But for every good story there seemed to be 10 bad ones.

With the animal rights community and some portions of the media putting unrelenting pressure on the sport, there's never a good time to go through a rash of breakdowns, but for it to happen surrounding the running of the GI Kentucky Derby was bad timing at its worst. There were 12 deaths at Churchill Downs crammed into just a few weeks and it got so bad that racetrack management decided to pull the plug on the remainder of the meet and move everything to Ellis Park.

Then Saratoga happened. When New York Thunder (Nyquist) broke down strides before the wire in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. the number of horse fatalities at the meet had soared to 12. It was a horrible sight to behold for a national television audience and the 48,292 in attendance. And it was a ghastly reminder of what happened three weeks earlier to Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) in the GI Test S. She, too, broke down right before the wire in a spill that was as ugly as it gets.

The Breeders' Cup was not immune to tragedy. Though no one was seriously injured on the day of the races, Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}) and broke down and had to be euthanized and Practical Move (Practical Joke) suffered an apparent heart attack and died, both while training for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

The fatalities obviously caught the attention of 60 Minutes, which, in November, aired a story that focused on the breakdowns and the sport's doping problems while casting a brutally negative light on the sport. Then we learned that we will get more of the same sometime in 2024. In December, FX, a subsidiary of Disney Entertainment, announced that there would be an upcoming documentary, “The New York Times Presents: Broken Horses,” which it said would examine “systemic issues, questionable practices and urgent calls for change that have shaken horse racing to its core.”

When it comes to the economics of the sport, there was more troubling news. Through November, handle was down nearly $500 million on the year or 4.39%. That means we are on our way to seeing the steepest declines in handle, outside of the COVID year of 2020, since 2011. Does that have anything to do with the computer-assisted wagering (CAW) players? Probably. They have tilted the pari-mutuel pools to a point where the regular horseplayer is getting killed and getting out.

In July, 1/ST Racing announced that Golden Gate Fields would be shutting down for good at the end of the year, throwing the Northern California circuit into chaos. The track got a reprieve, but a brief one. It is now scheduled to cease operations on June 11. That's when it will join Arlington Park, Calder, Hollywood Park, Bay Meadows and others that couldn't make it to the finish line. Some wonder whether Santa Anita, which sits on property that is estimated to be worth $1 billion, will someday join them.

Racing can't afford to have another year like this. Things need to change. While there are no magic bullets, here are what I believe are some practical and common sense solutions to some of the problems.

The sport needs to fully embrace StrideSAFE. StrideSAFE is a biometric sensor mechanism that slips into the saddle cloth to detect minute changes in a horses' gait at high speed. Those changes can, and often do, signal that a horse is in the early stages of having a problem that could lead to a fatal injury. The technology has been around since 2011 and, while it has been experimented with here and there, it remains largely absent from the backstretch of America's racetracks. Why? There's no doubt that widespread employment of StrideSAFE will cut down on the number of horses that break down and there's no excuse for the sport to continue to drag its feet when it comes to embracing the concept.

The CAW factor is a major issue that's not going to go away, no matter what harm it might be doing to the overall health of the sport. It has become an unmanageable runaway train, with these players betting so much money that no track is going to turn away their business. But some guardrails would help. More tracks need to do what NYRA has done. They have effectively closed the CAW players out of the win pool by no longer allowing them to place bets at the very last second. They have also been excluded from NYRA's Late Pick 5 and the Cross Country Pick 5.

The betting product also needs to be better and more geared toward the booming market that is made up of sports bettors. The sport has not been nearly aggressive enough when it comes to getting the on-line sports betting websites to start accepting bets on racing. To date, the only one that has been signed up is FanDuel. That also means adopting fixed-odds wagers, which are what the sports bettors know. Only Monmouth Park has gone down this road and two years after it was implemented in New Jersey the concept is limping along. No other tracks or states have tried fixed-odds betting and, in New Jersey, only the second-level tracks are available to the fixed odds bettors.

The takeout remains too high. With betting on a horse race often involving a rake of around 20%, the game is always going to have a tough time competing with other forms of gambling, where the effective takeout rate is lower. We're seeing some progress in this area, with a number of tracks lowering the takeout on horizontal wagers like the Pick Four and Pick Five. In 2023, Hawthorne took a major step in the right direction by lowering its takeout on win, place and show wagers to 12%. But we need a lot more of the same. With so much of purse money now coming from alternative sources like slot machines, there's no reason why tracks in places like New York and Kentucky can't at least experiment with reduced takeout rates.

Fix the Triple Crown. It needs it. The GI Preakness S. is no longer coveted by the sport's major trainers and has become a weak link in the Triple Crown. Everyone wants to run in the Derby and then they scramble, some pointing for the GI Belmont S., some ready to put their horses on the shelf until the big summer races. The 2022 Derby winner, Rich Strike (Keen Ice) passed on the Preakness and, this year, Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) was the only horse to go in the first two legs of the Triple Crown. The result is that the Preakness is less important than it has ever been and that only weakens the Triple Crown as a whole. When 1/ST floated the idea of running the Preakness four weeks after the Derby, NYRA reacted by announcing that it had no intention of moving the date of the Belmont. Yes, a Belmont run five weeks after the Derby works well for NYRA, but it needs to put its self interests aside and do what's best for the sport and shift the Belmont to late June or early July.

While we're at it, the purses for the Triple Crown races are too small. In this day and age, the $1.5-million purse for the Preakness is not going to motivate anyone to run. These are supposed to be the most important races in the sport and their purses should reflect as much. For all three races, the purses should be raised immediately to $3 million with the goal of eventually making them $5-million races.

These are things that can be done. Let's not let another year go by in which the sport embraces the status quo while the outlook for its future continues to get worse. The year 2024 is upon us, let it be the year where the sport takes much needed steps in the right direction.

The post The Week in Review: In 2024, the Sport Needs to Do Better appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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1) Europeans Unleashed As Santa Anita is Struck by Tragedy, by Emma Berry (96,627 views). TDN European Editor Emma Berry arrived at Santa Anita as the sport and the Breeders' Cup was dealing with another blow, the death of Practical Move (Practical Joke) and the injury suffered by Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}), who would eventually be euthanized. She marveled at the beauty of Santa Anita and watched the European contingent prepare for the races, but found it hard to forget that it had been another difficult week for the sport. “Even with such brilliant beauty close at hand, it was hard to revel in what should have been a joyful morning as the image of the prone Practical Move lingered on in the mind's eye,” she wrote.

2) Racing Word Mourns Death of Lady O'Reilly, by Emma Berry (96,536 views). Berry reported on the passing of highly successful and longstanding owner-breeder Lady Chryss O'Reilly, the owner of Haras de la Louviere in Normandy, who died at the age of 73.

3) Fatalities Mar Travers Saturday at Saratoga, by Bill Finley (51,660 views). The Saratoga meet saw an unusually high number of breakdowns, but two stood out. Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) broke down a jump or two before the finish of the GI Test S., a race she was well on her way to winning. In an eerily similar scenario that had occurred on the GI Travers S. card, New York Thunder (Nyquist) had the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. all but won before breaking down a few feet before the finish. On the same card, a horse named Nobel (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire} was also euthanized. Bill Finley wrote of a Travers Day that was supposed to be about everything that is great with the sport turning into one of the ugliest afternoons ever at Saratoga.

4) Everything Was Done to Save Him: Derby Hero Desert Crown Euthanized, Staff Report (50,946 views). The story reports on the death of Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), the brilliant winner of the 2022 Derby, who was euthanized at Newmarket Equine Hospital after failing to recover from an injury sustained on the gallops in August.

5) Jockey Alex Canchari Passes Away, by Bill Finley (50,438). In one of the sadder stories of the year, Midwest-based jockey Alex Canchari passed away in March at the age of 29 after taking his own life, sparking discussions about jockeys' mental health.

6) Horse of the Year Havre De Grace Passes Away, by Alan Carasso (48,136). Havre de Grace (Saint Liam), the 2011 Horse of the Year, passed away in April. Wayne Sweezey, who boarded Havre de Grace at his Timber Town Farm, confirmed that the 16-year-old mare hemorrhaged multiple times and died after producing a colt by Into Mischief the afternoon of Apr. 28.

7) Pretty Mischievous Wins Test; Maple Leaf Mel Breaks Down at Wire, is Euthanized, Staff Report (41,426). Like the breakdown of New York Thunder later on in the meet, the breakdown of Maple Leaf Mel in the Test S. shook Saratoga and cast a pall over the meet.

8) HIWU Descends Upon a Shedrow, Upending Life For a Mom-and-Pop Stable, by TD Thornton (30,863). John Pimental is a small-time trainer who was well-liked, worked hard and had never been in any trouble during his long career. That all changed when agents for the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) descended upon John's stable and upended his world: one of his horses had tested positive for 193 picograms per milliliter of methamphetamine, a street drug of abuse that is classified as a “banned” substance in racing. The story details Pimental's fight to clear his name and takes a look at the tactics HIWU used to make the case that Pimental had violated its rules.

9) Sire Of Sires, WinStar Farm's Champion Speightstown Euthanized, Staff Report (30,066). The story reports on the passing of WinStar Farm's top sire Speightstown (Gone West) and his remarkable career as a sire.

10) The Week in Review: With Forte Non-DQ, NYRA Stewards Owe Public an Explanation, by Bill Finley (29,977). The Saratoga stewards decided not to disqualify Forte (Violence) from his win in the GII Jim Dandy S. at Saratoga, despite what appeared to be rough-riding tactics by Irad Ortiz Jr. that caused Forte to bump Angel of Empire (Classic Empire). But writer Bill Finley thought the bigger story was that there is next to no transparency in racing when it comes to stewards' decisions and that the bettors deserved an explanation over why there was no disqualification.

The post The Most-Read TDN Stories Of 2023 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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A Godolphin homebred, HOLD OUT (Street Boss) will carry the royal blue for the first time Friday night. The colt is a son of Wipe Out, already the dam of GISP Degree of Risk (Cairo Prince). She also produced the dam of the ill-fated GSW New York Thunder (Nyquist). Wipe Out is herself a half to GI Forego S. winner Emcee (Unbridled's Song), GSW/G1SP Surfer (Distorted Humor) along with the dam of GSW Marzo (Medaglia d'Oro). Notably, her half-sister Baffled (Distorted Humor) produced MGISW and sire Constitution (Tapit) before selling for $3.5m at the 2016 FTKNOV Sale. Don Alberto, one of two buyers to sign the ticket then, would buy out Bridlewood Farm for $1.8m when she last sold at the same sale in 2019. Hold Out blitzed four furlongs in :47 (1/95) Dec. 2 for Eoin Harty and will debut with Gerardo Corrales in the irons. TJCIS PPS

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Yet, by just about any measure, it was not a good meet. Saratoga came into 2023 with the wind at its back. Every year the racing seemed to get bigger, the handle would grow and more and more fans would pile into the historic racecourse. Taking out the covid year, handle had risen at Saratoga for five straight years.

Would Saratoga ever lose its momentum or would it keep growing exponentially?

It turned this year. The 12 fatalities, including two particularly gruesome ones that occurred in full view of packed grandstand and before a national TV audience, were as bad as it gets. How many racing fans were turned into ex-racing fans on those days? NYRA has always taken the safety of the horses and jockeys very seriously and will no doubt continue to put in place measures to keep both safe.

They have some control over horse safety, but none over the weather, which was a huge problem at the meet. During the 2022 meet, only 15 races came off the grass. Through Sunday of the 2023 meet, 65 races had come off the grass. There had been 189 grass races run in 2022 versus 129 this year. That always leads to the same problems. When races come off the turf there are always a number of scratches, typically creating off-the-turf races with four or five-horse fields. On Aug. 10, an off-the-turf race actually turned into a match race. This is stuff no one wants to bet on.

NYRA is ready to do what it can to address that problem. NYRA President and CEO Dave O'Rourke has said that there is serious interest in installing a synthetic track at Saratoga by the 2025 meet. It wouldn't replace either the dirt main track or the two turf courses but would give NYRA a third option when it comes to racing surfaces and the synthetic track would largely be put to use when the rains washed races off of the turf.

The weather has been a problem, but if you dig a bit further you can find some signs that Saratoga handle was affected by more than the rain. On GI Travers Day 2023, when two races came off the turf, the handle was $50,183,71. In 2022, the handle was $55,559,315 when one race came off the grass. This past Saturday, on GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Day, they bet $27,400,509 on a day not impacted by weather. The year before the handle was $32,505,600.

“I think what happened is with all the earlier rain we lost some momentum and when that happened it's hard to get it back,” O'Rourke said.

Field size fell by 2.5 percent, from 7.75 to 7.56. A more telling number was the average handle per betting interest. It was $255,773 this year and $272,599 last year, for a drop of 6.2%.

What's done is done and there's nothing to do now but turn the page and hope Saratoga 2024 is one of the safest meets in history and the weather is gorgeous from opening day to closing day. The place is still magical and popular, but everything peaks at some point. Maybe that's happened to Saratoga.

European Dominance On The Turf

This is getting a bit ridiculous. U.S. racing is used to second-flight European horses coming over and winning some of our biggest grass race, but the year European shippers are having this year shows that our grass horses are vastly inferior. Take Saturday's GIII $2 million Mint Millions at Kentucky Downs. There was only one European shipper in the field, Ancient Rome (War Front), who is trained by Charlie Hills and was ridden by Jamie Spencer. Facing the likes of GI winner Annapolis (War Front), he came into it off a win in a handicap race. Before that you had to go all the way back to 2021 for his last graded win, a victory in the GIII Prix des Chenes in France. He won that by a half-length. He won the Mint Millions by a half-length.

A week earlier, it was Bolshoi Ballet (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). He came into the GI Sword Dancer after losing by 21 1/2 lengths in the GI King George VI and Queen Elizabeth I Stakes, where he went off at 125-1. Yet, that was good enough to win the Sword Dancer by 4 1/2 lengths. The win broke a nine-race losing streak, going back to the 2021 GI Belmont Derby where he also took advantage of a weak group of U.S. turf horses.

Then there's Aspen Grove (Ire) (Justify). She was sent off at 50-1 in the GI Irish 1,000 Guineas and finished last beaten 14 1/2 lengths. But that was good enough for her to take home first prize of $500,000 in the GI Belmont Oaks Invitational in her next outing.

Good luck to our horses in the Breeders' Cup turf races.

Surprise, Surprise, Still No News Out Of Saudi Arabia

Back in 2020, Maximum Security (New Year's Day) crossed the line in front in the 2020 $20 million Saudi Cup. Just a few days later, his trainer, Jason Servis, was arrested and charged with using performance-enhancing drugs on most of the horses in his barn. When that news broke, the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia said it was withholding the purses until it could investigate the situation

It's been 29 months since Servis was indicted, he has pled guilty and in November will begin a four-year prison sentence. The case is over, but the Saudis still haven't paid out the purse. Presumably, the winner's share of $10 million will eventually go to Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute). But no one has been paid as the Saudis, who should have all the evidence they'll ever need, do nothing and don't seem to be in any hurry to write a check. We tried to get an update on the situation this week, but the answer we got didn't really answer anything.

“Due to the extended nature of the judicial process in the USA, the JCSA has been unable to fully conduct its own investigation into the awarding of the winner's prize for The Saudi Cup 2020,” wrote the JCSA's Sarah Tregoning in response to an email sent by the TDN. “Now that the legal process in the USA has finished, the JCSA expects to swiftly conclude its own investigation and make an announcement in the coming weeks.”

I wouldn't hold your breath.

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“This is sad to say, but I'm not as proud to be a horse trainer as I used to be,” he said. “I'm not proud of our sport. That's sad. In my opinion, it's dangerous and I'm going to do whatever I can do to help it. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn who I piss off or upset.”

Casse came on to discuss some of the opinions he expressed earlier in the week from a Q & A that ran in the TDN. Because he has stables at Woodbine, where all racing is conducted on either the Tapeta surface or turf, and at U.S. tracks where the predominant surface is dirt, Casse, perhaps more so than any other trainer, is well versed in the differences between the various types of surfaces. He has become an outspoken supporter of synthetic tracks and insists that U.S. racing needs to make the conversion from dirt to synthetic.

“I think it is,” he answered when asked if the time has come for dirt racing to be replaced. “We've got years and years of data that says it's far safer. The path we're going down right now is ugly and we have to do something and we have to do it quickly. It's going to take a drastic measure.”

Some believe that the end of dirt racing would be a huge blow to the breeding industry, where hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in sires and bloodlines meant to produce top-class dirt horses. Casse argues that the potential problems have been exaggerated.

“It's not as big a worry as they make it out to be,” he said. “From my experience, maybe one out of ten horses don't like synthetic.  Most good horses will run on anything pretty well. And I can tell you, they'll run a lot longer and last a lot longer.”

This isn't the first time that Casse has been outspoken about industry issues. He has also been vocal about what he saw as the widespread and ill-advised use of clenbuterol. He said his only motivation is to try to make this a better, safer sport.

“I'm going to give you everything I have,” he said. “I'll go down fighting. You can only do so much but I will do my best. I'm doing my best. I'm not a good loser.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, NYRABets.com, WinStar Farm, XBTV.com, Stonestreet Farms, Lane's End and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Zoe Cadman, Bill Finley and Randy Moss also tackled the subject of synthetic surfaces, an issue that drew more attention after a tragic Saturday afternoon at Saratoga, which included the breakdown of New York Thunder (Nyquist) in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. All three agreed with Casse that switching to synthetics has become a necessity. There was also a look at the GI Travers. S., won by Arcangelo (Arrogate) and an admission from Moss that he underrated the horse that is now the sport's leading 3-year-old male. The team also took a look back at the remarkable career of Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard, who passed away this week at the age of 82.

To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.

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I was at Saratoga on both Whitney and Travers Day. Maple Leaf Mel and New York Thunder's injuries were the most gruesome I've ever seen in my decades in horse racing. I left the track in tears this past Saturday, having my own visceral reaction, believing strongly that NYRA should have shut down racing immediately.

A friend of mine is a crisis communications expert and she was with me this past Saturday. She's done work for the NFL and some of the world's most complex companies. She currently is the head of U.S. Communications for one of the largest law firms in the world.  She has come to racing later in life, but is a horsewoman first and foremost. After witnessing New York Thunder's demise on Saturday, she summarized her thoughts below:

   I get the complexities of shutting down the massive machinery of a racetrack. The business model impacts countless others that depend upon the race meet continuing. But you cannot dismiss the concerns of the public. While I can understand the need to take a broader look at the whole situation, the reality is that the optics of the breakdowns are awful. And you can't have horses running down the stretch on three legs. To give an NFL analogy, as soon as plaintiffs' lawyers could prove a causal link between football and head injuries, the sport had to change [because it risked losing everything]. Every time a horse breaks down, racing's license to operate gets shredded. Change has to happen immediately.

While I wasn't born into the sport, I've been in it my entire life. My passion for Thoroughbred racing has been a driving force in much of my professional and personal life; but this life straddles two worlds because no one else in my family or even my lifelong, closest friends are part of the sport. Because of them, I'm acutely aware of what people outside of the sport are saying. Saratoga residents who've been casual fans over the years are done. Friends around the U.S. texted me and were aghast. They were turned onto the sport because of me and now I feel responsible for the images they can't get out of their heads.

In the past few weeks, driven by this passion, I have communicated directly with various NYRA board members about my concerns and offered solutions and encouragement. This past year, with the breakdowns at last year's Breeders' Cup, on every Triple Crown Day and the country's elite meet suffering from the most awful of repeated tragedies on its biggest days…well, the damage is incalculable.

I come from a science background; and I'm a trial lawyer and general counsel by trade. I get needing to have the evidence to justify corporate decisions. However, what I don't get is being frozen and ill-prepared for such a crisis as what has befallen Saratoga this year given all of the knowledge we already have.  Let's be clear, this is an industry-wide problem. We've known for years through the research of Dr. Susan Stover and others that the vast majority of catastrophic breakdowns are the result of pre-existing, micro-factures and injuries. We have observed both historical and recent patterns that breakdowns routinely occur after dirt tracks are sealed. We know rain-sodden turf tracks become uneven, slippery, and/or unsafe, particularly on the turns. We already have the data that dirt tracks are significantly more dangerous than turf; and that synthetic tracks are safer than turf. We know that biometric and diagnostic technologies can help trainers and veterinarians identify the slightest changes in horses' biomechanics and that having a standing MRI on-site at every racetrack could help veterinarians diagnose earlier and prevent fatal injuries.

The general public may not know all of these details, but it witnesses the consequences of not prioritizing safety in every aspect of the sport. Businesses cannot be so data-driven that they forget the emotions of the day, compartmentalize away the sorrowful humanity of recent events; and fail to implement immediate changes. Sometimes business needs to conduct itself with more heart. The younger, larger generations demand that; and they are the future of this sport.

I do have faith that this generational awareness is something NYRA's CEO appreciates as he regularly invites families from Saratoga's “Backyard” into the paddock to get them closer to these magnificent animals of which we are all stewards. WE ARE STEWARDS, as Jena Antonucci has reminded us this year, and that includes each track operator, racehorse owner, training operation, veterinarian, breeder, handicapper, and fan. A steward is a person who is responsible for the safety and welfare of another; and thus, it is incumbent upon each of us who professes to care for these animals to do everything in our power to ensure their well-being. This means each stakeholder, at every level, needs to adjust its business model.

What can be done now, with the information we have today?

(1) Ensure on-site access to, and immediate utilization of, the biometric and diagnostic technologies at the racetracks.

(2) Replace the dirt. The data we have NOW proves racing on synthetics is the safest. U.S. racing and breeding industry cannot keep justifying breeding for, and racing on, dirt. Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse zeroed in on that in his recent TDN interview. Every track, including each of the tracks that hosts the Triple Crown races and Breeders' Cup, needs to convert their dirt tracks to synthetic, and HISA needs to consider this as a mandate. These synthetic tracks would also ensure that races that need to come off the turf can transition safely.

(3) Breeders and owners/buyers need to get behind this; and

(4) they absolutely must, regardless of the importance of a race, empower their trainers and veterinarians to scratch horses if they have the slightest bit of concern about a horse's soundness. It is irresponsible, to say the least, to take the opposite approach.

If the sport truly puts its money where its mouth is, then it would put equine welfare first in all things and change. In the end, this sport will either adapt, evolve, or be forced out of existence by a repulsed public.

Amanda Luby, Welbourne Stud

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Indeed, the numbers at Saratoga this meet are harrowing. New York Thunder was the eighth racing fatality. At least another four have died during morning training at Saratoga, bringing the total to 12. All 12 were trained by different trainers, including some of racing's most respected names–Christophe Clement, Graham Motion, Brendan Walsh and Kenny McPeek, among them.

Racing, it seems, just limps from one tragedy to the next.

It didn't, and doesn't, have to be like this. We've known for nearly 15 years how to reduce catastrophic breakdowns by 50% or more: synthetic tracks. I know these numbers have appeared in the TDN in recent months, but they bear repeating. According to The Jockey Club's Equine Injury database, from 2009 through 2022, there were 6,036 fatal injuries from 3,242,505 starts on dirt during the course of racing in North America.

That's a rate of 1.86 per start. (These numbers don't include fatalities that occur during morning training.)

On synthetics, there were 534 fatal injuries from 482,169 starts, a rate of 1.11. That's a 68% difference. Put another way, had dirt tracks matched the safety of synthetic tracks during that stretch, there would have been 2,437 fewer fatalities.

Despite great progress being made in California in recent years, the last two years have been even more striking. In 2021, the dirt rate (1.51) was more than twice the synthetic rate (0.73). In 2022, it was more than three times (1.44 vs. 0.41). At Gulfstream last year, there were eight fatalities from 5,886 starts on dirt, a pretty respectable 1.36. But on its synthetic track? One fatality from 7,085 starts, or a rate of just 0.14.

These stats show not just how much safer synthetic tracks are, but also illustrate why those who blame permissive medication or breeding trends are wrong. You simply wouldn't see this stark a difference between surfaces if those were the driving factors in racing fatalities.

As sad as it is, if racing continues this business-as-usual approach to racing surfaces, it's not hard to envision how all this ends: the end of the sport in all but a few parts of the country.

Most anyone could sketch the outline: the drumbeat from animal rights groups and unsympathetic media coverage gets loud enough to convince politicians to embrace either ballot referendums or the pulling of slot subsidies. The former, as it did with greyhound racing–now illegal in at least 42 states–kills horse racing jurisdictionally. The latter upends the sport's economics, depleting purse accounts and turning racing truly into the Sport of Kings, with small stables simply unable to justify the investment. Crop size, down from 40,000 in 1990 to roughly 17,000 last year, plummets further. Small breeding and stallion operations falter, with only the largest farms able to absorb the blow. Racing ultimately becomes an enterprise based largely around Kentucky and New York tracks. But once-popular tracks in Florida, California and Louisiana shutter. All the while field size dwindles and the betting product becomes less desirable.

This may take a decade or two, but we've been seeing this play out in real time, and if I was approaching 30 and not 50, I'd be very worried about my long-term prospects in the business.

Which brings us to racing's ability to attract people to it, be they horseplayers or owners or workers.

Every person reading this, and every fan and existing handicapper, myself included, has consciously or not decided that a certain level of catastrophic breakdowns isn't a disqualifying factor to our involvement in the sport. We recognize it is tragic and we mourn, but at the end of the day we conclude that our love of the sport and the animals themselves trumps that loss. But some in racing seem oblivious to the fact that there are many others who don't come to that conclusion; who have heard about the breakdowns at Santa Anita or Churchill or Saratoga and decided to do something else with their Saturday afternoons that doesn't potentially involve the death of an animal. They go to the mall, they go to the casino, they spend their disposable income elsewhere. The results of this are fewer people at the track or watching from home; fewer potential handicappers; fewer potential owners; fewer potential fans; fewer potential employees. And because there's no way to measure this, it's easy to pretend it's not happening, that jackpot wagers and bad advice from pundits and, yes, CAW wagering, are racing's biggest problems.

But talk to your friends and family outside of racing. Ask about their impressions. It's a pretty safe bet that animal welfare will be the first thing they bring up, and it's hard to believe that this isn't a huge impediment in attracting new fans. In recent weeks alone I've had several conversions with non-racing friends about the breakdowns at Churchill this past spring. A friend from NYC made the trip to Saratoga on Whitney Saturday and we spent the day texting about who to bet. After the Test, she texted, “Ah shit. I think that's it for us.” She and her husband left the track before the Whitney. Of course they did. How many people left before the Travers Saturday?

Racing's leaders have never cared to be vocal about this issue. This can't continue. Because if the current Saratoga meet has taught us anything, it's that we don't have a viable sport if we routinely break the hearts of our customers. And we can't attract new fans if people think we're not doing everything we can to protect our equine and human athletes. And right now, we aren't.

Lucas Marquardt is the owner of Thoro-Stride and a former writer for the Thoroughbred Daily News. 

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The catastrophic leg injuries that led to two horses being euthanized Saturday brought the total of equine deaths to 12 since the start of the unusually rainy season July 13. According to the New York State Gaming Commission's Breakdown, Death, Injury and Incident Database, four of the fatalities were related to training injuries and eight to racing. Six of the eight deaths were from incidents in races run on the turf courses. Seven were musculoskeletal injuries and one was believed to be a heart attack.

The two dirt breakdowns were horrific, taking place in the stretch, with unbeaten, high-profile 3-year-old horses well on their way to victories in seven-furlong Grade I races: Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) in the GI Test S. on Aug. 5 and New York Thunder (Nyquist) in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial on Saturday.

In the minutes after the New York Thunder injury, O'Rourke said NYRA had to consider whether to immediately close on the biggest day of the Saratoga season.

“Everything is going through your mind at that point,” he said.

After consulting with his staff and a number of other people, O'Rourke elected to run the remainder of the card, including the $1.25-million GI Travers S.

“I was speaking with the Gaming Commission at the same time, the stewards at the same time, about the situation that we're in,” he said. “Obviously, there's board members here. Many of them, if not most of them, are horsemen. The decision was made to continue the card because we have no evidence that there's anything going on with these racetracks.”

There were no further injuries.

After what he described as a sleepless night, O'Rourke said that he and Glen Kozak, NYRA executive vice president and track superintendent, started talking with trainers at 6:30 a.m. Sunday and later talked with jockeys and veterinarians. At 12:45 p.m., NYRA announced that the 11-race program would be held.

John Velazquez, co-chairman of the Jockeys Guild, said the riders met with O'Rourke and expressed confidence in the conditions.

“We didn't find any issues at all,” Velazquez said. “The tracks feel safe. We didn't come up with anything that we were concerned with.”

Velzaquez acknowledged that the injuries are unsettling and said that NYRA should continue its reviews.

“We've definitely had some really horrendous breakdowns,” he said. “We are very saddened about it. There are going to be more investigations and more things we have to do and hopefully we find more answers. It will be days or weeks, whatever it is, but right now the tracks feel safe and let's continue.”

Saturday, Nobel (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), an Irish-bred 4-year-old was injured in the gallop-out after the fifth race on turf. Two hours and 20 minutes later, New York Thunder broke bones in his left front leg in the Jerkens.

Immediately after Nobel's injury, O'Rourke said he, staff members and Dr. Scott Palmer, the Equine Medical Director for the Gaming Commission walked the turf course to look for problems. Since more than 11 inches of rain have fallen during the meet, prompting NYRA to move 59 races off the grass to the dirt, the rail has been placed far out in the middle of the course. On Saturday, the rails were down and the horses were running on very good turf. Still, Nobel was injured.

“We wanted to take a look at it,” O'Rourke said. “One easy solution was to pull everything off the turf. They were on fresh ground. I'm out there with experts and what I'm looking for is unanimous consensus. Not a majority. Everyone's consensus of opinion was that the turf course was in immaculate condition in the lanes we were in.”

When New York Thunder went down between the eighth pole and the sixteenth pole, O'Rourke said Kozak reviewed the surface.

“Glen installed this track and is quite familiar with moisture and the measurements and everything,” O'Rourke said. “It's nothing off about the track. I'm convinced, I'm confident in that moment of that, but I want more information. Sometimes you need more time. We made the decision to continue the card.”

Afterward, O'Rourke said the NYRA staff continued to look at the two turf courses and the dirt main track to help develop data that could be useful in Sunday's review

“This has been a tough meet, so this has been a topic,” he said. “It's not like all of a sudden we started taking a second look. After racing, the track guys are doing their thing. Some of them, I think, were here all night.”

Sunday's card was completed without incident, but O'Rourke said the investigation is far from complete. Noting that NYRA is a non-profit, he said continuing to race on Saturday and Sunday was not related to revenue, but to safety.

“This is about how do we get it right, when and how we're making decisions and why,” he said. “And my first job right now is to check off the tracks because that's the question I'm getting quite a bit. I came out of that, on that aspect, confident that every piece of information or resource that I think is applicable, that we have access to, is telling me the same thing.”

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Q: Were you at the races at Saratoga on Saturday?

MC: Luckily, I missed (New York Thunder). I had seen the Test, and I thought, I've been doing this for 40-some years. It was the most sickening thing that I'd ever witnessed in racing.

Q: Where do we find ourselves right now in horse racing?

MC: I'm a big HISA supporter, and I believe that we've already made great strides. There's no question that, when I go over for a race, I feel like we are competing on a more level playing field. I think there's still a little room for improvement and that we'll  continue to go forward, but you can look at who's winning now and who was winning before. There are lots of rules and regulations that are being put out there to make things safer or we're trying to make things safer for the horse, and I'm going to make a lot of people unhappy when I say this, but until we change the racetracks, we're going to continue to have these kinds of situations. I'm not saying that, with synthetic, we will never have them. You're always going to have some injuries. I have 30 horses here at Saratoga, and the worst injury that I've had at the meet is a horse that hurt herself in her stall. When you have live animals and you have horses, things are going to happen. But we need to do everything possible to know that we are doing our very best.

I am always trying to be bigger and better. I feel like if you stand still, you get run over. Currently, at my organization, we have an app where we can videotape a horse jogging, and it gets sent to Stockholm, Sweden, and within about three minutes, it sends us back a report that tells us if a horse is off on a certain limb. We use it constantly. We're always trying to take care of these horses as all of us, but the things happen.

Q: So what would you like to see happen?

MC: I think we really, seriously, need to look at more synthetic tracks. I believe in them. I believe they've got plenty of data to back that up, and I think if anybody's an expert on it, it should be me.

Q: At any given time, how many horses do you have in training on dirt and on synthetic?

MC: Right now, I have approximately 90 horses training at tracks on dirt. I have 75 at Woodbine training on synthetic.

Q: And how many starts per year do you think you make on each surface?

MC: I broke it down over the last four years. In 2022, we had 1,402 starts, 525 on turf, 432 on synthetic, and 445 on dirt. From 2019 to today, we've had 5,921 starts since the beginning of 2019, 2,766 of which were turf starts. But 1,574 synthetic starts and 1,581 dirt. So it's pretty close.

Q: Tell me what your observations are from your horses running on each surface.

MC: A lot of things are different. We scope every horse after they breeze and after they race. We breeze or run 50 horses a week on dirt and I would say that at least 40% of those horses will show some type of bleeding when they're scoped, even if they're on Lasix. If those same 50 horses run over synthetic or turf, the odds of them showing any signs of bleeding would be somewhere around 5%.

Q: And what do you attribute that to?

MC: It's less stressful. I can also tell you this. A horse that you want to run on synthetic takes about as half as amount of breezes to get them ready to run as a dirt horse. So in other words, say I'm going to run a horse off a layoff, a horse would maybe need 10 or 12 breezes, and I'll run horses off of six or seven breezes on Tapeta. It's just less stressful, so when you have less stress, they rebound quicker. They're sounder the next day.

Q: What other differences do you see in your horse population at Woodbine, in terms of the health of your horses?

MC:  There's no question, over the years, if I have horses that are coming back off long layoffs, it's much easier to bring them back over synthetic. I train for a few different clients that have horses with other trainers around North America, and I actually get most of their horses that have bowed or had suspensory injuries, and the reason for it is it's much easier to bring them back over synthetic. We have a great return rate with these old injuries. If I have horses that have had physical injuries in the past, I pretty well send those horses to Woodbine to train over the synthetic. What people don't realize is this. Yes, we're seeing injuries on the dirt, and we're also seeing injuries on the turf, right? It's my belief that some of these injuries we are seeing on the turf, it's because these horses are training on the dirt. A turf horse, for the most part, a true turf horse struggles with the dirt surface. It's like having a car where the wheels are imbalanced. You're going down the road, and it struggles. It's not smooth, and all at once, the hubcap flies off. There was nothing wrong with the hubcap, but over a period of time, there's a weakness, there's a crack in the armor, and then that's what we're seeing. So when you see a lot of these injuries, there is something that's been going on for a while. I know a lot of my good turf horses, they just thrive at Woodbine, because they get to train over the synthetic every day. Interestingly enough, Tepin won all over North America, except in Saratoga, and I always thought it was because she struggled so much with the deeper surface here. We get to breeze them on the grass once a week or something like that, but their everyday training is on the dirt.

Q: We have heard a lot of trainers say that there are more soft-tissue injuries on synthetic surfaces. That was a very common theme when so many tracks switched to synthetic several years ago. What is your opinion on this?

MC: I have sent out somewhere over 150,000 horses to train over synthetic, and that could be no farther from the truth. That is an absolute falsehood. The chances of a horse hurting their suspensory, soft tissue injury, a tendon, is much greater on the dirt, and it's not even close. I base this on lots of data. I tell everybody, I do my own studies. I study every day. I've been studying for 40-some years.

Q: Several years ago, several tracks, like those in California and Keeneland, switched to synthetic, and then switched back. Why do you think this was?

MC: I think what happened was they didn't know how to handle them. They definitely didn't know how to install them, so I think there were a lot of issues with the early tracks. In California, I think they had three different tracks, and they struggled. Santa Anita struggled. Del Mar, I remember, I actually went out the last year, the last meet that Del Mar had synthetic. I was there, and I'd have conversations all the time with trainers out there, and they were like, “Oh. We're going to be so happy to go back to dirt.”

And I can remember saying to them, “Be careful what you wish for. Be careful what you wish for.”

And we know that things didn't turn out so well. As far as Keeneland goes, I think it was 2008. I was asked to talk on a board, because they were looking at possibly putting in synthetic. I can remember Todd was there. Dale Romans was there. Nick Zito was there. We talked about it at that point in time, and one of the panel members said, “Well, we have to worry about tradition.”

I said to them, “We're going to be history. We're not going to have to worry about tradition.”

I feel that way now. We have to stop worrying about tradition or history, I'm sorry, or we're going to be history. We can't worry about tradition. Look, at Woodbine I think we just ran the 164th Plate, and the first 130 of them were on dirt, but they still made that switch, and I applaud them for that. So Keeneland put it in. That was Polytrack. Fifteen years ago, New York didn't have the money. I think if New York had gone ahead and been able to put in synthetic at that point in time, Keeneland keeps theirs.

Some others would've maybe followed suit, but when New York couldn't do it, they couldn't afford to do it, Keeneland, in my opinion, felt like they were the only kind of synthetic track, and they were losing some of their Derby prospects and Oaks prospects, and they succumbed to the pressure. I was listening to a conversation 15 years ago or so at Keeneland. I heard a very good horse trainer who has since retired telling somebody, “I like synthetic, but if we run them at Keeneland and they run well, the owners will want to send them somewhere else, and we don't have synthetic in New York, so we just don't run them.” I found that interesting.

Q: What do you say to the argument from breeders in Kentucky who oppose a switch to synthetic, citing not only tradition, but the investments that they've made in dirt stallions? Is there any validity to their argument, do you think?

MC: I don't think so, because if we don't have an industry, it's not going to matter. The way we're going, that's where we're headed. Look, you have two of the biggest racetracks in the world who have had crises this year. I've sat there and watched how hard Saratoga works on their racetrack. Glen Kozak does an absolute tremendous job. He is unbelievable. Churchill's the same way. They have the best of the best. They do the best they can do, but again, look at it. What if we had kept the Model T? Instead, look at what we've done with automobiles, how we've made those so much safer. We're still using a racetrack that's been around for 125 years, and there's only so much you can do for it.

Patrick Husbands has been champion rider in Canada for years, and he told me something very interesting one time. He got hurt about three or four years ago, and I didn't see what happened to him, so I called him in the hospital, and I said, “Patrick, what happened? Did a horse fall with you?” He said, “Mark, I've never had a horse fall with me on synthetic.” I said, “What do you mean?”

He said, “The difference between a synthetic track and a dirt track, for the most part, is that the synthetic actually catches them and gives you a little bounce back. A lot of times when a horse breaks a bone, the next step is where it gets ugly. It's like a thud. There is no give to it, so it doesn't bounce back.”  Here's a guy that's ridden thousands and thousands and thousands of races, and for him to say that, I just found it very interesting.

Look, I'm getting to the end of my career. I've been doing this 40-some years, and I feel like, and it's why I'm involved with HISA as well. I have a son, Norman, who has been very successful. I have another son, Colby, that could end up being a horse trainer as well. This industry has been very good to me. Everything I have is because of it, and I just want to try to make it better. When I leave, I want it to be better than when I started. So that's why I'm speaking out. This is not for me. I'm fine. I'm just trying to make our sport better.

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“I had to go to his stall to make sure he wasn't there,” Delgado said. “It was still like I couldn't believe he was gone. I couldn't stop crying. I saw the other horses, them being happy, them being horses. I was happy to see that. These horses are my family. I individualize them. They are all different, they all have their own lives. If they run for $5,000 or $2 million, they are all the same to me. I love to be around them.”

Even before the Jerkens, it had already been a very difficult meet and a very difficult day for the sport. Earlier in the day in the fifth race, Qatar Racing's Nobel (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), the 9-5 post-time favorite for a 9 1/2-furlong turf allowance on the Travers Day undercard at Saratoga, broke down on the gallop out and was euthanized. That was the seventh fatality at the meet during racing and four more horses had broken down while training.

While Delgado, a 33-year-old native of Venezuela, felt for the owners and trainers who had lost horses during the meet, his focus was on the Jerkens. New York Thunder was the type of horse every trainer dreams of getting into their barns. He was 4-for-4 and coming off a blowout win in the GII Amsterdam S. Though facing two highly regarded horses from the Bob Baffert Stable in Arabian Lion (Justify) and Fort Bragg (Tapit), New York Thunder was made the 3-2 favorite. A win in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint was well within the realm of possibility.

While getting ready to watch the race, Delgado thought about how far his stable had come since he started training in 2017 and what it would mean for him to pick up his first Grade I win. As the race was developing, Delgado grew more confident that New York Thunder was on his way to what would be the biggest win of his career.

“I am watching the race and hear people shouting 'come on Tyler [Gaffalione]' or 'beat those Baffert horses.' At the three-eighths pole, I know my horse and I know the way he had been working,” Delgado said. “I knew that he was going to romp. Once I saw that Arabian Lion couldn't catch him and that everyone else was pretty far behind, I thought we were home.”

So did those surrounding Delgado, who watched the race on television. Nearing the sixteenth-pole, New York Thunder had what seemed like an insurmountable lead. In the very moment that people were congratulating him, New York Thunder was crashing head first to the track. He suffered a catastrophic injury to his left front fetlock and had to be put down.

“People were starting to congratulate me and started celebrating,” he said. “A couple of people came to me to congratulate me and in that same second the horse went down. When he went down, my whole world went from being in glory to being in misery and hell. I couldn't believe it. There was all this noise in my mind and everything turned blurry.”

It was, of course, a tough blow for Delgado and the owner, AMO Racing USA. They had a certain Grade I win snatched away from them. But Delgado said none of that matters.

“I was never thinking what is next for me, when can I win a graded stakes race or be in the position I was in Saturday?” he said. “That hasn't crossed my mind. It's been all about the pain I felt losing the horse. I was heartbroken, devastated. I have had no good emotions. Just trying to stay strong.”

He knows it won't happen, but said he would do anything to bring New York Thunder back.

“I have been thinking a lot about this and it might sound corny, but that horse meant so much to me that if I could change my life for him in some way and that would bring him back I would do it in a second,” Delgado said. “There's nothing in the world I wouldn't do to have that horse back. Tell somebody they could shoot me in my knee and that would mean I could have that horse back I'd let them do it right now. What happened to us, I would never wish that on anybody.”

On the ride back from Saratoga Saturday night and during the hours he spent at his barn Sunday morning at Monmouth, Delgado had a lot of time to think. He said the reason that he got into training was because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a trainer in Venezuela. His uncle is Gustavo Delgado Sr., the trainer of Mage (Good Magic). He found that while he enjoyed winning, he got even more pleasure from being around his horses.

“I was talking with my assistant trainer the other day and we talked about why we moved to this country and why we have been working in this industry. We came to the same conclusion, it's because we love the horses. We love being around them. They give us joy, hope, answers, happiness. There is nothing you can compare that to.”

But when you lose a horse that was on his way to a Grade I win in Saratoga, it becomes impossible not to focus on the fact that this game comes with more than its fair share of pain and tragedies.

“It makes you re-evaluate things, contemplate things,” Delgado said. “What should I do? I feel that I could do many different things in this industry. Being a trainer was the only thing I ever wanted to do. But now that I've gotten older and have gained experience and have had highs and lows, I have been contemplating things and trying to put things in balance. Is this worth it or is it not? It's times like this when you really have to look at yourself in the mirror and decided if this is really worth it.”

Delgado said he has no immediate plans to leave training, but added, “I don't think I will train forever.”

And, just 33, he worries that he might outlast the sport.

“I'd be lying to you if I said the sport is going in the right direction,” he said. “You see tracks closing , attendance is down, betting is less. There are fewer people trying to become trainers. You know deep in your heart that it's not the best time for the sport and I don't know that it will last for the rest of my lifetime. It's something that concerns me a lot. The sport is suffering a lot. The training profession is suffering. Its not easy for anybody.”

And a rash of high-profile fatalities has the sport reeling and in the midst of what feels like a losing fight against a changing society that views animal usage in a different light.

“Hopefully, this sort of thing will happen less in racing. That's very important,” Delgado said. “And, hopefully, this will be the last time it happens to me. I really don't know how I could get through this happening to me again.”

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