I made a point of not watching the Kentucky Derby this year to protest the needless death of Barbaro. You can imagine my outrage when I learned that another horse has been been killed because of this so-called “sport of kings”.
Eight Belles, the only female horse in the race, came in second but broke both her front ankles and was euthanized on the track.
How many more beautiful animals have to die before this cruel “sport” is finally outlawed?
First, why do you place sport in quotes? It is no less a sport than basketball or baseball, and with fewer scandals in recent years. And it can’t be because the animals don’t enjoy it because horses love to race each other, be they thoroughbreds or plugs running laps of the back forty.
Second, what would you expect the fate of those beautiful animals without racing? Many are too highly strung to make good pleasure rides (they become dog food or French cuisinee), so the breed would die out, though not without lending their best qualities (not including their skinny ankles) to other, perhaps less attractive but more tractable, breeds.
Yes, three years old is too young to go pro. And yes, I can see why you are heartsick–you had Barbaro and I had Ruffian–but banning the sport is too much. Anyway, it’s dying on its own.
Before anyone begins Reporting this thread for not being in The Game Room as a sport discussion, I will note that the Mods have seen it.
I actually do not know whether it would be better moved there, so we’ll watch it a while to see how it shapes up.
[ /Modding ]
Horses like to run. I don’t see it as cruel. The other day’s incident was unfortunate but so it goes. There’s risk in everything, animals are subject to man’s dominion. I bet that’s even in the Bible somewhere.
I don’t know what I think about this issue, other than finding the deaths of these horses very sad, but I don’t think much of “horses like to run” as a defense for horse racing. While horses do like to run accidents probably happen frequently as a result, I don’t know if horse races look anything like what happens in nature. In ‘real life,’ if a horse is running and wants to stop, he’ll stop. In a race, the horse is whipped to encourage him to keep running. Does that lead to more injuries? I don’t know. But it makes for an inexact comparison.
I didn’t know horses read the Bible! What wonderful animals.
I expect horse racing is as old as the domestication of horses. It will only stop when people lose interest in it. As noted above it is dying in the US at least. Its not over moral issues though.
The track owners haven’t been able to make it an attractive enough experience which is why they’re clamoring for slot machines at the tracks in my state. For me, just the experience of watching the extremely beautiful horses run flat out is enough.
If you want to be strict about it, any type of domestication of animals must be morally wrong. Sheep dogs are subject to cold and wet and encounters with predators. Saddle horses for pleasure riding must be cruel too. Imagine having a bit put in your mouth.
Don’t even think about the creatures we raise solely to eat.
What makes you think so?
If it is, it’s probably because it’s boring. What we really need is an equestrian sport with some occasional human casualties! Bring back chariot racing! 
And where do you draw the line? Racing thoroughbreds is bad, but racing quarter horses is okay (far fewer troubles there). How about pacer and trotter racing? What about the sport of cross-country?
I am skeptical of most any issue that has PETA as its strongest advocate. Unless you accept the idea that domestication of animals for any purpose other than to provide service to humans is wrong, it’s hard to see how racing animals is inherently a bad thing.
I don’t have a firm opinion - ISTM that horse-racing could be modified to make it more humane, but to know for sure I’d need to know more than I do.
First of all, it’s “thoroughbred” racing, whatever that means. So, what does that mean? Does a horse have to have a pedigreed ancestry to race? Or can any old horse be entered in a stakes race that would demonstrate his fitness for the Triple Crown races? Are thoroughbreds demonstrably the fastest horses, or are they simply the only ones racing?
ISTM that this is a relevant question because it sure seems like thoroughbred horses could use a bit more genetic diversity than is in their gene pool these days. Also, the durability of horses seems to be way down over time: Man O’ War ran 21 times as a 2- and 3-year old. Citation had 27 wins in the same age range. No one would even think about running a horse that many times at that age now - but the likelihood that they’d simply fall apart well before that suggests that the breed’s getting more fragile.
And unlike human track-and-field athletes, who seem to routinely break old records in the absence of any breeding program, it seems that new speed records by horses are much more of a rarity - or at least it did back when I was still paying attention to the sport. Is that a correct impression, and if so, why all the emphasis on breeding if it isn’t doing much good?
And why the centrality of 3 year old horses, other than “it’s always been that way”? Would the people who run the sport be open to moving the Triple Crown races to 4- or 5-year old horses, or simply making it open to a range of ages?
And of course: is there a point in reforming racing anyway, given that it’s a sport in decline? Here in Maryland, home of the Preakness Stakes (second jewel in the Triple Crown), they’re saying that we need slots at racetracks to keep the tracks financially viable. (Let’s avoid any hijack about why the sport should be subsidized in such a manner; I’m just pointing out that the sport’s not doing well here.) Should it just be left to die on its own, on the assumption that it’ll eventually self-euthanize?
I have a phone call from Mr. Middle, he says he’s being excluded. 
There are some people who make this argument, but if we say racing is cruel because you get one or two deaths every 1,000 starts, that doesn’t mean it’s cruel to use sheepdogs because they get wet.
NPR did a story last Friday saying that the numbers are down across the country and talking about what they can (and are) doing to try to get them back up. Many tracks are putting in slot machines. I didn’t pay enough attention to be able to quote numbers for you though.
That’s certainly not the inference I’d draw from such a trend. In baseball, pitchers get much more rest than they used to 30 years ago, but it obviously has nothing to do with the breed getting more fragile. Rather, it has (mostly) to do with a new conception of the safest and most efficient way to use those athletes. I’m no horse racing expert, but I’d be surprised if the trend you cite isn’t the result of something similar.
Here’s a concise history of racing.
Thoroughbreds are a distinct breed, but by far not the only one that is raced, in this country and abroad. What you see in the Triple Crown are all TBs, and that segment of the horse racing world is restricted to that breed. Other breeds commonly raced at the gallop are Quarter Horses (explosive sprinters), Appaloosas and Paints
which are sprinters like the QH. Arabians are also raced, at TB distances or longer, since they’re built for endurance, and in fact are the stars of endurance races covering 25 to 100 miles. Heck, even mules are raced, and here’s the video to prove it.
Harness horses race at the trot (opposite hind and forelegs move together) and the pace (same-side legs move together).
Part of the difference in number of times per year raced comes down to different management, yes, but not all. My apologies, I don’t have time right now to do the research and marshall the facts, but modern breeding practices are tending to produce more fragile animals.
And the racing of two-year-olds is an abomination. Full stop.
To the extent that this actually represents an improvement in efficiency for baseball players, it’s effective because instead of pitching Pitcher A 300 innings, you’re pitching him 200 innings and putting other guys on the mound in place of Pitcher A’s weakest 100 innings who are better than Pitcher A in Innings 201-300. And since there’s a fixed number of innings to be pitched, this works.
I’m not sure that really applies to thoroughbred racing, where there’s no fixed number of miles to be raced by a given stable.
Agreed. While I understand that owners would like to make back their investments ASAP, I’d like 3 year olds become 3-1/2 year olds. Hell, horses are often FASTER when they’re older.
As for the creepy lack of genetic diversity in thoroughbred racing, all the entrants in this year’s Kentucky Derby were descendants of Native Dancer and ALL Thoroughbreds, by definition, can be traced back to only three stallions and 74 mares. There might be more diversity among cheetahs.
Yes. This should stop. It is not a “sport” in the same way baseball, football, etc., are sports. It is a “sport” in the same way motorcycle and car racing are sports. The human uses another’s power to achieve his end. In this case, the “other” is an animal. The fact that serious cash is changing hands every step of the way, and these animals are being pushed to the limit so others can win wagers makes this barbaric.
How many burgers could one horse be processed into?
Seinfeld on…
I’ll tell you one thing the horses definitely do not know.
They do not know that if you should accidentally trip
and break your leg at any point during the race
we blow your brains out.
I think they’re missing that little tidbit of information.
I think if they knew that
you’d see some mighty careful stepping coming down that home stretch.
“Take it easy, take it easy.”
“You win, I’ll place… whatever.”
“The important thing is your health.”
As far as diversifying bloodlines, is there a reason big-stakes flat racing in the US isn’t open to all breeds? On a totally objective basis, is there any reason an Anglo-Arab or Akhal-Teke shouldn’t be allowed to enter the Derby–other than tradition? I realize TBs would still dominate, having been created for the task, but if racing exists as a challenge to breed the fastest horse (like dog shows theoretically exist as a challenge to breed the “perfect” specimen), is there any reason we don’t allow mixed-breed horses to race against TBs?
