Photo by: Erica Miller
I live near a famous race track, Saratoga. This is where the elite come for "The Season" to wear their ugly hats and gossip, and the tourists come to place wagers on long shots with dreams of becoming a millionaire. Everyone admires the beautiful horses. They are shiny, regal, and fine toned equine athletes. Some of them sold for tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars as untried yearlings.
This year, only two weeks into the season, eight horses have died, breaking down during a race or in training. That is more than than usual so early into the meet, although horse deaths at Saratoga have ranged from 9-16 a year since 2009. Some say that the issue is the changes in the footing and exercise riders have complained that the footing is heavy and deep after 7:30 am as more horses churn it up during their morning gallops, and a tired horse is always more prone to injury.
There are many other opinions that range from the animal rights crowd that claims horse racing is cruel and should be banned to the indifferent opinions that the horses are made to race and it happens.
My view is somewhere in the middle of this. Although there are good owners and trainers in racing that genuinely have the horses' best interests at heart, there are also bad ones that only care about profit. Add to that the fact that the latter are typically the movers and shakers and those with the most money have the most influence on the sport. To this end, the good owners and trainers are actively penalized.
You see, the greedy owners pay lots of money for young horses and want a return on their investment ASAP. The horses are ridden too early and too hard before their bones and joints are properly formed. This is the reason that you can see a 20 year old horse competing in EVENTING in the Olympics (which in my opinion is more stenuous than racing), whereas you see most race horses broken down, crippled, or dead by the time they are 5-6 years old.
The horses themselves are largely treated as disposable by the racing industry as a whole. It is frankly sickening, and I personally don't understand how anyone that says they love horses can justify supporting the racing industry as it is currently. I don't mind horses being raced, but they need to wait a few more years for the health of the horse. Those owners and trainers that refuse to race their horses so early, lose out on the big stakes races like the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont, etc.
If the large stakes races were for 5 year olds, instead of three year olds, many injuries would probably be prevented. Also, in areas where it is very hot, it would be better to have the races held in the evening when it is cooler. Many horses are on medications to treat inflammation and bleeding in the lungs due to racing in very hot conditions. When they come to Saratoga, those medications are not allowed due to regulations, so the horses have to race in the heat without them, which isn't good.
I have hope that perhaps someday reforms can be made to horse racing to that greatly benefit the horses, prevent injuries, and extend their careers. But that will not happen until people stop being ignorant about the dark side of racing.