More horses, birds and other things

Two more Derby preps.

Here is something I don't understand:

High Limit wins the Louisiana Derby. He's pretty impressive doing it. But his final time for the mile and a sixteenth is slower than those of Declan's Moon in the Santa Catalina and Uncle Denny in the El Camino Real. Nevertheless, it equals the stakes record.

Is Fair Grounds a really slow track? Are the California tracks faster?

Because, with Declan's Moon injured and my reservations about the way High Fly finished in the Fountain of Youth, High Limit and Uncle Denny are the foremost competitors in my mind at this point. And of the two, I think Uncle Denny, who was on a pressured pace the whole way and ended up with a faster time, was more impressive.

A Derby winner for Northern California would sure be nice.

In the meantime, spring is here. Every bird in the world, it seems like, is singing loudly about sex and territory. This morning I got a great look at singing male Common Yellowthroats -- not so easy to see them, except at the time of year when hormones reign -- they're gorgeous things. Also, a California Thrasher came to my scattered seed again.

I have nothing to say about writing, because what with my grad school work, I haven't been doing much. I hope that will change soon.

This year it'll happen.

This year I will pick the Derby winner.

I've picked one winner before: Charismatic. Mostly, that was based on his physique and the way he came up to the race. I remember his coat looked deep as velvet and he glowed. (And I really, really am rooting for his son Sun King to win the Derby this year. In your face to those who sold Charismatic to Japan!)

But now I think I know more, so I'm going to get serious about tabulating all the various stats and really picking the colt who can get it done. I'm looking at winning times for major stakes races at 1 1/16th miles and above, ability to rate and handle traffic, running style (deep closers spoil Triple Crowns but rarely win Derbys), pedigree, two-year-old record and race record during 2005. Plus intangibles. I'll even look at Beyer figures as a tie-breaker.

So far, we've had two major prep races, both run today. In those races, three horses looked worthy of further consideration.

In the Santa Catalina, run at 1 1/16th miles, Declan's Moon was totally superior. He looks like a horse that can go a distance, he rated nicely while wide, and he won easily, physically relaxed and ears pricked. Going Wild, in second, looks like a sprinter and ran like the mile and a sixteenth was a bit too far for him. Declan's Moon shows every sign of being able to go farther.

In the Fountain of Youth, run at 1 1/8th miles, I think High Fly was on his last legs to hold on. His stride looked short and his head was up in the air. Bandini, a magnificent individual, looked like he had spat out the bit in the stretch, but then he came on again willingly to finish a close second; this was only his fourth career start. I'm not sure if his closing kick was as good as it looked, because High Fly looked like he was struggling, but he at least got back on task. Both horses did stalk professionally during the race.

So far, I'd give Declan's Moon the edge. I'm not seriously considering the sprinter Lost in the Fog as a contender right now - if he wins at 1 1/16th and up, I'll look again.

Calling Bullshit on PETA

I loathe misinformation.

All PETA quotes are taken from http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=65&c=1234.

"they have legs supported by ankles the size of a human’s"... Meaningless statement. Horses and humans have totally different physiologies. Besides, a horse's fetlock is normally more robust than a human's ankle.

"they're forced to run..." Whoever came up with this has never seen a race, and has never handled a horse. A horse is big. A jockey is not big. It would be literally impossible for a horse to be forced to run, except by the use of a buzzer, which the racing industry rightly forbids and punishes.

"the Thoroughbred race horse is a genetic mistake..." Nonsense. Equids have evolved to run ever since they moved out of the ancient forest and onto the plains. Thoroughbreds have been carefully bred to run, and the fact that I'm not crazy about every aspect of current breeding, like breeding on stallions who retire before their four-year-old years, doesn't mean these magnificent creatures are a "mistake".

"There are also trainers, handlers, veterinarians, and jockeys involved, so a horse is rarely able to develop any kind of bond with one person or other horses..." If this made sense, any horse owner who worked with a trainer, called a vet or let other people ride her horses would be acting cruelly. Normally, a horse has a groom assigned to him permanently, at least while he's with that barn.

" few horses are able to call one place “home.” "...How do we know horses *want* to call any one place home? Let's not anthropomorphize, if we can possibly help it. Besides, horses do normally have home tracks.

"Most do not end up in the well-publicized races, but instead are trucked, shipped, or flown to the thousands of other races..." Huh? Actually, claimers usually stay close to home. It's stakes horses that are shipped. I still haven't seen the evidence for horses being traumatized by this -- some don't ship well, and their connections tend to avoid shipping them -- but most seem to do just fine.

"Magic Man stepped into an uneven section of a track and broke both front legs during a race at Saratoga Race Course; his owner had bought him for $900,000 dollars, yet the horse hadn’t earned any money yet and, unproven on the track, wasn’t worth much as a stud, so he was euthanized." With two broken forelegs, I doubt veterinary medicine would have been able to save this horse, however much he was worth.

"War Emblem, the racehorse who won the first two legs of the Triple Crown in 2001, suffered from bone chips in one ankle and both knees. In spite of veterinary recommendations for surgery, which would have taken away from training and racing time, trainer Bob Baffert said, “Let the chips fall where they may,” and continued to race the horse.(10) War Emblem lost the Belmont Stakes, no longer races, has changed hands twice, and has been diagnosed with “unwillingness to cover mares” at a breeding barn in Japan." This is the worst bullshit on the page. Firstly, bone chips are minor injuries, that may cause a problem or may not. War Emblem's did not cause him a problem. War Emblem was sound and a beautiful mover. He lost the Belmont because he stumbled at the start (and he didn't stumble because of bone chips). He also ran in that year's Breeder's Cup Classic, in which he didn't run well, but I don't know that any unsoundness was the reason. Of course he isn't still racing - there's no way a Derby winner is going to keep running for five years, not because of soundness but because of stud fees. Having changed hands twice doesn't seem relevant -- what's wrong with that? The assertion that his initial reluctance to cover mares is related to bone chips is just... silly. War Emblem was a difficult, cantankerous horse and this showed up both on the race track and in the breeding shed.

"The same trainer continued to race a 3-year-old thoroughbred after knee surgery; the horse had to be euthanized after breaking his shoulder during a workout..." Knee. Shoulder.

And then they go into illegal drugs and slaughterhouses, as well as scandals such as the death of Alydar that really are not representative of the fate of racehorses as a whole.

Personally, I support strict medication rules (although let's be aware that some of the medications used on racehorses are things like decongestants and anti-inflammatories -- Naproxen, the active ingredient in the OTC human painkiller Aleve, is among the banned substances. We're not talking about animals staggering around the track hopped up on crystal meth, for the most part). Currently the racing industry is making a serious effort to crack down (no pun intended) on performance-enhancing substances. Good for them.

I also support a total ban on the slaughter of horses. PETA interestingly avoided mentioning all of the horse retirement charities and shelters that money from the racing industry helps support.

There is no doubt that some horses, racehorses as well as others, come to a bad end.

There's also no doubt that, as long as we have racing, some horses will die on the track. Although, contrary to PETA's claims, many injuries -- including fractured legs -- can now be healed, a catastrophic breakdown or a heart attack will continue to be fatal.

But. If, as PETA suggests, racing were to vanish from the earth, what would happen to the horses?

They would die.

Thoroughbred racehorses are competitive performance athletes. They don't generally make good pets, trail riding horses, or beginner's mounts. The sport horse world would not be able to absorb more than a tiny fraction of the racehorses now in existence. Without the racetrack, the horses would end up starving on back lots at best, and more likely in the slaughterhouse.

What else would happen? Billions of dollars of money would vanish from the economy. That's not just the money that buys a sheikh from Dubai his private jet; it also provides sustenance for hundreds of thousands of personnel, often immigrants with limited educations.

I would rather have the horses, and have their beauty and their stirring competitive spirit, than have a nice, safe world where nobody ever risks shattering a fetlock. I have the feeling that if the horses could conceptualize things in a human way, they would agree. I can accept that PETA disagrees with me and wants a nice, safe, wrapped-in-cottonwool world where there is no competition or danger. What I can't leave unchallenged is their tendentious, lying-by-implication misuse of information.