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Archive for October, 2009

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October 15, 2009

Burgess hoping to advance Glidemaster's legacy with sale-topper

By Dave Briggs

 
The latest installment from my weekly Guelph Mercury column…
 
For a man who just wrote a cheque for $270,000 (U.S.), Blair Burgess couldn’t have seemed happier a week ago as he stood on the tarmac of The Red Mile, the famed racetrack in Lexington, Ken.
 
Just two nights prior, the trainer from Milton, Ont. collared the sale-topper at the Lexington-Selected Yearling Sale in Kentucky. The colt Burgess took home is a son of his champion trotter Glidemaster, the 2006 trotting Triple Crown winner and U.S. horse of the year.
 
Click on the words “Guelph Mercury” to read the article in its entirety.
 
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October 13, 2009

Stop horse abuse by starting with unscrupulous vets

By Alan Kirschenbaum

Stop horse abuse by starting with unscrupulous vets

 
Okay, the new whipping rules are in effect in many jurisdictions. No more one-handers, no more drivers raising their swords high above the shoulder and cracking their horses across their muscular hind-quarters and stifles. And we all feel good about ourselves. But are we as a sport really, truly prepared to deal with animal abuse in harness racing today? Or is it enough to make an example of a mostly-cosmetic issue, make a public showing of “See, we love our horses, and we will no longer give them hard spanks on the tush,” and move along with the status quo? Because the real abuse in harness racing comes at the hand of those who are trained and licensed to provide the ultimate care for our horses. Actual life-threatening, career-ending damage cannot come from a driver’s whip; it comes every day, on the backstretch of every racetrack, from a veterinarian’s syringe.
 
Don’t get me wrong. There are wonderful veterinarians out there, surgeons who save horse’s lives, and reproductive vets who get and keep our mares pregnant and stay up all night to protect the health of our foals. And there are racetrack veterinarians who handle emergencies with aplomb, and provide the systemic and therapeutic tools required in keeping our animals sound and healthy as they compete on a weekly basis. These are the doctors who love horses, and love the sport. They know who they are, and they know this blog is not about them. 
 
I am writing about the veterinarians who do not love horses. The ones who have abandoned their ethics, and their morality. The ones who have given up diagnostics in favor of prophylactic treatment. The ones who push the envelope right up to what is legal, and too often beyond, masking the pain that would lead a horse to protect himself from further, more serious injury. And there are plenty of them. You know the ones I am talking about. The ones who send bills to the owners with itemized charges for “prerace” or “Rx” or “Special Jug” without providing any actual information about what is in the syringe or the tube. The ones who inject feet, ankles, knees and hocks all at the same time, with both acid and cortisone so as not to miss anything. I’m no Pollyanna and I’m no prude, and I more than anyone can vouch for the effectiveness of hyaluronic acid, as I had it injected into my own knee when I was still lame a few months after knee surgery, and have never had a problem since. But I also know that 30 years ago, when I was a groom, there were vets who did flexion tests to determine lameness, or spent an entire morning blocking a horse, from the foot to the ankle to the knee, trying to determine the source of lameness. These methods took time, I guess, and time is money, and nowadays, instead of trying to figure out what is actually wrong with a horse, it is easier, faster and far more lucrative to inject, tube, or shockwave everything and everywhere, knowing that the problematic spot will be hit, and in a few starts, they’ll get to do it all over again.
 
The owners and trainers are at fault, too. But they never went to vet school, where I’m certain that a philosophy of helping animals must have been part of the curriculum. The owners and trainers probably weren’t little boys or girls who dreamed one day of helping animals. If medical doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, in which they swear to practice medicine ethically, and to never do harm, is it too idealistic to believe that racetrack veterinarians should live by this same credo?
 
I urge the racing commissions to adopt more stringent regulations requiring veterinarians to file every medicine and supplement prescribed and administered to each and every horse on the grounds of every racetrack and training centre in their jurisdiction. And for veterinarians to undergo periodic random searches on their vehicles and supply trailers. And I urge those vets who still have consciences to stop treating every patient with the goal of making sure they can go to post next week, and to more often refer their patients to their esteemed colleague, Dr. Green. Because time isn’t just money; where our horses are concerned, it’s money well spent.
 
 
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October 09, 2009

The poor man’s Muscle Hill

By Lauren Lee

It’s impossible not to feel a little bit sorry for all of the other top three-year-old trotting colts chasing the great Muscle Hill around the track to no avail all season long.

I’d imagine it’s got to be a pretty big shot to the ego of a horse like Explosive Matter, who has won more than $1.4 million and set world records at age two and three, to be sent off as second-choice to Muscle Hill at 26-1 in the elimination of last week’s Kentucky Futurity.

But the horse I really feel for is the one who had to line up right next to the great champion in the same elimination, Russell Hill.

How’d you like to be the colt named Russell Hill, with Muscle Hill winning 19-in-a-row and counting, including the Hambletonian, World Trotting Derby, Canadian Trotting Classic and so on?

I can’t help thinking of Muscle Hill as the popular older brother and quarterback of the varsity football team, while poor Russell Hill is the dorky kid that gets shoved in a locker.

When asked about the unfortunate name game, Russell Hill’s trainer Jimmy Takter chuckled and said that he knows it’ll be difficult for his horse to step out from Muscle Hill’s shadow, even for one day.

“It’ll be tough, very tough,” he said, from the backstretch at The Red Mile.

Takter was right. Russell Hill finished fourth in his elimination, behind both Muscle Hill and Explosive Matter. He was later scratched from the Futurity final, saving the horse from going the second heat, which was won easily by that other Hill.

He may not be Muscle Hill, but it would be a mistake to feel too sorry for Russell.

After all, the son of Conway Hall—Southwind Maywood has a record of 9-8-2 from 25 starts and earnings of more than $441,000 in his career for Canadian owners Al Libfeld, Marvin Katz and Sam Goldband.

The horse has been an especially good performer in the New York Sires Stakes, where he’s won six events.

“He’s been a great competitor in the New York Sires Stakes circuit. He’s a great half-mile horse and an okay mile horse. He really favours the smaller track,” said Takter.

“The New York circuit is over and he didn’t have any races left so we thought we’d see if he could get a little lucky here.”

Because you never know when Russell might make a name for himself.

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