The Canadian Sportsman
Archive for September, 2009
September 03, 2009
Drivers who disregard new whipping rule do so at their peril
Drivers who disregard new whipping rule do so at their peril
The latest installment from my weekly Guelph Mercury column…
The first significant test of new rules aimed at curbing the use of the whip in horse racing will come this Saturday at Mohawk Racetrack in Campbellville.
On a rich card featuring the $1 million Metro Pace for two-year-old pacers, the $685,000 Canadian Pacing Derby for older pacers and the $810,300 Shes A Great Lady for freshman filly pacers, the obvious question is: will drivers purposely flaunt the strict new rules when the big money is on the line and simply risk paying a fine?
But look at the fine print of the new province-wide rules regarding the urging of horses, which came into effect Tuesday, and you’ll see drivers would be wise to abide by the new edict.
The primary change requires drivers to keep a hand in each handhold for the entire mile in an attempt to end the practice of taking both reins in one hand and using the other to aggressively — some say maliciously — whip their horse.
The fines for not keeping a line in each hand, among other whipping-related violations, start at a mere $200 for a first offense. But, it should be noted judges are required to place a horse last if its driver “has driven with both lines in one hand and struck the horse with the whip.” And, remember, in harness racing, only the top five finishers get paid. Drivers only get paid if a horse gets money.
While the great unknown is how vigorously the judges will enforce the rules, it would appear taking the lines in one hand in the hope that whipping with the other will help a horse earn more money is not worth the risk.
Which, thankfully, means the end of cowboy drivers pounding on their horses, especially since the reinsmen are also forbidden from bringing their whips back further than a 90 -degree to the track.
The good news is there are very few cowboys still racing at Mohawk, so they should adapt easily to the new standards. The transition might not be as easy for drivers coming in to Mohawk from the United States for Saturday’s card, especially those based in states with lax rules on the use of the whip. Let’s hope risking losing all money and the embarrassment of being set back to last will be enough of a deterrent, because, for sure, the new rules are long overdue to ensure the welfare of the horse.
The Ontario Racing Commission, though it dragged its feet longer than necessary, should be commended on implementing the new rules.
As for Saturday’s card, it begins at 7:30 p.m., with the Metro Pace race seven (9:40 p.m.), the Shes A Great Lady race eight (10 p.m.) and the Canadian Pacing Derby race 10 (10:45 p.m.).
In the Metro, look for elimination winners Malicious, driven by Guelph’s Paul MacDonell, and Sportswriter, trained by Casie Coleman and driven by Mark MacDonald, both of Cambridge, to battle it out from posts one and three, respectively.
The Canadian Pacing Derby offers one of the final chances to see the richest Canadian-bred horse in history, Mister Big, race locally. The six-year-old winner of $3.9 million lifetime (the second most by a pacer ever) is being retired to stallion duty at Tara Hills Stud Farm in Port Perry, Ont. at the end of this year.
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September 02, 2009
“I believe that essentially the VLTs are no more than what a heart transplant is to a human. It’s going to keep the patient alive for a little while, but it doesn’t guarantee him a long life. If we don’t change the current business model of racing, harness racing will disappear, followed by thoroughbred racing.”
— Jeff Gural, owner of Tioga and Vernon Downs racetracks in New York in a 2005 Sportsman feature written by Bill Heller
September 01, 2009
There's no doubt that Hambletonian Day 2009 was the best foot our sport is capable of putting forward. It was a beautiful August day in New Jersey, the racing was terrific, and on national television, the spotlight dance was performed by the best three-year-old trotter we have ever seen, an effortless march to glory by an incandescent animal who in short order nearly erased our memories of the three great colts who most recently visited the Hambletonian winner’s circle. It was as good as harness racing gets, I promise you that. And here’s the cold slap in the face that may end our friendship just as it gets off to a very nice start: Nobody cares.
But, you say, there were 25,000 people in attendance. And I say “so what?” And I say “so what?” to the 50,000 wonderful fans that will show up in Delaware, Ohio in a few weeks for the Little Brown Jug. These are the two biggest spectacles we have to offer, and they are great days, but what do they add up to? The overwhelming majority of those in attendance get their harness racing fix on these special days, and are satiated until the next summer and fall. And another year goes by, and the day-to-day crowds at the races get smaller, and interest in our magnificent sport dwindles even more.
Except perhaps for these two days, we put on this show for ourselves. We are the performers and the audience. We clap for each other, because no one else will. We are the buyers and the sellers of horses. The money just gets passed around. How many people in the grandstand on the average Saturday night at your local track do not have owner, trainer, or groom’s licenses in their pockets? You may bury your head in the sand, but I will not: we have never been more irrelevant to the sporting world, and to the world at large. Are more people, or less, interested in harness racing or Renaissance Fairs? Civil War re-enactments? Collecting dolls?
But what does this matter? Why am I pissing in the punchbowl? Purses have never been higher. The catch-drivers and veterinarians have never made more money. Maybe some owners and trainers are doing the same. Maybe it doesn’t matter if anyone cares.
Ah, but it does. Because, at the moment, in the worst economic conditions on this continent in 60 years, hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent subsidizing this sport we love. And before someone extremely powerful wakes up one day and asks why, we had better do something about it. We need to make people aware, and we need to make them care. And, with all due respect to Muscle Hill, or Somebeachsomewhere, it’s not going to be because of a horse. We’ve seen the best horses in the existence of the breed the last few years, and they didn’t move the needle. Not for more than a few days, anyway. And if they raced until they were four, or five, or 14, that wouldn’t change. And it’s not going to be because of a human-interest story in the paper. There’s only one thing all humans are interested in, and that’s money. Ideally, lots of it. And the chance to get it. We have one opportunity left, and the window is closing. We need to go back to the future, and reinvent ourselves as a gambling sport once again. More soon…
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