Loser at BCUP, Horse Racing Horrific? How about the rest of the world...

Please go the the comments page of my 10/24 post for the most eloquent descriptions, good and bad, about the sport of horse racing. For the record I lost $19.80 (the first race exacta I had yesterday paid twice as much, they showed the one dollar price on the results screen) on fourteen combination bets ($56.00). But I hope you all took Missouri and laid the 23 and 1/2 points. I feel sorry for those Buff grads out there...just like when we play cribbage.

Someone actually said horse racing was the most horrific sport taking place in the world today! Even allowing for a modicum of hyperbole...you've gotta be shittin' me! Let's see, in bullfighting I think the all-time record is Bulls 7-Bull Fighters-10, 876,012. There's a sport where the object of the game is to taunt a bull to death by a guy dressed up like Madonna in her third wardrobe change at a concert in the seventies. Let's see, then there's deer hunting, when was the last time a deer won one of those matches? Fishing? Except for Jaws and The Deadliest Catch (Palin's husband) I think the fish have been losing since since the Geico guy started angling during caveman times. I guess a rodeo or two beats a non-stop flight to the slaughterhouse. Another great one is trapping...but they make that one out to be a commercial venture; but I know guys who do it for fun in Maine. You know, the head on the wall, and a nice stole for the old lady. They do a lot of wrong things for fun up there. I could go on-and-on about worse sports, but you get the picture.

Not to belabor this, the best explanation is on the 10/24 comments page, but what would happen to the thoroughbred breed if there was no horse racing? I actually know one couple who actually keep horses for pets. They don't ride them, and in fact there was a time my buddy would take his pony for a ride in his convertible. Long ago, big car, small pony. As with greyhounds, I put my rescued treasure Flame (crappy racer, gate shy, all-world pet) down last October; what would happen to these breeds? Within two hundred years they would be added to the endangered species list. You see we don't need horses for anything anymore, though we may if we can't figure out the fossil fuel issues in the world. And please, please don't tell me about show horses! They are treated worse than any race horse...and they're so valuable, that when they just begin to fade some unscrupulous owners hook them up to a twelve volt car battery and collect the insurance! Well documented. And just think about how they train jumpers. If horse racing ended tomorrow what would they do with the horses? The thought is harrowing. Oh yeah, if you feel you'd like to adopt one, be prepared to add a couple of car payments a month to your budget for feed and upkeep.

I worked with horses in the early seventies. I saw both sides of the fence (pun intended) on the issue. I loved the four horses I took care of as a groom. Before dawn they would come alive and anticipate the day ahead. On non-racing days they'd be taken to the track for a workout, excuse the cliche, but chomping at the bit. While they were gone I'd clean their stalls, not a turd in sight when they returned, and their bedding was fluffed like a king-sized at the Ritz-Carleton. The exercise rider would bring them back from the track for a nice bath, brushing and a rubdown with a comforting, stimulating liniment. Then a hot walker would walk them for forty-five minutes or so and they returned to their stall for a great meal that included alfalfa and molasses. Some days they would get a pedicure from the farrier. Some would even be turned out to graze. And man, could they sleep! The schedule was different on race day, but they were still treated like the kings and queens they were. I always had treats in my pocket that ranged from carrots to sugar cubes.

I am not quite naive enough to believe all horses and dogs are treated this way. I know there are nasty training methods and disastrous accidents that occur. (At this year's Breeder's Cup the new poly surface resulted in not one major on-track injury. It was also without steroids for the first time, but the average defensive lineman uses more steroids than a horse, and that's a fact!) But both breeds have been bred to do what they love the most...run like the wind. I know a horse knows when he wins. His demeanor coming back to the barn is the greatest indicator, a winner prances head held high, a loser tears up his tickets all the way to the waiting hot walker. I also realize that both sports need more regulation (and they both bring much needed money into state's coffers), but what in society as we have built it doesn't need more regulation? Apologies to the Libertarians...if only the world could really work that way...responsibility, respect and the golden rule. Ain't happen'.

I love horses and dogs. I'm driving a one hundred and forty pound mastiff to Florida on Thursday. He'll be in the back of capped a pick-up that the owner has turned into and overly plush, padded pimp-palace on wheels. (While we're at it shouldn't we spend more time on correcting societies ills on white-slavery, etc?)

Travel through Kentucky and Florida and view the pastures with weanlings and their Moms galloping around free as the wind. Would you rather have more golf courses? There's enough already, and the chemicals they use to manage those seep into our nostrils and groundwater every day. Come to think of it, golf can be a pretty cruel sport. Lots of critters lose their habitat, and players lose their minds. Ski areas tear up beautiful mountains and expend one of our most seriously fading commodities, water, making fake snow. Takes an inordinate amount of electricity to do it too. And no, it all doesn't just get recycled. Everything has a price.

Here's another thing I find odd. I am one-hundred pro-choice in that arena and many of the people that find horse racing horrific are of the same ilk. With their love for all things living, it seems like a strange dichotomy.

I appreciate all the views I've heard on racing (by the way the Bryant Gumbel piece on HBO should have had a sub-title; One Way Street...there wasn't anything presented from the decent side of the sport), but must ask the question, would the world be better off without the thoroughbred and the greyhound? Also, before we put a serious amount of energy into ending these breeds shouldn't we take a walk down a street in Dar fur, or even Detroit? PETA has its place, but so do people, and there a lot of thoroughbreds and greyhounds treated far better than people in this world.

The ball game ended at 1:47 AM last night on a bizzaro play, and I think the series is shaping up to continue in that fashion....I'm bushed...later, biff