The time has come to start getting real about this wonderful sport that we all love so much. I feel blessed to have spent my life striving to reach a goal that I may never reach, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I will never stop trying. I just turned 80, can feel the sunny slope…anyway, enough of that!
I have been in the horse business in one form or another, for close to 60 years. I used to drive 125,000 miles a year and bought Thoroughbred mares from the old Narragansett Park Racetrack in Providence, Rhode Island to Charles Town, West Virginia. This was before the sales companies got so strong. I would buy and sell 85 to 90 mares a year. During this time, I met a lot of wonderful people that make their living with horses. What I am wanting to say is this…We are all so blessed to be in this Thoroughbred Industry. The challenges we are going to face in the coming months and years are like nothing our generation or the past generation has ever faced. Thanks to our current worldwide economic situation, prices are rising at a frightening pace. i.e. I spent $47,000 on fuel last year, it will double this year. The effect on our industry will be devastating.
This is not the time to be trying to take a hard stand or implement major changes. This is the time to find common ground and come together as lovers of the sport of horse racing. There are thousands of people at the smaller tracks that get up and go to work, just like those in the upper tier of our industry. Everyone has the same dream, to get their hands on a great horse. Before this crisis is over, everyone will be tested. A great many will go under. Right now, less than 2% of the world's population gets to do what we do…we are blessed to work in this industry.
Let's take this wonderful sport, often call the Sport of Kings, and make it the sport of the people. We are the selected few, all with one common goal. We have people making the rules for our industry that do not know what they cost. We are running races at our best tracks, with five-horse fields. Cut it out and get real. We stand together, or we all go down.
E.H. Beau Lane, owner and breeder at Woodline Farm
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