Monzante was this months tragedy. He wasn't the only one. He won't be the last one either.

They call it livestock. But many trainers refer to them as 'deadstock'. That is not a term you hear much unless you are on the inside of racing. But when you are on the inside, you hear it a lot. If you don't move them in time, or max them out, your livestock turns into deadstock. And like a game of musical chairs, when the music stops, if you are the one holding the used up stock, then you have deadstock. Whether they die with you, or in front of you, or in some place where you don't have to watch it, you know they are deadstock either way. I have seen it up close and I have just seen them disappear. Either way, you know how the game works once you have been in it for a while. Horses are very disposable, and even more so in these days of a disposable world. 
I'd had incidents and brushes with sad horse stories and images before. I remembered, vaguely, Ruffian dying when I was 9 years old. I had seen a few race accidents and horses dying on the track when I first started going. But it never really registered with me.
Then, one day, I went to a horse sale. One of the horses entered in that sale was a horse named J R Willow. I'd remembered him well. Why wouldn't I? It was only a year earlier that he started his racing career as a 2 year old. He was from the first crop of Willow Wiper, a horse who had broken down many times, only to return and triumph a few more times, before he finally could not race anymore. He had made a good sire at the start of his career. But eventually, he fell out of favor. While a few of his offspring were good, most were too lame to race for very long. They had his limbs, but not his heart and sheer will to overcome.
J R Willow came out with a bang. He was one of the few. A stakes horse. And he started early. By October of his 2 year old year, he had made some decent money and won a few stakes races. He seemed like he had a bright future that summer.  But as summer turned to fall of that rookie season he was tailing off badly. Some do that and come back okay the next year and have decent, long, racing careers. Most however, do not. The majority start a gradual slide to end up where many in this blog end up. Some faster than others.
J R Willow may have raced a few times as a 3 year old. I don't remember. But if he did, he earned nothing and raced sparsely.  By the time I saw him entered in the sale, he certainly had not raced in a while. He was in the sale to be sold, because he was not at all useful anymore to his very rich owner. An owner only really interested in stakes horses. By then, he had been replaced with fresh stock. Whatever they could get for him (and be rid of him) they were going to do that.  
I didn't go to the sale to see him specifically, but I was aware of him, and passed him as I was looking at others. I learned at sales to try and look at every horse. You never know. You might see one worth having and if you didn't look in advance, you were foolish to buy them. I looked at another of that owners rejects, but that horse was racing okay still and not likely in my price range. Then, I caught a glimpse of J R Willow. I say glimpse, because he was hard to see. He couldn't stand up, and had no intention of doing so. Or likely the ability to do so. He was 3 years old, and basically, he was very close to death. Horses that cannot stand and be useful as racehorses or at least riding horses are days away from being put down. He just looked sad. Like a horse that had been wronged. He wasn't mistreated. He looked healthy enough. He wasn't skinny. He didn't have horribly disfigured legs, as you sometimes see at sales. He just was used up. Couldn't walk. Couldn't stand. Couldn't live anymore. He was bred to do one thing and he could not do that one thing anymore.
I didn't ask to see him. I didn't have to. Even if I wanted to see him, I wouldn't have been able to. Nobody was going to be bringing him out of his stall to be viewed. I never went back to look at him. I didn't have to. He was scratched out of the sale and went unsold. I assume he was put down shortly after that. That is tragic. But not even close to as tragic as the ones that do carry on, only to be used and abused and milked for every last cent until they finally break down, or have to be put down, because they can't even be propped up for one last race anymore. 

http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2013/07/23/Monzante_1920_s-Death-a-Disgrace.aspx

Or, as in the case of Monzante, a champion who died last  week, they are run one last time, break their legs on the track, and are either put down on the spot or back in the barn. 
It usually isn't a quick process. They degrade in stages, become propped up, degrade some more, get propped up again, only at a lower level, until there are no more levels to go down and they simply can't withstand the training and racing anymore. Many of those don't break down. They simply get shipped away and are put to death, for meat, or just to be killed for no reason other than they are not useful anymore and can't be useful due to the repeated propping up by some trainer to try to squeeze the last bit of money out of their fragile bodies. That is what happened to Monzante. And he is hardly unique in that respect. More about that later.

"Racing can provide wonderful stories, such as last week's tale of Omaha and Morton Porter, and then can come right back and kick you in the head with a story like that of Monzante's tragic demise.

That a horse like this should wind up where he did is disgraceful, and there is plenty of blame to go around. Winner of the grade I Eddie Read, second in the grade I Charlie Whittingham, and third in the grade II Strub Stakes, the son of Maria's Mon has passed through some top-class barns, such as Juddmonte, Steve Asmussen, Dale Romans, and Mike Mitchell. In his day he swam with some pretty big fishes before plunging to the depths, where he wound up with the bottom feeders as a 9-year-old."

-Steve Haskin

Jambo Maker was similar to Monzante. He wasn't a world champion, but he was a very good local champion. As a young colt he was just about unbeatable. Early in his 3 year old year, he was near unbeatable. Then came the time when he started to get beat. He was still a very good horse, but he had come down a notch or two. The next year, he was a valuable, good racehorse, but not the horse he was as a younger colt. Then he started to slide more. His value dropped, but as he dropped class levels and the competition got weaker he still won races and made money. Until..he didn't even do that anymore. Then, he seemed to just disappear for a while.

That a horse like this should wind up where he did is disgraceful, and there is plenty of blame to go around. Winner of the grade I Eddie Read, second in the grade I Charlie Whittingham, and third in the grade II Strub Stakes, the son of Maria's Mon has passed through some top-class barns, such as Juddmonte, Steve Asmussen, Dale Romans, and Mike Mitchell. In his day he swam with some pretty big fishes before plunging to the depths, where he wound up with the bottom feeders as a 9-year-old. - See more at: http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2013/07/23/Monzante_1920_s-Death-a-Disgrace.aspx#sthash.FIrb9dvw.dpufThat is what happened to a horse named Jambo Maker. In June of 1997 Jambo Maker was near the end of the line. He was racing in a 2000 claimer in Woodstock, Ontario. I was there that night. As bad as that was, he wasn't even the tragic story that night. That night, in the last race of the night, a 2000 claimer for horses that never were, or once were but weren't anymore, while Jambo Maker relied on his back class to win the race, a horse called Oil Can didn't even make it to the half mile point of the mile race. Just before the half, he reared up and had a heart attack. He was dead by the time he hit the ground. Jambo Maker passed him on his way to the finish line. It would be close to the last time Jambo Maker would win a race as well. I'm sure his time came shortly afterwards. That wasn't always the way for Jambo Maker. As a young horse, he was a champion. Not a world champion, but a local champion who was unbeatable as a 2yo, nearly unbeatable for most of his 3yo season, and a solid earning racehorse for a couple of years more. But then the decline happened. 

When I next saw Jambo Maker, I was at another horse sale. I hadn't even gone to look at him. I knew who the trainers were that had him before that, and I knew better than to even touch a horse like that. When they are done with them, the horse is done.
So, I got a glimpse of him that day, at the sale, but it wasn't in a stall. It was in the sales ring. As he came out, there was a huge gasp in the crowd. His legs were something to see. In sales, you rarely see a horse with legs that damaged being offered for sale. Nevertheless, someone bought him. There is always a guy who thinks he can fix up a horse like Monzante or Jambo Maker and make something useful out of them. Squeeze more orange juice out of the orange. And someone tried to do that. One of the saddest days I ever had at the racetrack was at Woodstock Raceway in Ontario. I loved that track and it had a long history. My grandmother told me of how they would go to that track every year. She was born and raised there in nearby Ingersoll and I still have some relatives who live in the area. My mother was also born and raised in the area.
I liked the country, folksy feel of Woodstock. It wasn't flashy. It was the old style, country fair type of track.  But it wasn't really a country fairgrounds, although it was used that way part of the time. It was a racetrack. Except for the horses. Most of the horses racing there were never-were's, or weren't-anymores. This was pretty much the last rung on the ladder for them. The last stop before they faced the type of fate that Monzante and J R Willow did.  Some did start out there and move on to better things, but they were few and far between. And even those that did would one day work their way back down the ladder and return to meet their sad fate.
That night, in the last race of the night for 2000 dollar claimers (which at the time was the lowest class of horse racing at any track in Ontario), Jambo Maker, who I had remembered as being a very good horse at the big track was the favorite in that race. He was probably 6 or 7 at the time. He had clearly seen better days and even when he was only a few notches below his top level would never be matched against a bunch like he faced that night. Another horse in that race was called Oil Can. I say was, because he didn't finish the race. Oil Can was 12 years old that night, and had clearly seen better days as well. Even though he was no world beater like Jambo Maker and Monzante were, he was competent and a money earner in his career. But that time had long passed. He likely should not have been racing anymore, but then, I could have said that for more than half the horses racing that day at that track and many others. 
Monzante died at Evangeline Downs. In terms of comparison, Woodstock and Evangeline would be very comparable. When people think of the type of horse they want to own, they don't think of racing them at bottom of the barrel places like those. 
Jambo Maker was always a front runner, to the extreme. When he was young, he would simply go to the lead and go as far and fast as he could. When he was 2, nobody could get near him. When he was 3, they got closer, but he was still too good. Towards the end of his 3 year old year, a few could now catch him. As he aged, he employed the same tactic, and it only worked as long as he was lowered in class. This night, he was as low as he could go. As usual, he went right to the lead and was well in front at the half mile point.  Which was a good thing for him. Because Oil Can was back in 4th or 5th, struggling to keep up. As Jambo Maker passed the half, Oil Can did not. He reared up and came to a stop. Then he went down in a heap. He took all but one horse in addition to Jambo Maker down with him. Oil Can was likely dead before he hit the ground, although he did shake like most do when they have a heart attack and die. It was not a pretty sight.
As Oil Can lay dead on the track, the other horses scattered and were okay. I was with my friend Ian near the finish line and Jambo Maker passed us along with the other horse that completed the race. I can't remember if Jambo Maker won or was second. But I remember I never saw him race again, and he likely didn't, or not for much longer after.
As for Oil Can, well.....
They scooped Oil Can up with a tractor and dumped him out back. Jambo Maker lived to fight a few more battles, until I am sure he met a similar,  yet less public fate. People left the track, the lights went black and Oil Can was now a forgotten horse never to be remembered and discarded like garbage.

That a horse like this should wind up where he did is disgraceful, and there is plenty of blame to go around. Winner of the grade I Eddie Read, second in the grade I Charlie Whittingham, and third in the grade II Strub Stakes, the son of Maria's Mon has passed through some top-class barns, such as Juddmonte, Steve Asmussen, Dale Romans, and Mike Mitchell. In his day he swam with some pretty big fishes before plunging to the depths, where he wound up with the bottom feeders as a 9-year-old. - See more at: http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2013/07/23/Monzante_1920_s-Death-a-Disgrace.aspx#sthash.FIrb9dvw.dpuf

 

That a horse like this should wind up where he did is disgraceful, and there is plenty of blame to go around. Winner of the grade I Eddie Read, second in the grade I Charlie Whittingham, and third in the grade II Strub Stakes, the son of Maria's Mon has passed through some top-class barns, such as Juddmonte, Steve Asmussen, Dale Romans, and Mike Mitchell. In his day he swam with some pretty big fishes before plunging to the depths, where he wound up with the bottom feeders as a 9-year-old. - See more at: http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2013/07/23/Monzante_1920_s-Death-a-Disgrace.aspx#sthash.FIrb9dvw.dpufThat is what happened to a horse named Jambo Maker. In June of 1997 Jambo Maker was near the end of the line. He was racing in a 2000 claimer in Woodstock, Ontario. I was there that night. As bad as that was, he wasn't even the tragic story that night. That night, in the last race of the night, a 2000 claimer for horses that never were, or once were but weren't anymore, while Jambo Maker relied on his back class to win the race, a horse called Oil Can didn't even make it to the half mile point of the mile race. Just before the half, he reared up and had a heart attack. He was dead by the time he hit the ground. Jambo Maker passed him on his way to the finish line. It would be close to the last time Jambo Maker would win a race as well. I'm sure his time came shortly afterwards. That wasn't always the way for Jambo Maker. As a young horse, he was a champion. Not a world champion, but a local champion who was unbeatable as a 2yo, nearly unbeatable for most of his 3yo season, and a solid earning racehorse for a couple of years more. But then the decline happened. 

Jambo Maker made it through the sale that day, about a year or so before the Woodstock race. Somebody bought him, and found a way to prop him up enough to win some of those very low Woodstock type races. Until that wouldn't work anymore either. He likely didn't die a violent, horrible death like Oil Can, or lying in a stall like J R Willow, unable to get up. He likely was just shipped away and became meat. There are lots of ways that horses like this end up. None of them are good. Rarely do they end up grazing in a field, living out their years happily as a horse should. That is simply not the way the game is played. It should be, in a Utopian world that we would all like to believe it should, but it isn't. 
Racehorses are commodities, first and foremost, to the vast majority of trainers and owners. There are exceptions to that, but the majority view them exactly that way.
A few years before that, I had an experience like that as an owner. And not a happy experience to say the least. 
After a few good experiences owning a few decent racehorses, my friend Ian and I wanted to get a better horse. My partner on previous horses, Vince, suggested a horse. I was against buying this horse, named Summerjin, who was only 4 years old at the time. Something didn't look right to me about him. Nevertheless, the night came to buy him out of the race. I watched him warm up with the assistant trainer. I didn't like what I saw. Neither did the assistant. But it was my call to decide and the partners wanted him,  so being young and stupid, I said okay. I knew better and should have walked away. We had the money ready and we wanted a race horse. Stupid me.
Anyway, he raced good and he seemed to be an okay purchase. The next morning, the head trainer called Vince and told him there was a problem. The horse couldn't walk.
We had claimed (bought out of a race for a specific price) Summerjin and now he was basically not really capable of racing. He was only 4. He might as well been 14. He was already a cripple. He had a chip and crack in his knee, and had likely been racing on pain killers to keep him going. We got him going too, for a very short while. When I say short while, I mean one race. I will never forget what my head trainer said as we stood and watched him race that one time for us. I asked him how he was, and he said he didn't know. We would see. He also said something else, 

"We will race him until he drops."

I can't really blame them. Most professional trainers think way. They are paid to. Just as Jackie Thacker (the last trainer of Monzante) did. And if they own them, they are that much more likely to do that. Because when a trainer also owns the horse, losing that capital means that his ability to earn a living is at stake. All the more reason for the vet to prevent him from doing so. But vets rarely do. Unless they have no choice. 
Summerjin finished 4th that night, and seemed to come back okay. He was lame though. He must have been. Cracks in knees don't just go away, until you give the horse a lot of time off, which also isn't a guarantee that it will work. We were not going to do that. So, likely, he was still very lame, but they didn't work him, just put him in the field and gave him pain killers. And under those conditions, he was probably sound enough to look okay.
The next, and last time we tried to race him, he didn't make it to the race. But he didn't fall to the track, or slide down the class ladder, or lay down in his stall at the sale. Nor did he have shockingly deformed legs. He simply warmed up so lame that the driver pulled him up while warming him up and the vet scratched him. About 2 months later, we sold him at the sale and he disappeared for a year or so. He then turned up and raced on for another 7 or 8 years and made decent money, similar to how Oil Can did before he met his tragic end. 
What ended up happening to Summerjin? I don't know. If he was lucky, someone made him a farm pet.  If he wasn't, he likely met the fate that almost all of them do. He was sent for meat, or just put down before that. 
Why does this happen? There are lots of reasons. But the bottom line answer is always the same. Race horses are commodities. As long as they are useful and have value, someone wants them so they can earn a profit off of them. When that isn't possible anymore, a very small percentage find good homes. The rest, have no home to go to.
The simple reality of how the game is operated is that many more are bred than can be accomodated when they are not capable anymore. 
Until that changes, there will be more Monzante's, and more cries to stop that from happening. As anyone with any knowledge of the game realizes, there are thousands of Monzante's every month. The only difference is that you don't see them or hear of them. They die quiet, behind the scenes deaths and nobody really cares about them. They are the Jambo Maker's and the Oil Can's, the Oil Can's that don't fall onto the track, but make it back to the barn and have their fates determined there. As Monzante did.
I trained racehorses for what seemed a long time. In fact,  it was only about 8 years. Seemed like 80. 
Before that I was an owner. And before that, I was just a fan. And before that, I was an animal lover. 
I don't train, or own, and I'm barely a fan anymore. But I am still an animal lover. Which is why I don't train anymore. The things you see and the things you know, it just deters you from wanting to do it anymore.

When I first started going to the races, the turnover of horses was there, but not like it is today. 
In those days if you took the program from a year previous, you would probably see 80 percent of the horses still racing or capable of racing. Today, that number is closer to 50 percent. And that is being generous. 
Within that number, you also have the horses that are sliding downward. And then you have the ones who have already hit rock bottom. The Monzante's of the world. Really, they are not racehorses anymore. They are not physically capable of competing, and most cannot walk from the stall to the track, let alone race, without the pain meds that possibly make them feel like they should run, when their bodies and brains are telling them they shouldn't. 

Go to any track, you will see tons of Monzante's. Old classy horses being milked for every last cent until they are worthless as commodities. At that point, they are raced until they drop, or until they cost more to keep than to race. Then, they are basically on deaths door, one way or the other. Is that really the spirit of racing? Hardly. It is cold hard business. Except, we are talking about flesh and blood, not stocks and mutual funds.

The problem still remains this. If we breed so many horses each year, where can they go when they are not capable of being racehorses anymore? They can't all be riding or pleasure horses. Or pets. There simply aren't enough spaces for that. Until that check and balance is put back into balance, then there will always be Monzante's, and always be those who will run them until they drop. It is the ugly reality of the game.

Here are a few things I know to be facts. 
There are some people in the game who won't run a damaged or lame horse who is at grave risk to do fatal damage to themselves. Some. But not many.

"Monzante eventually wound up in the barn of Evangeline Downs owner/trainer Jackie Thacker, who had claimed him for $10,000. Thacker moved him up to $20,000 before dropping him back down to $10,000. After winning for $12,500, his form began to deteriorate. Instead of retiring the horse and trying to find a good home for him, especially one with his accomplishments, Thacker brought him back eight months later and put him in a $4,000 claiming race Evangeline without a listed work in almost two months. The comment on Equineline was a brief as it could get: "Stopped, euthanized."

-Steve Haskin


 Most of those need to be monitored by the veteranarians who are paid by the racing commisions to protect the horses, jockeys and public interest. They are there to make sure that to the best of their ability, when trainers try to run horses unfit to compete, they stop them. That would stop a small percentage of the problem. You would see less breakdowns on the track if that were the case.
Of all the things that his current owner and trainer said, I think this was the most offensive. To act like he even cared and was looking out for the welfare of the horse was beyond belief. Those of us who were in the game know better than that. 
 
 http://www.drf.com/news/trainer-says-monzante-was-put-down-because-he-was-suffering

Thacker said he decided to have the 9-year-old Monzante euthanized after consulting with a private veterinarian and his wife, Geraldine, after the horse appeared to be “in a lot of pain” when the sedatives administered to the horse immediately following the race wore off.
“Sometimes you got to make that call,” Thacker, 63, said. “I didn’t want to see him suffer anymore, and neither did my wife. Lord knows we loved that horse. He’d been good to me. It was like he was part of the family. It was my call.”

Let's be real here. He ran him because he could get past the vet and had some shot at winning the purse. That he likely was in serious risk in trying that meant nothing to him. What would you expect him to say. The truth. Something like, "he was a piece of meat. What the hell do I care? He would never run again. He is useless to me. I don't give a crap. Who is going to feed him for the rest of his life, you?"
Let's also consider who Jackie Thacker is and the kinds of trainers that race these types of horses.

Thacker has been fined four times for violating medication rules in Louisiana since 2007. In one case that year, a horse he trained tested positive for three different corticosteroids, which are anti-inflammatory drugs commonly used in racing but highly regulated. Thacker said he did not administer any corticosteroids to Monzante in the days preceding the race...
Thacker said Monzante was administered an 8-cubic-centimeter shot of phenylbutazone, a painkiller, approximately 36 hours prior to the Saturday race. In Louisiana, it is legal to administer the drug outside of 24 hours from a race. Monzante also was administered a shot of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide and the adjunct bleeding medication carbazachrome, an anti-hemorrhaging drug also known as “Kentucky Red,” at four hours to post time, in line with state regulations...
Thacker acknowledged in the interview that he was charged with six counts of animal cruelty in 1990. However, he said the charges were withdrawn and he was cleared of all the counts after investigators determined that he was not responsible for the horses in question. He said the horses were owned by another person who shipped them to his farm sight unseen, and that they arrived at the farm in poor condition.

Clearly, the horse was being propped up so he could try to squeeze one or two more races out of him. That is, until he dropped. In Monzante's case, he didn't drop on the track. He had more class than that. Certainly more class than his trainer. Trainers like Don Roberson, of which there are many. As such, much of the blame also shifts to the Racing commission and the veterinarians, both of whom are fully aware of what is going on and do nothing about it.

http://www.paulickreport.com/news/people/trainer-don-roberson-suspended-after-barn-search/

Veteran trainer Don Roberson has been suspended by the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission pending a stewards hearing after a Delaware Park barn search found him to be in possession of “injectable medications, syringes, and needles.”...Roberson has at least seven medication violations from 2005-11, including three overages for Butazolidin and three methocarbomol positives in 2011. A 2012 Bute overage at the Alameda County Fair was dismissed with only a warning from California Horse Racing Board stewards because of no “similar violations during the last 365 days.”

You don't have to go far to find blame for this sort of thing all over the place. But no matter what, the bigger picture still exists and carries the biggest problem. These horses still have to go somewhere. And there is not even close to enough spaces to take them. So, whether they die violent deaths on the track, or slowly edge towards the end of the line, either way,  they have no hope unless the amount of horses bred matches the number of available spaces to look after them when they are no longer useful commodities. If the demand met the supply, then they would have homes to go to, and the only issue would be preventing the owners and trainers from running them when they should give them away.
Secondly, when the purses are so high, as they are at Evangeline Downs due to casino fueled purses, then those horses will continue to be run, and into the ground, because you only have to win one race to get your money back. That also has to change. When a horse is valuable enough as long as they just win one race, the temptation to just run them is overwhelming for those who already live on the edge of poverty and being out of business if they have a couple of bad months. 

"The last thing we want to hear is the usual empty comment in these cases, "He still loved to race." The fact is, Monzante either did not love to race anymore or he was too sore at his age to endure it."

-Steve Haskin

That night that Summerjin was so lame that the vet scratched him off the track. Ian and I were also on a double date. We brought the girls to the track. To say that didn't work out so well was a major understatement. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant for dinner.  As it happens, a couple just the next table overheard our less than happy conversation. The man at that table happened to be a harness driver from Michigan. He said that if you think it is bad here, you should see what they do at his track. They basically beat the crap out of the horses to make them go until they simply won't go anymore. 

Haskin goes on in his article to ask the question, 

Why was this allowed to happen?
 
Until racing seriously addresses those two issues, for starters, nothing is going to change. The real tragedy is that nobody wants to admit that. That is the real problem. Horse racing is too much business, and not enough sport and humane treating of living beings. Living beings, for which without them, the industry would not exist in the first place.
Breeders need to take some of the responsibility here. So do the owners. And the trainers. And the public. We all either make money off of them, or get entertainment from them. It is only fair that they get something back from us. If that means a percentage of the takeout from the betting,  taken out of the purse money, then so be it. I know that wouldn't go over well with those who race now, and it likely won't happen, but that is a major part of the solution.
And the answer to Haskin's question? It's simple Steve. Racing cares more about money than it does about the animals. They are commodities. When commodities are not worth anything anymore, you ditch them. That is how it happens. And how it will continue to happen. And is happening right now. Today, this very day, thousands of horses will run in races. For many, it will be their last race. For some, they will die on the track. Others will die back in the barn. Still others will be hauled off to sales where still others, like Jackie Thacker and guys like him will buy them and try to squeeze more juice out of the orange. 
If the horses were smart, they would just lie down like J R Willow and get it over with. Then nobody would complain anyway, because they would never see or hear of it, and it would keep happening over and over and over again. Like it will anyway. 
Monzante was this months tragedy. He wasn't the only one. He won't be the last one either.

What does it mean to be a business partner?

 http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/news/3-11-13/racing-over-kawartha-downs.html

Now that the shit has really hit the fan and the reality of Windsor, Sarnia and Fort Erie being dead in the water, along with the news today that Kawartha Downs will cease racing at the end of the month, racing people are finally waking up to the truth:

The Government of Ontario and Racetrack Owners were NEVER your partners. 

They used you just like any business will use you if you don't have a proper legal business contract to protect yourselves in case of change. That is why workers have unions and suppliers make you sign contracts with an obligation to pay. We have laws for a reason and lawyers and courts to enforce them when others don't follow them. If you don't have a contract, you have nothing.

To say that the owner of Kawartha Downs was never in the slightest bit interested in the success and health of harness racing is a gross understatement. One look at the backstretch or the grandstand, not to mention the overall presentation of the racetrack, along with the contrast of the slots area tells you all you ever needed to know. It can hardly be surprising that when the option was there to get out of operating a racetrack was presented, that the owner of the track, Skip Ambrose, was going to take it. 
Lets be frank here. Skip Ambrose is there to make money. Horse racing in Peterborough is a money losing operation without the slots to supplement it. For him, it is just good business. Plain and simple. 
He was never your partner. You were just a business expense. The cost of doing business. Now, the government (who was always never your partner but just your loan shark) has cut off racing and they have told their henchmen (track owners) to take your cut and give it directly to them. 
Neither was ever your "partner". If you wanted protection from this in the first place, you should have negotiated it when you had the balance of power. The government wanted the locations that racetracks already had. The track owners wanted easy money with no risk. That is when you had the power. You should have made a better deal with significant penalties as out clauses....when you had the chance. Too bad now. Don't make that mistake again.
Here is just a sample of the comments on the link at the top of the blog.


"Am I surprised they are shutting down? absolutely not! Other than the slot facilities the grandstand and backstretch were a disgrace to the horses and their handlers and fans. Now that slot machines are not mandatory, to be joined to racing horses this will be the new reality at some locations, unfortunately. As an industry we must shoulder much of the blame by shooting ourselves in the foot by choosing to have a variety of organizations negotiating on our behalf."

This gets to the heart of the matter. Why do racing people have well intentioned amateurs looking after their affairs? If you are outmatched on these things, the results will speak for themselves. Any competent lawyer or businessman would have put safeguards into the contract so that they simply could not have the rug pulled out from under them. Horsepeople were so blinded by the pot of gold that slot money was going to bring them that they never considered that one day they would simply be cut out of the action because they were not needed anymore. That happens everyday in business. Why they thought they were immune to that is shocking.


"On any day there is live racing at KD, you will see the same faces at the meet. For the last few years, purse distribution has exceeded the betting handle (and consequently the track share of the handle) by a substantial amount. From a mile away, it was apparent to anyone who cared to notice that this was a business in deep, deep trouble. The public simply lost interest in harness racing as entertainment. When you are trying to sell a product nobody wants you will eventually go out of business. It doesn't matter that the guys and gals making the product love their jobs. Surely this outcome can't be a surprise to anyone."

Really, that is just how it is. The vast majority in that region (and Ontario to some extent) don't care if harness racing lives or dies. You can say that it is the big cities discarding rural Ontario, but Kawartha is certainly not any big city area. And those people don't care either. They don't go to the races and they don't care if there are races or not. Back before slots, the purses at Kawartha were so low that it wasn't worth even showing up to race. The product (without the slots) was simply not good enough. And even with a better product, there was no effort made to get the fans to come. Horsemen didn't seem to care about that either, as long as the purses were grossly overinflated. So, they share equal blame here. They lived by the sword, now they will die by it.

"Horsemen should have gone on strike years ago against this management."

Why didn't they? As mentioned above they were making piles of money and really couldn't care less if the track had any customers. The horsemen didn't care, the government didn't care and the track owner didn't care. Nobody cared. Except that two of those three had their bases covered, while the 3rd assumed that since everyone was making great money that the other two would not go looking to take their cut as well. As we all have learned from Walmart that just isn't the case. More is always better. Bigger is better. If you can take the other guys share you are going to do that, unless of course they have a contract and you can't. Now, the government needs more money to finance their debt, so they want a bigger slice. The track owner wants to maintain his cut and when the government takes that away, he wont have to care because he is not re-investing any of that now or then. The horse racing industry will lose, because while they were never partners, they were completely dependent on the other two and cannot survive without them. Just like when a huge company leaves town and all the locals are immediately out of work. They have the power and they know it.


"It's a shame but this track is a case study in why we no longer have the SARP program. Management took unfair advantage of this great program reaping huge rewards, but usurped the spirit of the deal and put almost nothing back into the facility, nor did anything to promote the racing product."

Spirit of the deal? Since when is spirit part of a legally binding agreement. Time to wake up and deal with the real world, not the utopian one that you believe exists. Management didn't take unfair advantage of anyone. You let them. You did nothing while they were doing that because you were riding the gravy train. Therefore, you endorsed that type of behavior and now you have to suffer for that. Sadly.  

Another bonehead move

While California horsemen fret over the risk of customer cannibalization as a result of account wagering, Woodbine Entertainment officials say they have found just the opposite to be true: Televised racing drives wagering.
Nick Eaves and Andrew MacDonald of Woodbine Entertainment told the Harness Racing Congress Feb. 21 about their company's success by "employing any and all distribution strategies."

 http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/8217/woodbine-tv-combats-handle-cannibalization


 The above quote is a direct statement in 2002 by Nick Eaves, the current Chief Executive officer of WEG (Woodbine Entertainment Group).

Before I start this blog,  let me make one thing perfectly clear. What the Liberal government and the OLG, led by one of the most crooked politicians in my lifetime, Paul Godfrey, did to racing is deplorable. And nonsensical. To cut them down in one fell swoop with basically no warning or plan to serve private interest groups who will benefit along with themselves is something that should never have happened. It has always been my position that if racing had strong leadership--real,  true, smart, competent leadership--and had acted quickly and defiantly when it first happened, they could have put a stop to it and at least reversed this decision and got them to do it right. Kind of like the leadership that the Meadowlands now has with Jeff Gural. But that is a blog for another day.
The slots do have to go. That is a fact. But it didn't have to happen this way. The point was not to destroy horse racing in Ontario, the point should have been to make it self sufficient and within a reasonable time frame and chance to do so. My position, again, is that horse racing and slot machines can never co-exist. They are adversarial. They aim to take the same market, gambling money and entertainment created to get that money. One flourishes, the other dies at the exact same rate. You would never see a Las Vegas Casino put one of their prime competitors right on their own property and help them do well. It goes against all logic. And now, when the bird is ready to fly we see what the caretaker is left with: Nothing.
Horse racing in Ontario had 15 years to bridge this problem and become self sufficient. It has horribly failed in that time. It sits today at the mercy of the government and appears as beggars pleading with the government to give them more time. Meanwhile, the leaders in the industry do nothing. Or they make bonehead moves like Nick Eaves just did last week.
I preface it that way because I never want to appear to come of as someone who doesn't want to see horse racing succeed and prosper. I love racing and it is a great sport, despite its many problems with all sort of issues. If I was in power, whatever position that would be, I would do whatever I thought was beneficial to make it work better and be viable. I think it is worthy of continuing, but not on the track it has been on for about 40 years. My position has always been that if done right, it can work and everyone can win. That, sadly, has not happened for ages. Slot money covered that ugly reality up for 15 years. Now, it is exposed again.
That said, it is where it is. How did we get here and why does it appear that there is less and less hope every day that it will survive?  I will attempt to answer that and bring up only the most recent example of why it seems anyone who has any clout is doing the exact wrong thing to fix this.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/2012/03/12/ontario_horse_racing_industry_calls_provinces_proposal_to_end_slotsatracetracks_program_irresponsible.html 

When the news came almost a year ago that horse racing in Ontario was going to lose the slot money that has carried it for 15 years it was a shock. A shock to most. Not a shock to me, as I predicted this more than 10 years ago. As soon as governments started to get in a deficit position, they were going to look for places to increase revenue. It doesn't matter that they will actually lose revenue--from a net gain perspective--with a move like this. They were still going to do it, because it sells with the general public who view slot money to horse people as charity and a subsidy. In some respects, it is charity.
 Sure, it is a business arrangement where the government benefits greatly from the deal. No doubt about that. And it doesn't cost the government a cent or cause them to take any financial risk. All that is true. But they could already do anything they wanted with respect to Vegas style gaming without the horsepeople if they wanted. And now they do want that. And as we have seen, the big players are lining up to get a piece of the action. 
So, the only motivation was to keep the horse racing industry viable by propping it up. And make no mistake, it needed propping up. And still does. Without the slot money, horse racing on any significant level in Ontario basically doesn't exist anymore. Racetracks like Elmira, Goderich, Leamington, Orangeville, old Barrie racetrack and others perished because they were not viable. Sudbury, Kawartha, Hanover, Clinton, Sarnia and Fort Erie would have if not for the slot money. Before the slots, they raced for purses so low you could not make a profit racing unless you won just about every week. And even then, over time, you would lose money as an owner and be broke as a driver or trainer if you had a bad month or two. That was the reality, and when the slots vanish it will be a reality again. Unless.....
I will get to that later.

But none of that matters anyway. It is going to happen. Why?
Because horse people are so focused on saving the slot money that they still don't get it. The only way out of the mess is to get people back to the track and betting. Steady. On horse races. Period. If that doesn't happen then there is no point. There is an industry because people want your product. If they don't, then there isn't. Just because you can sponge off the slot money doesn't mean you should. It was nice while it lasted, but it was bound to end. Now, it has.


http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/news/2-19-13/no-more-bet-night-live.html

In 2010, WEG rebranded its former Race Night On The Score show to Bet Night Live, designed to "introduce new people to the sport and immediately experience the excitement and anticipation of horse racing and the thrill of winning." 
 "Included in the cost reductions announced last Wednesday was a significant reduction in our network TV programming," Woodbine CEO Nick Eaves told Trot Insider. "We will still produce the Queen's Plate on CBC and we hope to showcase other major races on network television however the Bet Night Live program has unfortunately been cancelled."

Based on a move like this, I think the time has come to ask if Nick Eaves is the right person to be manning the ship at WEG. He was very eager to cut and slash staff, and maybe some of that was justified. But, at a time when it appears the only chance you have to maintain your product, which the last time I checked was horse racing, is to gain new customers and keep the ones you have on the fence interested, the last thing you should do is cut your media presence. Looks to me that he just wants to keep getting his big paycheck for as long as he can until it all collapses, which it will if this is the type of move he thinks is a wise one.


 Nick Eaves is the CEO and president of WEG.
CEO. What does that stand for? Chief Executive Officer. Let's break that down. 

A Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the highest-ranking corporate officer (executive) or administrator in charge of total management of an organization. An individual appointed as a CEO of a corporation, company, organization, or agency typically reports to the board of directors

Chief

-Highest in rank, authority, or office. Most important or influential. 

Executive

 -A person or group having administrative or managerial authority in an organization.

Officer  

-A person holding a position of command or authority

If we put it back together, what we have is the person of highest rank, with administrative and/or managerial authority who holds a command position.
From this type of power and decision making ability, you expect a level of expertise and leadership skills.

http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=103507

Because of this, I have to question Nick Eaves credentials. So, I decided to look them up. Here is what I found.

http://www.oddsonracing.com/docs/PersonalityofthemonthMAY2007NickEaves.cfm

There isn't that much out there on the internet about Nick Eaves credentials. He ran a painting company during his college years and eventually came to run and off track betting parlor. He then spent 12 years with WEG before becoming COO of the company in 2006. His responsibilities were basically the internet and gaming aspects of the business. Slot machines and off track wagering. That is what he worked hardest towards. And with good reason. He had no experience with racing and knew nothing about it-by his own admission.

"I hadn't been exposed to racing that much prior to joining the Woodbine group back in 1994," Eaves said.  "I had been to Western Fair Raceway in London where I was going to school and to Greenwood in Toronto, but I knew very little about horse racing."

It appears nothing has changed. He doesn't have a big Ivy league pedigree. He doesn't have hands on experience in the racing business. It doesn't appear he has ever owned any racehorses. He doesn't even claim to work to build the racing audience and fan base. He just fired the most qualified person in the company, Bruce Murray, that was capable of doing that.

 Yes, he is slick and well spoken. No doubt about that. He has the corporate lingo and game down pat. He is a good face on the brand. I will give him that. He wears the very nice suit. He has the very nice, responsible haircut. Every hair is in place. He will never say anything that will cause the company to call him into the boardroom to explain himself. He is very "executive". He has that part down pat. He is also certainly an officer of the company. He follows the party line and does what is expected of him. He won't make waves. He won't take any chances. He is no Steve Jobs. He will get his big fat paycheck, he will do what he is told and at the end of it all he will leave with a big fat golden handshake while the rest of the industry dies a horrible death. The one thing he is not is "a chief". 
Chief's don't kiss ass. Nick Eaves is a total ass kisser. He has been kissing the governments ass, a government who is ass fucking his enterprise, for months now. How does that serve the horsepeople he is supposed to represent? It doesn't. Why? Because he doesn't actually represent you. He represents himself and his career. So, what to do about that?
What is a chief? A chief leads. He takes charge and makes decisions that benefit the people under him. The people who follow him, trust him and put their faith in his ability to do what is best for the whole group. A chief doesn't get rid of the soldiers most able to help the team win the battle. A chief doesn't make decisions that help maintain his level of power while at the same time ensure the cause will be lost at the end of it all. 

Nick Eaves...is not a chief.

 Eaves was quoted in March 2007 edition of The Harness Edge magazine as saying: "We have to provide a fantastic product to today's customer and make sure we're putting on the best racing and that our restaurants are as good as they can be and our facilities are as clean as they can be and that our communications are as succinct as they can be.  We're focused on that and I think we're doing a really good job."

Explain to me how the recent decisions are "focused on that?"

 http://www.drf.com/news/woodbine-daily-average-handle-jumps-13-percent-us-betting-increases

Horsepeople are very eager to blame the Liberals, and there is plenty about them to blame. And the OLG and Paul Godfrey. But they are an easy target. They are clearly the enemy here. But when your allies, or apparent allies are your actual enemies and are more allied with the other side than your own, if you do nothing to correct that you might as well wave the white flag. You have no chance. You can't fight your enemies when you have no competent leadership on your side. It simply won't work.

http://xwebapp.ustrotting.com/absolutenm/templates/article.aspx?articleid=48753&zoneid=1 

 "How are we expected to compete when the referee is also our opponent?" Eaves emphasized.

Mr. Eaves concluded his remarks by saying, "WEG hopes that the government will include the successful and participatory integration of horse racing into the province's overall gaming strategy. Otherwise it is hard to see the numbers working to allow WEG to be more than, at best, a pale imitation of its current status as a renowned international leader in both the Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries and, the anchor of Ontario's horseracing and breeding industry."

June 21, 2012
 
That was then. In his recent press conferences, he still refers to the government as "our partners".
Which is it Mr. Eaves? Are they the opponent and competitors or are they our partners? Do you even know? Or care? It appears not. 

What kind of idiot wants to partner with a government who has demonstrated they are out to screw you and destroy you? I have to wonder why this person has any power or interest in the best interests racing. I conclude he does not.
Nick Eaves is neither a chief or a competent executive. If anything, he is an officer with loyalties to the government, and not the horsepeople who are putting their livelihoods on the line. When the short term aid money is gone in two years, the whole model breaks down. By then, Nick Eaves will be long gone and on to his next job. Where will the horsemen with no viable alternatives be?
They will be on the internet bickering amongst themselves and wondering why they didn't speak up to get rid of the Nick Eaves of the world and promote the sport they love and make a living from. By then, it may be too late. It may already be too late. 
Nick Eaves is the Captain steering the Titanic towards an iceberg and telling you it is just a tiny piece of ice. Don't complain later when the iceberg sinks the ship. Speak up now and avoid the iceberg.   
Based on recent actions and decision, Nick Eaves must go and the whole team at WEG must be replaced. If not, big time racing in Ontario will be completely dead in 2 years.  

I will conclude where I started this blog, from the same article. This is what Nick Eaves said in 2002.

  "He (Nick Eaves) painted a picture of Woodbine in the early 1990s as a business in serious decline. It was failing to attract a new audience, its distribution was limited to live racing, it had little TV exposure, had no technological advances, and experienced a steep drop-off in wagering due to competition for entertainment and gaming dollars."

If it was important then to have a strong TV presence, isn't even more important now?

Perception vs. Reality

 I was reading an article on Standardbred Canada's website this morning. You hear all the time of a horse really down on his luck. The trainer just about ready to give up on him. Some do give up on them and then someone else comes along and the horse becomes great for them. Rambling Willie was that kind of story. 


In this case, the trainer, Joe Cirasuola decided to keep the horse, Ruff Me Up, and slowly and steadily the horse turned around to become a very nice WEG horse. At the time Cirasuola got him, he first raced him in a 6 claimer at Sarnia. The horse raced terrible and he was thinking of selling him for 4000. He didn't, for whatever reason and within a few months he completely turned around.


“I was going to sell him for $4,000 last fall at Sarnia after he didn’t fare well,” he remembered, of the horse that was originally a $61,000 purchase at the 2005 Lexington Select yearling sale. “But it didn’t happen, so we just moved on from there.”
Not long after, Ruff Me Up showed signs he was getting things on-track, punctuated by a strong second-place showing at Flamboro Downs on November 6, in a time of 1:54.2, after leading the field through a half-mile in a scorching :52.4.

Ruff Me Up winning at WEG

Or did he?
Lets take a look at Ruff Me Up to see what kind of horse he was before he was down on his luck.


As mentioned in the SC article, Ruff Me Up was a $61,000 yearling. And for good reason. He is by Real Artist, who is a popular sire. His dam, April Ruffles, is a half sister to JD's Buck (p, 2, 2:01.4f, 3, 1:57f, 4, 1:54.3 -'81 ($1,153,031) 39 wins. and Tough Hombre p, 2, Q2:04f, 3, 1:52.1f, 4, 1:51.3f -'93 ($631,656) 26 wins. Both of those horses were high end FFA horses back in their day. JD's Buck raced consistently against Cam Fella in his prime and then against the top FFA horses in the world for a couple of years. Tough Hombre was very competitive in the top stakes and was third in the Breeders Crown. 
April Ruffles was also the dam of RUFFED UP (g, Western Hanover) p, 2, 1:55f, 3, 1:52.2f, 1:49.2 -'02 ($650,089) 33 wins and FAST RUFFLES (m, Western Hanover) p, 2, 1:52 -'04 ($413,758) 6 wins, who was a winner in her elim of The Breeders Crown and second in the final. The pedigree was clearly there. The talent was clearly there.


 Of course, lots of well bred horses that have a big ticket yearling price end up being nothing, but in this instance, that wasn't the case.
Ruff Me Up was raced hard and early at 2, and he made the Woodrow Wilson final at the Meadowlands. You don't do that unless you have real talent. He paced his own mile in the final (where he finished 6th) in 1:52.1 in August. While he may never have been destined to beat those type of really high end horses, he certainly had some level of class. He was also second in the Smullin at Rosecroft just after that before they shut him down.
At 3, he won multiple Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and was good enough to race in the Little Brown Jug. He was thought that highly of. Unfortunately, he drew the 7 hole, was parked from before the half and finished last, beaten only 5 lengths, his own mile in 1:51.3. 

Two horses that beat him in that elim were Tell All and Southwind Lynx. That is very good company to keep.

He also won a division of the Reynolds stake that year.
After that, he tailed off badly in his 4, 5, 6 and 7 year old season, many times missing large chunks of time for whatever reason. Clearly he was raced hard young and was fried. That happens. That is the business. People pay $61,000 for a yearling and they expect to get their investment back as soon as possible.  By the time he hit the starting gate the first time as a 2 year old, his owners were likely in the hole for about $100,000. His first lifetime start was in the Goshen Cup,  where he paced in 1:54.1 and then his second lifetime start was in the Wilson elim. He was thrown to the wolves without much preparation. And as time went on, he paid the price for that. The two horses who beat him in his Wilson Elim basically fell off the radar and were never really heard from again. That is how it goes.
A trainer I once had said that most 3 claimers are made, not born. I have always agreed with that.  Sure, some horses just don't have much ability, but for the most part the ones that end up at the bottom rung of the ladder are ones that were pushed too hard or not taken time with when that time was necessary. That doesn't mean that many of them will make it back to where they were born to be, but some can.
I think it is safe to say that if you go back and look at most of the starters in the Woodrow Wilson, you will find that very few go on to do much after that. Racing two year olds is a big time gamble, as is buying yearlings, and racing in the Wilson is like playing roulette at the casino. You might get the big score, but if you don't you will likely lose it all. That is the gamble you take when you race in those types of races.
In the case of Ruff Me Up, that gamble didn't pay off. He certainly never paid back that initial investment plus expenses and the yearling buyer lost, big time.
As we all know, those of us who have been to the racetrack, picking up losing tickets off the floor in the grandstand is a fools game. You rarely find one winner. But it does happen. 
In the case of Joe Cirasuola, that ticket, the one he picked up and almost threw away, did come back to pay off for him. He recounts his first impressions of the horse.


It wasn’t necessarily love at first sight.
“I never really liked grey horses and when we got this guy, the first three months, he couldn’t get out of his own way,” recalled Cirasuola. “He had issues his entire life, all kinds of things, and he just couldn’t seem to put it all together.”

I remember a horse who had a very similar story. Back in the late 80's, an unraced son of Storm Damage called Soft Light was bought by Garth Gordon. The story goes that he had a very significant injury training down as a young horse,  possibly a bowed tendon, but he had now healed. 
Soft Light was a very well bred horse,  and Gordon took a chance on him.
Soft Light's dam, Lantern, p,3,T1:57.2 ($96,952) was a fantastic broodmare who had produced multiple good performers including:

SAVE FUEL p,5,1:511m (h, Bret Hanover). Winner of 23 races and $325,377.
GUIDING BEAM p,3,1:534m (m, Bret Hanover). Winner of 25 races and $205,854.

STEELY GLOW p,6,1:54f (h, Bret Hanover). Winner of 24 races and $201,001.
and many others.

Lantern's dam,  Flicker was a full sister to  FLY FLY BYRD (h, Poplar Byrd) p, 2, 2:03.3, 3, 2:00.3h, 4, 1:58.2 ($244,601).

My memory is that Soft Light didn't make his first lifetime start until the middle of his 4 year old season. But he went on to be one of the top FFA and stakes horses of his generation and lasted for 5 or 6 years at that level. Much the same way that JD's Buck and Tough Hombre went on to be better horses as aged than they were as 2 year olds. It is mostly a family of horses that get better with age.

SOFT LIGHT p,4,1:523q (h, Storm Damage). Winner of 55 races and $691,220.

Now, in the article, the writer lists Cirasuola as crediting the mother of one of his workers for the good fortune he has with Ruff Me Up.



"Cirasuola still marvels at the way the mother of one of his workers can walk down his shedrow, analyze a horse’s current physical state, and be bang-on in her assessment.
So, when the woman told Cirasuola a grey horse would one day win a lot of races and money for him, he didn’t pass up the opportunity, just 48 hours later, when he had the chance to purchase Ruff Me Up, a pacing son of Real Artist, in 2011."

 I don't need to be a physic to figure out this horse was bred to be good and has talent. I can read a program and a sale book just fine.

The perception is that he was a horse who was no good anymore and was an underachiever his whole life. The reality is that he was just a horse who was a victim of his circumstances and needed some care and a chance to shine again. No witchcraft or psychic powers are involved in that.