Letter to the Editor: Richard B. Shapiro

Richard B. Shapiro is the former Chairman and a member California Horse Racing Board from 2004 to 2008.

Anyone with a pulse has been heartbroken with every one of the too many horse fatalities that has transpired at racetracks around the world. While Santa Anita has been the main focus here in the “States” the current debate surrounding horse racings problems and challenges go well beyond one track; the situation is intolerable and unacceptable.
Having been involved in horse racing my entire life, it has been a lifelong passion and it is so very hard to sit on the sidelines and not want to try and help address this very complicated problem. The reality is there is not one solution, there is not any easy fix, and there are no silver bullets that will solve the situation. Those that think there is neglect, a lack of compassion, or criminality involved might be well intentioned but profoundly misguided.
Just over a decade ago I was the Chairman and a member of the California Horse Racing Board. I had a pulpit from which to speak and was very outspoken over the same issues then that we are all witnessing today. Unfortunately, going back in time you will realize that the current catastrophic injury rate existed back around that time. Everyone was alarmed and many felt that the track surface at Santa Anita and other tracks were the main cause of the problems. The industry came together, and most people will say that I led the charge to change the dirt racing surfaces to new synthetic surfaces that were comprised for the most part as a combination of sand, carpet fiber, rubber and wax.
With the support of all of the various stakeholders, with near unanimity, the Racing Board mandated that the dirt surfaces be replaced with synthetics. Santa Anita, Del Mar, Hollywood Park and Golden Gate all installed synthetic surfaces, but regrettably each track chose a different vendor, a different variation of a synthetic surface.
At first the industry was pleased, and everyone was hopeful that a partial solution had been found. And, in fact the rate of fatalities did decrease significantly; fewer horses were dying. But, as time went on the new tracks fell out of favor for a variety of reasons. Some trainers felt that while fewer horses were dying on the tracks there were more soft tissue injuries, there were respiratory problems for both horse and rider and the tracks themselves were very difficult to maintain or provide a consistent surface from morning to evening in a single day. Some trainers felt the surfaces were worse than dirt, and within a relatively short period of time all of the tracks except for Golden Gate went back to dirt racing surfaces. In hindsight the first version of the synthetics did have flaws, but just going back to dirt and not trying to come up with better synthetics, perhaps more hybrids of the original versions could have been a more successful option than just going back to square one.
Since I “left” racing, I got involved in riding Hunter/Jumpers. And to my surprise every arena at every show was on a synthetic surface. Climb aboard a horse and jump just a four foot fence and you will feel the impact of a horse landing only on its two front feet. The force of that landing is enormous. If you attend any top level jumping competition you will see horses jumping six to seven foot high fences where they land on their front feet and none of them break down. How is that possible? Is it the surfaces they use? Is it that different breeds of horses are stronger? There is something to learn here, but who is looking and studying what racing might learn or adopt from this equine sport.
So here we are again. Only this time the politicians, district attorneys, and the public are all watching with outrage and wanting to abolish the sport. Abolishing the sport is not the answer for a multitude of reasons. With approximately 27,000 race horses born each year, where would all of the hundreds of thousands of unwanted race horses go? I shutter to think of what might lie ahead for them. And, the economic impact would be devastating to the tens of thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on horse racing. The sport is at a crossroad, but let's be proactive rather then reactive and find solutions to the challenges facing racing today so tomorrow can be better for all.
Let me be clear, I have no agenda, I am not aligned with any segment of the industry, I don't own or breed any horses: I don't have a dog in the fight other than for my life long love of the sport. My only desire and purpose of writing this is my profound sorrow for the horses and jockeys, and what is continuing to take place in the industry. I want to see the fatalities disappear but not the industry.
Racing needs a singular governing body that unifies the 37 or so States that conduct horse racing. Racing is a fragmented industry and it needs uniform rules that can unify and govern the industry including permissible and non permissible medication usage, acceptable and unacceptable medical procedure applications, transparent veterinarian records for all horses, and pre-race protocols and examinations of all horses.
Fatalities will never be zero, lets be realistic, but they can be far less. Just look overseas and you will find that in Europe the fatality rate is half of what it is in the States. We need to learn what they are doing that we aren't. Racing needs to also recognize and accept that the Thoroughbred of today is simply not as durable as the breed used to be. Horses are more fragile today; just look at how many fewer races a horse races in their career than in past decades.
The truth is that the golden ring in the sport is the sales ring not the winner's circle. Win a Kentucky Derby, and well, you've hit the jackpot because the off spring of that horse will bring in boatloads of money from its offspring in the horse sales arena. The breeding business is big business and it is time to also look at pedigrees and durability of the horses being raised today. Once foals are born that are headed to a sales arena, the goal is to make sure that horse has the best possible conformation. Medical procedures are performed almost immediately so that when the horse lands in the sales ring he looks as perfect as possible. Who is studying the correlation between medical procedures and eventual breakdowns to see if this could be a contributing factor? No one would be my guess.
Kudos should be given to the industry participants who are doing everything in their power to lessen racing and training fatalities, and their willingness to do any forensic or diagnostic testing possible to reduce the number of horse deaths.
California has for years been performing necropsy exams on all racing fatalities, but what have we learned from them that will prevent future deaths? What changes in racing and training protocols have been suggested or developed? It's useful to know what happened but what about how to prevent them from happening? And what about new advancements to save the horse rather than euthanize them? What is being done to find new alternatives that could allow horses to recover rather than be euthanized? Racing must think out of the box, the status quo just isn't going to work.
I am glad the situation has finally reached a fevered pitch because it turns my stomach and breaks my heart every time I see a horse go down. These horses are athletes and injuries occur in every sport, let's not expect to be perfect, but surely racing must do better. Don't just look at the track surface, or medication usage, look at everything, put everything on the table, as the saying goes “look under every rock.” Let's not let another decade go by just to be in the same place as we are today; if not extinct.