Letters to the Editor

Of course, my Dad introduced me to the Thoroughbred business. Both of my parents did. They met each other in the Thoroughbred business at Walmac where my Mom worked. I remember from my childhood, if only vaguely, running around Johnny Jones's offices, pretending to be a cowboy like he was. I dressed as Zorro for Halloween one of those years and couldn't wait to show off to Johnny! My Dad was working at Vinery or maybe Watercress at that time. I remember his red Toyota truck and I remember his...

To David Heckerman's thought-provoking list of Defining Developments might be added another profound change which has occurred in the years since your first visit to Ellis Park. Six decades ago, most Americans had some familiarity with equines of many breeds, not only in the countryside but in towns and cities. This was becoming increasingly rare, of course, but, as a youngster in the 1950s, I remember horse-drawn ice wagons on the streets of New York, and carriage horses and riding stables on the West Side. (Interestingly, television Westerns were at...

The biggest challenge is no one wants a 'fun horse' to win races anymore, they are just a liability, making vendors worry that official times will be harder to shift the bottom half of the sale. You can hit it out of the park on one but staying afloat is about how you shift the other 80% of your horses... As Brian Sheerin says, the times are available for anyone that wants them and I doubt there is a buyer on the sales ground that wouldn't have known how a...

For the last several days, I have been thinking about the best way to respond to Friday's article by T.D. Thornton about Mr. and Mrs. Pimental. The story was disturbing to read, both because of the human story and the picture it paints of the organization I manage. First, it is impossible to not feel tremendous empathy for what the Pimentals are experiencing. Second, the article implied that HISA and HIWU are devoid of concern for regular horsemen, are looking to wipe out smaller training operations, and are ignorant to...

I wanted to add my voice to the growing chorus, led most recently by Amanda Luby and Lucas Marquardt, bringing attention to the existential crisis we face unless we make immediate and critical reforms to the way horse racing is conducted in this country. In the absence of any national body able or prepared to mandate change, it is incumbent on the racetracks themselves to undertake the requisite reforms. Those reforms need to address the interconnectedness between racetrack surfaces and the equine musculoskeletal system. Our access to technology and data...

by Paul H. Saylor Over the years I have read a lot of Bill Finley's articles, and his summary of John Evans's work at Lowell Correctional is one of the best (Having Made a 'Huge Difference', TRF's John Evans Retires). It shines a light on not only the man but also the TRF's work to save horses and humans over the last 40 years.

As a young boy, I spent summers mucking out stalls, painting fences, and helping out on my great-uncle's farm. Early in the mornings, his grandson and I could hear him tapping on the door, telling us to wake up and get moving in Cajun French. "Levez, levez!" We'd jump out of bed and ride down to the track to watch the jockeys breeze the horses as the sun was coming up. Those are memories I fear the next generation might never experience as we battle the Horseracing Integrity and Safety...

A selection of correspondence in response to Emma Berry's Op/Ed 'Long May The Leger Run': I read your article about the St Leger in the TDN with interest and I agree totally that it would be a great loss to British racing to see the Leger distance changed. When I started training I had horses for Lord Weinstock and Dick Hollingsworth, who only bred middle-distance horses, and I really enjoyed being able to allow their horses the time to develop and mature; they also improved significantly from two to three,...

In Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) President Ed Martin's letter to the Thoroughbred Daily News on Feb. 2, he once again defends the status quo with few facts and no real solutions to racing's lack of national uniformity in rules and regulations for safety and medication control. Ed has been defending the status quo for years. In 2018, and again in 2020, Ed testified before Congress against the then-forerunner to the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act, saying it was "a radical and unnecessary federalization of a state responsibility...

I don't think I've ever witnessed such runaway adulation. It was as though the commentators and analysts joined in a competition to see who could erect the highest pile of praise, and when somebody said Flightline might be the greatest horse of all-time--well, it was then that my head struck my desk under the avalanche of hyperbolic plaudits. And a day later, when his owners announced he would be retired, I immediately realized I couldn't vote for Flightline as Horse of the Year. That's why I'm writing: to explain my...

Years ago, a dear friend, Joe Spadaro, a veteran turf writer who coined the phrase "get with the program!", and I were at a bar one evening up on Jericho Turnpike after the races at beautiful Belmont Park. We were commiserating with the Eclipse Award-winning writer Paul Moran about racing. I was always a pretty opinionated guy (still am) and Joe could hear my tone of voice elevating to rebut something that Paul said. Joe turned to me and said "Tom, never get into it with somebody who buys ink...

Thanks for covering the closure of Pompano Park and the warnings to other racetracks. I am one of the few today that enjoys watching and betting on both Thoroughbred and harness racing. I am from the Philadelphia area and grew up spending many a summer weekend going to both Delaware Park and Brandywine Raceway. For years, both breeds were popular here, but over the years we lost both major harness tracks, Brandywine and Liberty Bell Park. Even two of our primer Thoroughbred tracks, Garden State Park and Atlantic City Race...