Bellbrook graduation 2012
Fairfield Senior 2012 graduation
Kroger Aquatic Center opens
Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > January > 08
Thursday, January 8, 2009
blog: Death at the Race Track
First Eight Belles — now eight more.
While the race track death of Eight Belles — the champion filly who had finished second in last year’s Kentucky Derby, then broke down just past the finish line and was euthanized on the track — shocked the public and stirred demands for racing safety, something even more disturbing has come to light this week.
Suddenly, The Sport of Kings is looking like The Sport of Coffins.
Kentucky horse racing officials announced that last month — in the 21 days of racing that make up Turfway Park’s Holiday Meet — there were eight fatal breakdowns on the Polytrack surface of the Northern Kentucky track just outside Cincinnati.
That’s two times as many on-track deaths as there were in 2007 Mary Scollay, the equine medical director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, told reporters. She also noted that another horse died in the Turfway paddock last December.
There’s also talk that there have been a rash of injuries in morning training sessions at the track, though no statistics are kept on work-outs.
Burr Travis, a Cincinnati-area attorney who races horses at the track, told a Lexington equine writer he’d heard stories that as many as 14 other horses had been injured in the morning sessions in December.
Dr. Bryce Peckham, the chief veterinarian of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, said figures show there were 16 ambulance runs to carry injured or sick horses from the track last month.
The synthetic racing surface — which is a mix of sand, recycled rubber and wax-coated polypropylene fibers — was put in at Turfway in September of 2005 because it was considered safer than dirt, would drain better and reduce winter cancellations.
Initially, the surface was praised by everyone.
Keeneland and Arlington Park outside Chicago use the same kind of Polytrack surface. Santa Anita in California uses a different kind of artificial surface — its called Pro-Rule — and it’s had an alarming five breakdowns since Dec. 26 — three of them which were fatal.
While jockeys and horsemen at Turfway — including those from Ohio racing at the track this winter — are said to have voiced no specific concerns about the synthetic surface , there had been some debate over the ban of the cleat-like toe grabs on horseshoes.
In response, Turfway — which finds itself under a microscope when it resumes racing this afternoon — has lifted the ban on rear toe grabs.
The rules were put in place last year after the death of Eight Belles, who had toe grabs on her front shoes.
Some horsemen believe without toe grabs on the rear shoes, horses might not be able to get good traction with their rear, thrusting legs and that could cause too much weight and torque on the fragile front legs.
Of the eight December deaths at Turfway, six of the catastrophic injuries involved left front legs. Just one of the fatalities occurred when horses clipped heels during a race.
While Kentucky racing officials and Turfway personnel are alarmed at the rash of fatal injuries, they are at a loss as to exactly what — if any one thing — is causing the problems.
“We really can’t connect the dots,” Turfway president Bob Elliston told reporters.
Regardless, everyone gets the picture and it is not a pretty one.
The animals deserve far better and those running racing better figure it out quickly because there has been a dramatic drop off in wagering during this economic downturn.
Safety issues — and the public relations cloud that comes with it — could turn even more people away from the sport.
Tweet
