There\'s been a slew of catastrophic injuries at Arlington Park so far this meet. And at Del Mar\'s first week too. The Chicago Tribune recently noted that 17 horses had fatal injuries since the meet opened May 5. In comparison, last year 12 horses had injuries requiring euthanasia at Arlington during the entire four-month meet. \"Although many causes have been suggested, there\'s still no definitive reason\" said the Tribune. Similarly, Monday\'s Daily Racing Form indicated that the causes of the injuries at Del Mar \"couldn\'t be blamed on one factor,\" according to trainer Dick Mandella, who added that \"a larger horse population at Del Mar has been a contributing factor, creating traffic problems.\"
Traffic problems causing these catastrophic injuries, Dick!? Well... er, OK.
There\'s been morning inspections of starters, concerns about the track \"balling up,\" advice to trainers to spread workouts throughout the morning, etc. etc etc. But little or nothing said about the [drugs and] steroids injections these animals receive that effect their performance and their bones. Just once, I\'d like to hear someone - even someone from the media - suggest that SOMETHING INTERNAL, NOT EXTERNAL contributes to the problem. But no. [As coach Bill Parcells has said to the press after his team lost a football game after making dumb plays: \"We\'re just TOO STUPID!\"]
At opening day at Del Mar last week, I watched Steroid-Man Doug O\'Neill\'s 3 yr. old colt, BLAZING SUNSET, break down and be vanned off right in front of me, after apparently fracturing his right front sesamoid bones. This happened on the turf, by the way, not on the dirt. [Was the turf hard too? Maybe it needs more sand. Less sand? I think O\'Neill\'s colt had worked his way down to a ThoroGraph 3 in his last race, a 2nd in the Iowa Derby.]
It stands to reason that if you fall from a 2-story building onto a bed of chopped-up rubber you\'re going to hurt less than if you fall onto concrete. So the easy and obvious answer is Equitrack [or whatever these new artificial surfaces are called now]. OK, let\'s do that. That\'s not unreasonable. Studies say it\'ll help. But in my not-so-humble opinion, ad nauseum [sorry], there\'s a lot more to it than changing the surface of the racetrack. Eliminate the steroids.
