Archives for May 2015

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, in 2013 released a doctored video purporting to show the mistreatment of racehorses in the stable of high-profile trainer Steve Asmussen.  Based on undercover work by a PETA operative, who was for a short time planted as an employee in the Asmussen stable, the animal-welfare organization made allegations about overmedicated horses and the use of electronic buzzers.

The New York Times printed the story and both horseracing and Asmussen suffered the consequences of the negative publicity.  Ultimately, after a lengthy inquiry, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission found the PETA charges to be baseless, but by then the damage had been done to the reputations of horse racing in general and Asmussen in particular.  Indeed, PETA most likely cost Asmussen a place in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, at least temporarily.

The deceptive approach that PETA used to investigate Asmussen is nothing new, as the organization and others like it have surreptitiously videotaped how animals are treated on farms and ranches.  The Wall Street Journal reports that half a dozen states have responded by passing “laws in recent years to prevent workers from taking images or videos of agricultural facilities.  In Iowa, the law penalizes activists who seek jobs for the purpose of doing so.”

On Friday, May 29, 2015, the North Carolina legislature followed suit and approved such a bill.  Though the governor, Pat McCrory, vetoed it for being too broad, he asked the legislature to send him a narrower bill that he will sign into law.  He said:  “This bill is intended to address a valid concern of our state’s businesses—how to discourage those bad actors who seek employment with the intent to engage in corporate espionage or act as an undercover investigator.”

As would be expected, animal-welfare organizations are adamantly opposed to legal restrictions on their investigative procedures; that is, on their right to obtain information by subterfuge.

The ethical questions raised by an Asmussen-like investigation do not have cut and dried answers.  The vast majority of animal owners and caretakers treat their charges in a humane manner and want animal abusers to be called out, stopped, and made to pay for their transgressions.  How to achieve this worthy goal is the controversial issue.  Animal abuse is repugnant, but so is smearing a person’s reputation.

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Update:  On Wednesday, June 4, 2015, the North Carolina legislature overrode the governor’s veto of the aforementioned bill that allows businesses to sue anyone who secretly films alleged abuses of animals on farms and ranches.  Thus the Property Protection Act is now law in North Carolina.

Copyright © 2015 Horse Racing Business

On June 1, 1946, Assault became the seventh winner of the American Triple Crown.  He was bred and owned by the famous King Ranch of Texas and trained by Fredericksburg, TX native Maximilian Hirsch.  The names of Assault and Max Hirsch are enshrined in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.  Assault’s winning margin of eight lengths in the Kentucky Derby is the largest ever in the Run for the Roses.

Max Hirsch’s grandson, Bill Hirsch (son of Hall of Fame trainer William J. “Buddy” Hirsch), provided Horse Racing Business with the following narrative of his grandfather’s rigorous training and racing schedule for Assault in April and May of 1946.

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Assault basically breezed every three days, though he occasionally was wheeled right back and breezed two days in a row.  Assault breezed 10 to 12 times each month.  He ran an average of two races per month, though he did occasionally race three times in one month.

This arduous training schedule of two or three breezes a week ensured that assault received sufficient race-specific conditioning, so that his body remodeled itself to withstand the pressures of racing.  His morning training routine ensured that Assault would develop race-specific bone, ligament, tendon, heart and lung densities.  Plus his frequent breezes developed his ability to recover from a race in a few days and he was ready to race right back the next week, if necessary.  Assault spent the winter of 1946 in winter quarters at the Columbia Training Center in Columbia, SC.

Assault’s Training And Racing Schedule For the Triple Crown

April 1   Shipped to Belmont Park
April 5   3 furlongs in :37
April 6   6 furlongs in 1:14
April 9   First start of year; won 6-furlong Experimental Free Handicap in 1:12
April 12  4 furlongs in :48 2/5
April 14  3 furlongs in :35 1/5
April 15  1 mile in 1:43 4/5
April 18  1 mile in 1:41 2/5
April 20  Won the 1 1/16 Wood Memorial in 1:46 3/5
April 23  3 furlongs in :39; shipped to Churchill Downs
April 30  Finished 4^th in 1-mile Derby Trial 1:40 1/5; muddy track

May 3   4 furlongs in :48
May 4   Won 1 ¼ mile Kentucky Derby in 2:06 3/5; sloppy track
(In 1946, there was only one week between the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.)
May 5    Walked
May 6   Shipped to Pimlico
May 8   3 furlongs in :40
May 9   1 mile in 1:45
May 11  Won 1 3/16 mile Preakness Stakes by a neck in 2:01 2/5; fast track
May 12  Shipped to Belmont
May 16  4 furlongs in :52
May 18  3 furlongs in :40
May 20  4 furlongs in :48
May 22  1 mile in 1:43 3/5
May 24  3 furlongs in :35
May 25  1 ¼ miles in 2:05
May 28  4 furlongs in :50
May 29  1 ½ miles in 2:32

June 1   Won 1 /1/2 mile Belmont Stakes  by 3 lengths in 2:30 4/5; fast track

Summary:

Assault’s total distance for official workouts in April/May = 12.25 miles
Assault’s total distance for races in April/May = 5.25 miles
On the 3^rd day after this two-month grueling regimen, Assault completed the Triple Crown.

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Thanks to Bill Hirsch for providing the historical record.  Used with permission.

Copyright © 2015 Horse Racing Business

Those who closely follow horse racing are apt to know that Hall of Fame racehorse trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert were outstanding Quarter Horse trainers before making the transition to Thoroughbreds.  A trio of famed show-jumping riders also carved out second careers as Thoroughbred  trainers.

Toronto-based Roger Attfield was born in 1939 in Newbury, England, where he became an amateur steeplechase jockey and a professional show-jumping rider.  He emigrated to Canada in 1970 and soon began to train racehorses.

Attfield is an inductee in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, NY and has won an unparalleled six Sovereign Awards as Canada’s leading trainer.  Among many accomplishments, he has won the Canadian Triple Crown three of the six times it has been achieved.

The Show Jumping Hall of Fame is located at the Kentucky Horse Park.  The biographical entry for Laurel Park (Maryland)-based racehorse trainer Rodney Jenkins (born 1944) reads in part:

“Rodney Jenkins dominated the American show ring in the 1960s, ‘70s and through most of the ‘80s, and retired as the winningest rider in the history of U.S. show jumping.  The Virginian-born son of a famous horseman-huntsman, Jenkins grew up in the saddle and soon earned recognition as a ‘natural horseman’ who could ride just about any horse and get it to perform at its best.  Jenkins accumulated more than 70 grand prix victories in his illustrious career, and his longevity is what separates him from many other great equestrians.”

Michael Matz (born 1951), best known as the trainer of the star-crossed Barbaro, is also an inductee of the Show Jumping Hall of Fame.  An excerpt from his biographical sketch states:

“Michael Matz of Collegeville, Pennsylvania is a three-time Olympic and four-time Pan American Games veteran.  He won the USET Show Jumping Championship a record six times, and first represented the United States in international competition in 1973.  He competed in the 1976 Montreal, 1992 Barcelona, and 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, winning a team Silver Medal in Atlanta.  Matz won eight Pan American Games medals, including five Gold, and rode in three World Championships where he won a team Gold Medal in 1986, as well as team and individual Bronze Medals in 1978.   In 1981 and 1984, he was the American Grandprix Association (AGA) Rider of the Year.  Matz was also a two-time AGA Show Jumping Champion in 1991 and 1992.”

The Lukas/Baffert move from Quarter Horse racing to Thoroughbred racing did not involve a steep learning curve.  By contrast, the elite world of show jumping that Attfield, Jenkins, and Matz hailed from is quite different from Thoroughbred horse racing.  The requisite skills of a world-class show-jumping rider are not the same as required for a racehorse trainer.  But Attfield, Jenkins, and Matz made the leap.

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The Blood-Horse reported that Ahmed Zayat, owner of American Pharoah, rode show jumpers while growing up in Egypt.

Copyright © 2015 Horse Racing Business