Another Thinker! I Like It!!

     The other day I posted Glenn Thompson's uniquely insightful ideas on how to bring about real reform and change in the thoroughbred racing industry. Today I have had the pleasure of being "friended" by yet another thoughtful and reform-minded racing fan. Here is a link to Walt Gekko's ideas about phasing out the use of Lasix over 5 years until the goal of a complete ban is achieved. After the link I will post my response to him that I just posted (more or less) on Facebook as well (And then his response to that, and then my response to him, etc.etc.etc. ;o).

http://www.toosmarttofail.com/forums/showthread.php?61

     Hi! Thank you! That is great. So glad to hear other thoughts on this. I have a few concerns, but they are not at all antithetical to your idea. I'd like some infrastructure to be in place that will prevent the bleeders from going to slaughter, if they are in fact as numerous as many in the industry say that they are. It's hard to know what would prove to be true...either way there is a huge problem - nationwide - with finding homes for unwanted equines. However big or small the number of bleeders turns out to be, it could only be a good thing to have something concrete to ensure that the non-racing thoroughbred and other unwanted horses will have a place in our society. 

     Every time there is an awful shooting we hear about this mental health care crisis that we have. Yet nobody wants to leave Obamacare alone and in place, so where exactly is the mental health care solution going to come from? Well, I think a big chunk of it could come from an as yet mostly-untapped source of healing: equine assisted therapy. I think we should set up partially state-subsidized, and partially privately subsidized facilities, where low cost equine assisted therapy can be provided to those who are suffering from ill mental health. During my last semester of graduate school I found numerous studies showing significant improvements among various afflicted populations after participating in equine assisted therapy. I'll have to dig them up.

     These facilities would also provide unwanted thoroughbreds and "other"-breds with a new vocation - one that is not limited by the length of time that they are able to perform physical feats at a particular level. It would provide them a home where they would be much appreciated, while fulfilling a social need and promoting a social good. What do you think? 

     I also wonder if your plan could incorporate a schedule for incrementally decreasing the allowable dose of Lasix as well, so that perhaps the bleeders would have a greater chance of success in the gradual absence of Lasix as their bodies are able to adjust. I do think that the key to solving racing's problems lies in wiping out this drug culture - and it is perpetuated by Lasix's ability to mask other drugs while enhancing the thoroughbred's performance. Perhaps if there are any good racing vets left, they can do research into natural substances that are free of side effects, that can help mild bleeders during this phase out as well. Who knows. 

     All I know is we have to try to get this reform through somehow, because the various powers that be will always prefer the status quo. They want to keep their bread buttered nice and thick - as it has been for such a very long time.

Walt responded: 

     My plan Beth is to have it so the overwhelming majority of the horses who have been racing on lasix would still be able to until their careers end.  The main purpose is that LATER generations would not be racing on it at all in most cases.  Keep in mind, we did not race on Lasix for many years and horses were much more robust as a whole back then.  I used to be PRO-Lasix until the last several years, especially when I found out one of the reasons horses don't race as much and in my view are "babied" too much (to where that causes more injuries the same way pitchers being "babied" in baseball seems to cause more injuries to them) is that Lasix takes so much out of a horse that it takes much more time to recover from Lasix than racing without it.

     Also, there is public perception that Lasix masks other drugs, which is a secondary reason it needs to be phased out.

Now me again:

     Good stuff, right? :o)

Well, They're Both Here...Now What?

     These are what I have worked myself to the bone to obtain over the past 5 years or so. My dream job did, in fact, open up. I have applied. I've heard nothing so far, but I'm hopeful. Just putting that out there. Come on, Karma - I believe in you!

Amidst the Sport of Dead Kings: A Prince Lives

The following is an unanswered letter, written by Glenn Thompson, Horse Trainer, Author, and Champion of Horses and Horse Racing Reform, to  Chris Kay of the NYRA. 

What a freaking shame. 

Read this letter, and then imagine how pathetically impotent the PETA video could have been, if Kay had paid any attention, and taken action to implement Thompson's ideas. Imagine how much better the sport would have been (and still could be) in just a few years. Imagine how many tragedies would have been (and could be) avoided on the track, if (once) drug free horses are allowed to heal - instead of racing on numbed but injured, ever more fragile legs. The rest of this post is for Thompson's visionary words: 

Answer to PETA and Racing Begins to Heal
This was a letter that I wrote to the top man at New York Racing Association Chris Kay. Sadly he did not respond.

Subject: Nice to meet you yesterday

Good Morning Chris,

I know you are busy and want to thank you for taking the time to meet with me yesterday. I will get into the marketing ideas at the end of this letter but want to start with what I feel could be a great legacy for you in racing. The public has lost our trust and between the drug violations and the horses losing their lives on the track it is going to take someone special to get it back. I feel that someone could be you but it will be risky and you are going to have to believe in the plan 100%. If you pull this off, you will be the most respected man in horseracing in 2014. The plan will be putting the horses first, which is where they should have always been and trying to tackle the integrity issues at the same time. 

1. Have NYRA announce that they are going to fund a Horsemanship Series. Have one or two races per day with enhanced purses that will be drug free. Along with the enhanced purses have a nice trainer bonus for each horse entered to make sure you have maximum participation. Have a point system for each race and at the end of the meet have large bonuses for the top five leading owners and trainers in the series. Make a big deal about this while it is going on and give the owners and trainers a lot of praise for participating in the series. Announce that each horse is going to be scoped after the race and while your horseman's series is going on you will be conducting the most important experiment on racing and bleeding that has been done in the last 25 years. The trainers and vets don't actually know how good or bad the bleeding is without the other prerace drugs that are given on a regular basis. This will be a great experiment that the whole racing world will be very eager to hear the results of. You will be answering questions that every owner, trainer, breeder and vet want answered. There will be complications with the Racing Commission, putting horses back on Lasix if they bleed while racing in the series ect. but these complications are worth dealing with to get this done. This will give the public some hope that racing is trying to do the right thing and I feel you will get a lot of support with this once announced. 

2. Announce that the NYRA is going to change the Whip Rule to follow the way they do things in Europe. This will actually spice up racing and add something new and exciting to a sport that desperately needs a new twist. It will also appeal a great deal to the public and the rescue and animal rights people. There is not much worse that watching a horse be beaten all the way down the stretch and I don't feel our horses, fans or their children should ever be subject to watching this. Changing the rule will also put more strategy in racing and make it more exciting for our fans. It will be something New!! The racing world is saying that the racing overseas is much stronger in many different aspects and I have to say when it comes to the drugs, percentage of breakdowns, how they deal with cheaters and the whip rule, they are correct. We need to make dramatic changes to turn things around and get our sport back on track. You could combine the whip rule with the drug free races so it would be a gradual thing and see how the public responds. I think the two would go very well together and you will get a great response.

3. Announce that the NYRA is going to put video surveillance equipment up in every barn. When I wrote my book, I made a claim that 85% of trainers were giving their horses illegal drugs on race day. I did not make this claim lightly and feel the number was probably low. I testified before congress which you can see at the bottom ofwww.sportofkingsbook.com and after all was said and done, not one trainer or vet challenged my 85% number; they knew it was true. Sadly over the years cheating has been the standard and the culture. Our last two leading trainers at Monmouth Park are currently serving suspensions for drug violations. Neither one of them is going to be allowed to race at Tampa Bay thru the year 2014. The suspensions are just 2 months but Tampa Bay has decided to take a well needed step and not allow them to race there. I think if you announced that NYRA was also going to follow Tamp Bay and deny their entries as well that you would get a lot of praise and the other tracks in the country would fall in line one after the other. We need to take a strong stance on cheating to get the bettors confidence back. A lot of the ones that I have spoken with are sick of seeing what is going on and are disheartened with the sport. If we make a powerful stance against the cheating, we will get them back. The video surveillance is used in about everything in America but racing. I don't understand this but do know that veterinarians are very scared of cameras and you will stop a great deal of the cheating if you install them.

4. Do anything you can to help the retired horse racing community! Have benefits, throw parties and try to come up with new ways to raise money for them. We need to do everything we can to show we care for the horses after they retire. The aftercare programs can be great press for racing if we get them back on our side. You could also tie this in with 1 and 2. The leading owner and trainer could along with their bonus get a nice check for the horse rescue of their choice. This would generate a buzz from the horse rescues and get a lot of very positive press.

I am going to save some of the marketing ideas for another letter but do feel the ideas above are far better PR for racing than any marketing plan!!. I do want you to know that I am not loved in the racing world and seen as a rogue and a troublemaker. I am ok with this because in my heart, I know that I am doing the right thing by the horses and the sport. If you look at the reviews for the book at the Amazon and Smashwords sites you will see how the racing public feel about me and it is very positive. My book is the 2nd top rated racing book at Amazon and the reviews are amazing. I honestly feel if you work hard on the ideas above, that for a short time there might be a couple of bumps in the road but after that, your reviews will be amazing and you will be what this sport has needed for years!! You might be the only man in the country that can pull this off and I hope and pray that you are up to the task and like the ideas. They are Bold! I look forward to hearing from you and your thoughts or questions about the ideas and once again, Thank You very much for your time!! 

Best, Glenn

Glenn - we thank you. 

PETA and the Wolves

     I'm afraid that in response to the recent video by PETA, the horse industry will pull yet another fast one on an unknowing public, and support a self-imposed "ban on race day medication" rather than support the passage of the Interstate Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2013, which is stalled in congress, just like anything else that might bring real change to the status-quo. 

     The self-imposed ban will include a long list of banned drugs - but Lasix won't be on it. In effect, a ban such as that is no ban at all. Lasix is the key to the fraud because it masks the banned drugs - while also enhancing performance. If anyone points out this glaring omission (which is unlikely, because not many people really know anything about horseracing these days) the industry groups will start in with the "bleeding" crap. They have sponsored "scientific studies" supporting their claim and their reasoning will appear bullet-proof. 

     This excuse, of course, is a giant farce. A fraction of thoroughbred race horses are bleeders, and bleeders shouldn't race at all. They should not be given medication that then allows them to race despite their natural physical inability to do so without courting disaster. These horses should go into other disciplines, like eventing, or be used as therapy horses. But that's another story for another day.

     Lasix is a diuretic that depletes the horse of electrolytes and minerals. This, in turn, weakens the bones and thus contributes to breakdowns. Diuretic abuse weakens the entire horse as well, just as it would a person, and has an array of negative health consequences. In such a fragile, or delicately balanced, animal as the thoroughbred - changes in health often affect the hooves. Every horse person has heard the axiom "no foot, no horse." When "feet" are bad, if the horse is not rested adequately and treated carefully, laminitis and colic are just around the corner. These are killers of a great many champion horses.

    Diuretics also cause the heart to race and the horse feels nervous and panicky. The same is true for humans. When a horse panics getting into the gate, or inside the gate, it is dangerous for the horse, the jockey, and all the handlers. The tachycardia can also lead to heart attacks and death - especially with strenuous exercise such as racing. 

     In addition, horses are already prone to electrolyte loss, which is why they should have salt licks freely available to them at all times. Lasix does the opposite of what a salt lick is for, and to an exponentially higher degree. Salt-licks are meant to maintain the horse's electrolyte balance, and Lasix devastates it completely.

     The horse loses an enormous amount of weight every time Lasix is administered. But that's what the bad guys like, because a light & fast horse can win. In addition, the Lasix masks the use of the other substances, which can also help a horse to win. Winning means everything in racing - not because of the meaning of the sporting achievement, but because of the money involved. Short term financial gains outweigh the long term health of the horse. Despite the fact that it is torturous to the horse mentally, and detrimental to the horse physically, Lasix is like manna from heaven (or hell) to these trainers because it comes with this bleeding excuse. How clever. How perfect to scare state legislatures with - "but if we stop the Lasix - they'll all bleed! Then nobody will come to the track and you won't get your share of our revenues!" It's a bogeyman that pseudo-horsemen have scared every racetracker with and greedy vets like Harthill and Hunt have created, and it's a death sentence for the horses who become garbage to these monsters anyway, once their usefulness at the track has come to an end. It takes very clever men & women to get into vet school, but it looks like they need character exams as well.

     Isn't it strange, though, how the Middle Easterners and the Irish buy our horses, run them in their countries without Lasix, and nobody bleeds? Isn't it odd how Animal Kingdom was able to win the World Cup without Lasix and without any bleeding as well? A 10 million dollar purse AND a healthy horse to boot - but this requires REAL horse training skills, such as those H. Graham Motion and a select group of others do posess. The superstar factory trainers like Asmussen & Baffert do not have such ability and skill, and neither do the minions they employ. And these people are scared of being out of a job. 

     Well, I pray with all my heart that their time has finally come and racing can return to a state of rarified skill & sportsmanship, and appreciation for the thoroughbred's beauty. The cheaters can go run a different kind of Ponzi scheme - one without the involvement of innocent animals.

Waterlemons

     Life can be a real kick in the head sometimes. I'll work so hard at something and be so stringent in self discipline, and yet - it will all fall apart or amount to nothing. Lately I've found that if, in these moments, I refuse to collapse...if I remain just as tough as I had been...if I force myself to look around instead of down...if I skip the high tailing it in retreat, and if I reject that dark, dank, despairing place of selfish isolation - I find that there is aid - and also "ade" to be made from even the most sour & bitter of lemons. Even when they are dealt with a low blow, and even when they come from a hard-losing hand.  

     I make ade from a memories, and happy, lucky stories, and by listening to people at times when I want to block everyone out. I always find aid when I give it to other people - especially during the times I feel least able to help. When I leap and I manage to land beyond myself, I find ade flowing by the gallon - from sources undiscovered but now found. They are sublime. 

     When my daughter was tiny she would mix up certain words, like tomato and potato, and others of like kinds. My favorite was a brand new fruit she had started growing - along those beautiful little vines in her mind. 

     At the diner, when they serve water there's usually a lemon perched on the glass. She didn't like anything touching her precious water and would often protest to me with the waitress already in mid-pour, pleading "no water lemon no water lemon" and if she spoke sentences yet, I guess she'd continue with the words "on mine." 

     One day when she was a little older, we were in the supermarket and she requested we buy a strange fruit. "Can we get a water lemon mommy?" "Sure, but why?" I had replied, figuring she meant the water lemon from the diner. "You hate water with lemon, baby - why do you want me to buy it?" Her face scrunched up and I saw that a small little light went on, but she asked again, in a voice that was a little less sure. This time she pointed as she said the words a little closer together, "Waterlemon, mommy?" So I turned, and looked, and recognized the verbal mismatch she had made in her brain.

     "Oh! Watermelon! You mean you want a watermelon!" I exclaimed, as I broke into a big smile. The excitement bloomed nearly instantly in her eyes, and her facial expression so quickly matched mine - it was the absolute pinnacle of the beauty of young life - brand new, and just learning this world. 

     "Ya!" she said. "Waterlemon!" Which, for some reason, I found hilarious, and erupted into my maniacally loud laugh. Now, this turned a few heads in that staid environment, among the mid-day supermarket clientele. These were mostly slow-moving retirees who shop with coupons, and always according to a strict routine. This reaction, of course, she loved to no end. "Waterlemon!" She exclaimed louder, and then repeatedly, with ever-more enthusiasm & pride. "Waterlemon! Waterlemon! WATERLEMON!" Naturally, this prompted more cackles from me, and more stares from the slow-moving oldies. And this made her laugh, and bubble and spurt, among her exclamations of this imaginary fruit's name. Eventually I lost my breath and she couldn't stop baby-giggling at this cacophonous spectacle of impossibly loud laughter, chortles, snorts, and outraged senior citizens. 

     I don't remember how we got out of that giggle-fest, but I thought of the misnomer today and smiled. Waterlemonade was my aid today, amongst others. Here's hoping we all make a ton of that stuff.