Racing's Biggest Problem, and the Solution: Conrad Bandoroff

In a new TDN series, we are asking industry participants what racing's biggest problem is, and what the solution to that problem is.

   Today, we ask Denali Stud's Conrad Bandoroff, “What do you think is racing's biggest problem?”

I would identify one of the biggest problems in racing right now as the role of the regulatory vet. Especially, as it relates to race day scratches and the frustration that stems from that for owners and trainers. This is speaking from an unbiased third party, as someone who doesn't have a lot of horses in training, but speaks to a lot of owners and trainers who feel that sound horses are getting scratched and they don't have an answer for it. They don't have a recourse for it.

We're all proponents for safety, and that's paramount, but I think we've gotten to a situation where, in some cases, the easiest thing to do is scratch a horse rather than give it the benefit of the doubt or accept that a trainer says “this is the horse's normal gait” or “he loosens up when he gets onto the track.”

I think that for a lot of people, that's the biggest pain point in racing right now. They have a horse, they've paid months of training, they built it up for this race, they have all this time and money invested to get it to this point. Then, it falls on the shoulders of one person to determine whether or not that horse is fit to go into the starting gate. And that's an awful lot of burden for one person to bear.

What is the solution?

My proposed solution would be, in the event that a trainer disagrees with the decision that a regulatory vet makes regarding a scratch, there should be some recourse or a panel to go to, whether that's an attending vet, or maybe a panel of three other vets that are unrelated to the trainer and the connections, and reassess that horse. Obviously, this would have to take place in the days, or day, leading up to the event; it would be much harder to do on race day. It couldn't necessarily apply to race day scratches, because the appeal process would take too long. But there should be some recourse in trying to get down the rate of vet scratches in the races.

Recently, in Kentucky, the required time a horse must remain on the vet list after being vet-scratched was reduced from two weeks to one week. I think that all stems from the amount of frustration that is being harbored as a result of the current situation.

I think if this continues as it is, what is happening and what will continue to happen, is you'll have owners exit the industry. They will get frustrated to the point that this source of entertainment will no longer be fun for them. You've heard some trainers express a level of frustration to the point that they've said that they're going to accelerate their retirement. For example, Kenny McPeek has loudly voiced his frustrations over the current climate. The role of the trainer should be to focus on training and the health of their horses. They shouldn't be having to consistently worry about getting scratched by the regulatory vet.

I'm not trying to paint the regulatory vet as the villain here. They're just trying to do their job to ensure that racing is as safe as it can be, and that's absolutely what everybody wants. We just need to make sure that it's done in as fair a way as possible, so that horses aren't needlessly being scratched, and that you aren't driving people away from the sport due to rising frustrations.

If you were to look at world-class events like the Breeders' Cup especially, I'd like to see these changes implemented, where you would see this appeal process in place and people would be working alongside the regulatory vets. You'd have world-class veterinarians being able to consult with the state regulatory vets and evaluate these horses, therefore enabling them to do a better job, because they would have access to renowned fellow veterinarians to collaborate with. It would only improve the sport and the ownership experience that goes with it, in turn improving the longevity of the sport. It would hopefully increase the number of starters in the gate, which would help to increase handle, and have similar knock-on effects. I think if done the right way, you would see an increase in important key metrics across the board, which will improve the health of the sport on a pretty significant scale.

Emma Hunter is a first-year trainee in the Godolphin Flying Start program. She is a native of Cork, Ireland. The first horse she ever foaled was Noble Yeats, winner of the 2022 Grand National, who was bred by her family.