Shedding the Old - by Dan Liebman

re: Shedding the Old - by Dan Liebman

Alexander — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:33:25 GMT

Please tell me exactly how these are in any way the "best of times" for the thoroughbred breeding industry. (I fully understand how they are indeed "the worst of times.") The premise of your article is ludicrous. Who are you kidding?

re: Shedding the Old - by Dan Liebman

sid fernando — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:57:08 GMT

Dan, a very nice piece.

re: Shedding the Old - by Dan Liebman

stardust — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:34:17 GMT

We really need to get a handle on the breeding of these race horses. That would help so much. That is a huge problem and that is why there are so many un wanted horses. It is really sad but it all starts with the breeding. If we can get that aced, we are on the right path.

re: Shedding the Old - by Dan Liebman

Lord at War — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:29:35 GMT

Why does the fear of the economic downturn lie upon the shoulders of the "big owners"? What are "big owners?" Big owners are the people,. the person, the contingency, the Hedgefundesque grouping, which we see on television, living in the glitz and glamor of the upper tiers of racetrack society as they anxiously await their opportunity in a graded stakes race that has been circled more times on a calendar than a child's Christmas. There is coverage from Horse A 's last race to the next race, sometimes months, not weeks between the two. We get updates, interviews, pictures, workout information, sappy stories behind the scenes (albeit some are very serious, colonel John, shesadevilsdue, flanders) daily. Now we see the coverage, we see the immense potential this one horse has, and in one quick interview, one turned page in Blood Horse, one quick photo, we have the opportunity to stand back and say, "WE'VE FAILED!We've failed at covering horseracing!" The job of being a columnist or a beat writer should be to increase fan support through fundamentals and introductory events that have established what it once meant to be a horseman. not covering how many times Rick Dutrow, has called someone "babe" in an interview, or "lets see if larry jones is exponentially more depressed than he was the other day." This isnt what we need. We need people looking into steroids issues, blood doping, race fixing, "toteboard anomalies"

why would i say We've Failed Well we just spent the month and half between races talking about one horse. Thats what the problem is. We are not getting the coverage of the working man- the groom, the trainer, the hotwalker, the vet, the farrier, the racing secretary. Does anyone know that the most important person in racing is the racing secretary???? They dictate the races, which horses are allowed to compete, when the race will be run, the weights, the ages, and what horse will be in what post position. That's right, i said it. post positions. Race Fixing. TABOO. Nobody wants to talk about it, calling any bad luck you are given "racing luck" and any "good luck" something that will never occur again.

My two points out of this are simple:

The downtime I spoke of, for that one horse in between races, is a waste. Lets remember that while we are all waiting for Horse A to run his next race in 45 days or so, lets support the support. Thats right, support the support. The are trainers that work twice as hard as others and may never see their names written in a newspaper as many times as one may see the names Pletcher, Asmussen, Baffert. Lets think why these guys are famous? Big owners!!!!! When it is considered wrong to put a groom on anything more than 7 horses a day, lets think about that these guys training have hundreds of horses in training, at different racetracks, at different parts of the world, nevermind the country, and seem to maintain a level of consistency that is hard to comprehend especially when dealing with 300+ INDIVIDUAL HORSES. DONESNT ANYBODY GET IT????? Consider racing a group of 9 experiments conducted at a racetrack in one day. You have 9 races, ave starters 8, distances that range from 4.5 furlongs to 1 1/4 miles, sometimes more, sometimes less. Weather, track condition, opponents, post position, jockey weights, trainer changes, equipment changes, scratches, etc. All of these variables shape the race and how it will turnout. Trainers have found ways around this over the years as the evolution of blood doping agents, milkshakes, steroids, class I-III Meds has superceded the nebulous concept of a horse's form. We can have all of the regulatory committees we want to establish drug rules, but if no one is watching all aspects of the testing procedure lets consider that there may be opportunity to take advantage of the system. Perhaps knowing people in the testing labs, knowing people in the regulatory committees, knowing people in the stewards office. And by "knowing" i mean "greasing the pockets" and by people i mean "accomplices". Has anyone ever thought that possibly with all the money and power that lies behind those real silk silks orepresenting the owners, the procurement of a testing machine that mimics and achieves the same processes and results as one in a state lab office could happen....and probably already has...many times over? Its time to turn the spotlight off whats hollywood in racing and shine that light on the working man, and the people involved with everyday horseracing...just to let them know we are watching them.

re: Shedding the Old - by Dan Liebman

Abbie Knowles — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:20:59 GMT

A great article and thought provoking. It would be so good if less mares were bred!!!!

Foal sharing is a good idea and may help many of the smaller breeders. As you write it shows that the Farms have faith in their stallions.

Creative thinking is indeed needed to ride out the recession and economy slump and perhaps it is time to look at different ways of doing things and to try new ideas.

However i have faith that there are enough people in horse racing to do the above so that the sport can come through stronger, better and healthier! Just as in our lives suffering can strengthen us; so it could be true for our beloved sport. I am not happy that things are so tough but i am an optimist and hope and believe that good can come out of this.

God Bless

Best wishes

Abbie

re: Shedding the Old - by Dan Liebman

Wanda — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:07:56 GMT

Regarding your comments about the sales commissions. In Alberta many years ago they set up breeders bonuses for Alberta breds. It seemed like a good plan but the horse had to win for more than 10,000$ claiming to receive the bonus. When asked why the cut off was so high, the comment from Dr.Reid{chairperson,Horse Racing Alberta} was breeders will try to breed better horses. That make no sense as we are a very small market with the average at the yearling sale about 6000$ any given year.Bottom claim is 5000$ where the majority of Alta breds race. They have one day of stakes for Alta breds only.Most of the stakes are open including the Canadian Derby. I'm all for improving the breed but when you shut out the guys that breed useful horses and are the majority that full all these cheap races,then something is very wrong with the system.