Without a doubt the New York Times piece on April 30, the second in a series, continued to shine sunlight on horse racing’s challenges. Ultimately, that sunlight will lead horse racing to be a healthier sport. For that the racing community may eventually thank The Times.
Having said that, it seems to me that the tone of the two pieces published so far is directed at destruction of an industry rather than facilitating positive change. Perhaps The Times is missing an opportunity to make a more positive impact in the lives of race horses. Now that would be Pulitzer material!
I’m a visual learner so I like a visual representation of a concept. Stick with me here. Virtually any behavior in life can be represented by a ‘bell shaped curve’. At the risk of looking like a text book, I dropped a graph into my blog
Let’s look at the reprehensible behavior The Times accurately highlighted in the Claiming Race segment of horse racing. The behavior described in The Times piece lives on the left end of the curve. People at that end of the curve will almost always behave badly no matter what the situation is. Circled in red is the behavior of the group of owners, trainers and veterinarians highlighted by the article.
Just for perspective’s sake it is important to realize that there is a similar size group at the right end of the curve that will almost always behave well, no matter what the situation is. Perhaps even more important is the VAST group of people in the middle who may move in either direction. Sometimes they make better decisions than other times. They are waiting for guidance and clarity.
That brings me to incentives and consequences. In my opinion, incentives always work. Sometimes we are just surprised by what we incented. Claiming purses that are a high multiple of the claiming price are a strong incentive for exactly what we see happening in the claiming ranks at some race tracks. I am sure the goal in establishing purses of high multiple of claiming price was NOT to put horses at risk. However, the incentive as designed is working perfectly. We are all shocked at what was incented.
Interestingly, the American Association of Equine Practitioners Racing Task Force has developed a white paper on Thoroughbred Racing. As The Times pointed out, the AAEP white paper makes a recommendation that claiming purses should not exceed the claiming price by more than 50%. In addition the white paper presents a comprehensive list of very specific recommendations that address virtually all of the challenges pointed out by The Times in the Claiming Race environment. The industry has not acted on the recommendations. The framework for massive improvement to horse racing has been crafted. The problem is that the industry is fragmented and unable to find a common voice with which to respond.
I am struck by the irony of a paragraph in “How Kentucky Became Southern” by Mary Jean Wall. “Some tracks failed to honor the rulings of other tracks, ignoring or overlooking official decisions that would have denied participation anywhere to an owner, trainer, or jockey for an infraction of the rules at the track where the ruling originated. Consequently, these rulings lacked the official backing that would have made them universally effective. The banned offenders simply moved their action to whatever racetrack would take them in.”
The irony is that this paragraph refers to Thoroughbred Racing in 1890, 112 years ago. With our continued reliance on unrelated racing commissions to govern horse racing, we are right where we were over a century ago. Cheaters just move to a new track and go right on cheating. Our best thinking got us right where we are. Maybe it is time for new thinking.
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