.
Now tell me these horses don't WANT to run.
