Let colts be colts
Here's Anna on her healthy 6-year-old horse who was fully matured and muscular enough to compete / Photo by Deborah Lynch
This daily reporting is hard work when it has to be squeezed in between so many other things begging for my attention. Today’s post is late. Sorry. Saturday, Anna and I were excited to explore a different part of Vermont and to sample Vermont craft brews at the Green Mountain BrewFest. It was held at Green Mountain Racetrack in Pownal, Vermont, which is about 15 miles south of Bennington. We didn’t bother to look up the status or exact location of Green Mountain Track, and I had assumed it was a horse racing track or maybe a NASCAR type track. Google Maps took us into the town of Pownal and told us we had arrived at our destination. We saw trailers and dilapidated homes; we didn’t see anything like a track or a brewfest. So, we reprogrammed the Maps app and it took us back to the highway. We left the town and entered the mountains when in front of us a mirage-like structure appeared. A gigantic racing grandstand arose from the valley between the mountains. We were intrigued by the middle-of-nowhere beauty of this venue.The crowd was sparse despite more than 30 brewers and about 20 beer tickets per attendee. A couple bands that didn’t get us dancing performed. We spread a blanket on the grass in the corner of the infield to sit back and take it in. What we observed was an aging structure with boarded-up windows and a solar panel farm to the right of the infield where stables had once stood. We Googled Green Mountain Race Track and discovered that the track had been built in 1963 for thoroughbred horse racing complete with a rooftop restaurant and closed-circuit TV. Horse racing was short-lived; by 1976 the track had been converted to greyhound racing, and by 1992, the track had closed. It hosted the 1996 Lollapalooza festival, and last year the owners threw a one-day blues festival, hoping to find a new way to use the track that would help build the local economy. The racetrack itself has disappeared under layers of grass.Anna and I felt sad, but maybe that was the beer. No, we drank only four tiny sample glasses, and then felt too depressed to stick around any longer. I’m not sure what brought on the melancholy. It wasn't the death of horse racing there. In fact, Anna’s long background with horses in first English events and then barrel racing included training her own horses. The number one rule she learned when training her 3-year-old to be a barrel horse is that to avoid having it break down, a horse can’t be pushed too hard and used competitively until it is at least 4 or 5 years old.We got back to Ludlow in time to see the results of the Preakness and get the headlines that included the tragic news that two horses had died in early races at Pimlico before the big event. One collapsed just after posing for photos in the winner’s circle and died right there. The other, a filly, fell in the final turn of the race, fracturing her front left leg while throwing her jockey to the turf. He suffered a broken right clavicle. An equine database shows that 31 horses died at Pimlico between 2009-2015. Many Pennsylvania horse racing fans still probably have the name Barbaro on the tips of their tongues – Barbaro was the Pennsylvania-owned Derby champion that went down to a broken hind leg at the Preakness. He was saved temporarily (to preserve his champion sperm), and rehabbed at Penn Vet’s New Bolton center, but complications of the injury led to severe laminitis and soon after, he had to be euthanized. Why do so many horses go down in the big races?A couple factors are leading to these deadly injuries. One is the economics of smaller racing tracks, like Green Mountain Race Track was and like Penn National outside of Harrisburg is. When casinos are part of the tracks, purses of small horse races are increased. The wins become worth more than the value of the horse, which leads owners to take chances with their horses’ health. At Penn National, two track officials, four vets and four trainers are on trial for illegal activities with the horses including giving horses milkshakes of electrolytes and Redbull before races and painkillers and drugs to get them to run through injuries.Later that night, Anna and I were studying anatomy for her vet tech national certification exam that she will take in July. Horses aren’t skeletally mature until they are 5. When horse racing began, for that reason, 2-year-olds were never raced. Then, owners began to see that their horses had greater value if they raced young, won a couple of big races, and could be bred for much greater earnings than their winnings on the track and much more income over time from if the owners had waited until the horses were mature to race them. Another economic benefit of racing a 2-year-old is that owners save money from a few less years spent on training, and more years of income.I love a good competition as much as the next person and I enjoy watching horse racing. Among family, I picked Exaggerator in the Derby and whooped it up when he placed second. When his name headlined the Preakness news as the winner, I was initially excited -- until I saw the subheads about the horses that died that day. Commentators always tell viewers that horses are incredible natural athletes. My daughter's anatomy studies also showed us the power of a race horse and that they truly are built to run, not only muscularly, but cardiovascularly with incredibly gigantic lungs. I am therefore not against racing overall. I am, however, against racing immature animals. It’s abusive, unsporting, and wrong.I don’t know how many other racetracks and communities like Pownal, Vt., have suffered from the decline of horse racing, but a 2010 New York Times article shows that horse racing is indeed in decline. Among the reasons it listed were competition from other forms of gambling, suburbanization of America, corruption, drugs, failure to race horses frequently, and many more. The sport is not breeding new champions – it is breeding cheating and corruption.I hope Green Mountain Racetrack can book big-name artists and other entertainment that will help bring investors and employment to the distressed town of Pownal. I hope Penn National will clean up the corruption by keeping a handle on the gambling and supervising the safety of the horses raced there. I hope that all the fillies and colts get a chance to enjoy greener pastures until they reach maturity. We don’t need to watch them break down for our enjoyment. That’s not sport.
Works Consulted
Gibbs, Lindsey. “Tragedy at the Preakness Renews Questions About the Safety of Horse Racing.” ThinkProgress. Center for American Progress Action Fund. 23 May 2016. Web. 24 May 2016.Liebmann, Bennet. “Reasons for the Decline of Horse Racing.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 6 June 2010. Web. 24 May 2016.Stafford, Scott. “Green Mountain Race Track Owners Hope Concert is Spark for Property’s Revival.” The Berkshire Eagle. The Berkshire Eagle. 10 July 2015. Web. 24 May 2016.“Two Year Old Racing.” The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses. Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses. 2015. Web. 24 May 2016.Woodall, Candy. “Penn National Race Course Works To Restore Reputation as 10th Arrest in Two Years Heads to Trial. PennLive. PA Media Group. 22 May 2016. Web. 24 May 2016.