Horse racing: the real dirty little secrets!

Eight Belles, Ferdinand, Charismatic and Barbaro. Do these names ring a bell? These are all names of horses that have either died or been injured on the race track. Most people who love racing fail to see the unnecessary hazards that both Jockey and horse have to face.

Jockeys are forced to starve themselves, to constantly exercise and train only to receive a very minimal paycheck. They are expected to not only support their families, but also their sport. This can be very costly not only to their bank account, but also their health. Much like teenage girls with body image issues, Jockeys are forced to stay thin at all costs. They have great risk of such disorders as Anorexia and Bulimia. However the Jockeys are not the ones that are the main victims here, the horses are.

You would think that trainers and horse owners would want to keep these top money earning horses in good health right? WRONG! Most race horse owners and trainers will do anything; including using performance enhancing drugs to win a race AKA horse doping. Riddle me this, if it is not ok for professional athletes to use performance enhancing drugs such as steroids, then why is it ok for horses? According to Slate.com among the 38 states with horse racing, 28 have no regulations at all concerning anabolic steroids. The only two states that have agreed to make horse doping completely illegal are Maine and Kentucky. Have these people no sense of heart for these horses? Also, the repercussions if any for trainers and horse owners that do this are as light as a slap on the hand. So while they just usually have to pay a mere fine, horses are left to suffer both physically and mentally. Someone tell me how is that fair. Take the Kentucky Derby winner Thoroughbred Big Brown for instance. Not too long after he won the Kentucky Derby in 2008, his trainer Rick Dutro admitted to giving all of his horses, which includes Eight Belles, a monthly dose of Winstrol which is an anabolic steroid. Not only was he risking the health and well being of many horses including million dollar horses like Big Brown and Eight Belles, but he was also giving them an unfair advantage. Whatever happened to playing fair? Trainers don’t even have to sneak around for the drug, it is put right in front of them to use as they wish.

As I had talked about in another post, it is important for a horse’s health not to run/ride them too young. Horse racing is a prime example of this. Their skeleton is not grown/strong enough to support having a person on their back and running at top speeds simultaneously. This can lead to serious injuries, disorders and even death. Take Eight Belles for example. She had a great career until May 3, 2008. It was the Kentucky Derby and she was just behind Big Brown. Right when she crossed the finish line to take second she collapsed on both front legs. This caused both of her front ankles to fracture and she was so badly hurt that they had to euthanize her right on the track. Now I ask myself, if she was fully grown and her skeleton was strong enough to carry someone on her back and run at a speed of thirty miles per hour, would the injury have been this bad? My answer: of course not. Not only that but racing these horses at such a young age can cause early arthritis or plague them with a disease called laminitis that can cause permanent damage to the front and hind legs. The list drags on and on. Also, when horses are retired from the track, most people will not adopt them because of the potential for these disorders. For some of the retired horses, they are sent to Japan where race betting is more popular and stud fees (what people pay to have their mare breed to a stallion) are higher. However the down side to this is that once their stud fee gets below a certain point the stallion is sent to slaughter. The other more happy option is that they are sent to a retirement farm or an adoption farm. Some though are not so fortunate, they are sent right to slaughter houses.

Not that I am some PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals.) supporter, nor am I completely against horse racing, but I do think that there needs to be stronger rules against horse doping, when the horses can race and ways to reduce pressure on Jockeys both health and money wise. So the next time you watch a race like the Breeders Cup or the Kentucky Derby, stop and think for a minute about what the Jockeys and the horses had to do to get there.