Wednesday, August 4, 2010

“News comments: Horse racing should be banned, focus shifted to casinos” plus 3 more

“News comments: Horse racing should be banned, focus shifted to casinos” plus 3 more

News comments: Horse racing should be banned, focus shifted to casinos

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 09:09 AM PDT

Published: Wednesday, August 04, 2010, 12:00 PM

Last week, The Patriot-News reported that local horse racing trainer Darrell Delahoussaye was, "accused of giving horses illegal performance-enhancing, including Red Bull and snake venom."

PennLive.com commenters were aghast but posited that the so-called sport of kings has worse problems than short-term doping boosts.

Reader 8catlady explained:

There's more than just drugging involved in the seedier side of horse racing. Let's talk about what happens to the retired horses when everyone feels there's no more money to be had. They're sold for a pittance to folks who don't have the animal's best interest in mind.

I was a courtroom observer several years ago for a hearing for one such person who, for the second time, had bought retired race horses and then starved them. She did this twice. Some of the horses did not survive since the (Humane Society) waits til the Grim Reaper is knocking on the door til they're willing to step in.

Jackster9 concluded, "They should close the track and focus on the casino. Hundreds of horses are injured and killed every year for the pleasure of those watching this 'sport'. It's degenerate."

Do you believe that horse racing should be banned for animal cruelty reasons? Share your thoughts and comments below.

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Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Racing canceled after horse's death

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 06:15 AM PDT

Indiana Downs in Shelbyville canceled its harness racing card Tuesday after a horse broke down the previous night and amid charges from local horsemen the racing surface has been in poor condition for quite some time.

"The management is well aware of the problems with the track," said Jack Kieninger, president of the Indiana Standardbred Association. "To this point, they've tried to work on the track and race on it at the same time. That's not going to work."

Pilgrim's Place pulled up lame in the 12th race Monday, a 1-mile claiming race. The 8-year-old horse trained by Jeff Brewer was later put down, and that night's final race was canceled.

Kieninger said that fatal breakdowns are relatively rare among standardbreds, especially compared to thoroughbred racing.

"We're totally confident this was caused by the track," he said.

Indiana Downs general manager Jon Schuster said he understands the horsemen's position, but he said there is no evidence the track was at fault.

"No one can conclusively say what happened," said Schuster, adding that no one complained to him about the surface Monday before the 12th race. He canceled after the 13th race after complaints.

Schuster said nearly 200 horses trained on the track Tuesday morning.

"We felt comfortable it was good and (the trainers and owners) spoke by putting their livestock on it," he said.

Indiana Horse Racing Commission executive director Joe Gorajec did not return a phone message.

Indiana Downs runs thoroughbreds and standardbred race meets on different surfaces.

Heavy rain this spring seeped into the standardbred surface.

Kieninger said a normal standardbred-racing surface is about six inches thick. The current surface is only about two inches thick, he said.

Schuster said work continued on the track Tuesday. A decision is coming regarding today's scheduled card.

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Horse Play: Harness racing still exciting longtime drivers

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 08:43 PM PDT

Gary Rath got hooked on harness racing when he was an 8-year-old working at the old Harvard race track in McHenry County.

"I could sit in a little five-gallon bucket and drive horses," Rath said.

Forty-two years later, Rath is still at it — although he doesn't need to sit on a bucket anymore. Rath was one of the riders who took part in the harness races Tuesday and Wednesday at the Knox County Fair.

"It's just a love," Rath said. "It's the only thing. There ain't no real money in it. That's all it is."

By the time this season is over, Rath will have put in about 40,000 miles of travel, racing in about 15 fairs from Aledo to Urbana. He also runs six or seven races in Wisconsin.

"No sleep and a lot of driving," Rath said.

And then there are his days at Maywood and Balmoral race parks in suburban Chicago, where he's combined for about 300 starts this season, sometimes racing as many as 14 times a day.

"You never know how many you'll be in from day to day," Rath said.

Orval Bronkhorst doesn't enter nearly as many races as Rath, but his love for the sport is just as strong. Bronkhorst, 68, only races about 10 times a year but has been involved in harness racing for 50 years. His father Elmer raced horses until he was 86 and was the oldest racer in the country when he died.

"It's a good sport," said Bronkhorst, who lives in Brandon, Wis. "I do it mainly for the sport of it. I don't make a living out of it. I can drive a standardbred, but I'm too big and heavy to drive a thoroughbred. If I couldn't do the driving, I wouldn't do it. That's part of the fun of doing it."

Unlike thoroughbred horses, which run at full speed for the entire race, standardbreds must maintain a certain gait throughout the race. If a horse goes off stride during a race, it must get off the pace until it gets back on stride.

There are two types of harness racing horses: trotters and pacers. Trotters move by kicking out legs that are diagonal from each other (front-left and back-right, then front-right and back-left), and pacers move by kicking up legs on the same side ("It's like a train going," Rath said.).

Harness racing itself has lost its stride in recent years. Purse sizes have dwindled and the popularity isn't as strong as it was even a decade ago. Rath said the purse for a big race about six or seven years ago would be about $25,000. Now it's about $10,000, he said.

"It's kind of dying out," Rath said. "It hurt a lot of people and got a lot of people out of business. We need the revenue to get back going in it. Just like the state of Illinois is losing money every day, we are also."

More gamblers now take their money to casinos, and many of those who wager on races do their business at off-track betting centers. That has the Illinois Harness Horseman's Association lobbying to get a bill through the state legislature that would allow tracks to have slot machines on site in an effort to get more people out to tracks.

"We're hoping to get something done down in Springfield this fall," Rath said.

Meanwhile, Rath will keep doing what he's loved almost his entire life.

"It's all I've ever known," he said.

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Saving N.J.'s horse racing industry a sticking point for Senate leader

Posted: 04 Aug 2010 02:25 PM PDT

Two influential South Jersey legislators vowed Wednesday to find a way to keep the Meadowlands Racetrack and Monmouth Park open for the long term, while criticizing a key adviser to Governor Christie for "abandoning our horse racing industry."

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and state Sen. James Whelan, D-Atlantic, were referring to a report handed to Christie two weeks ago that recommended selling the two tracks — or closing them if a buyer can't be found. The author of the report was Jon F. Hanson, the chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority from 1982 to 1990.

Wednesday's announcement mentioned neither the current method of subsidizing horseracing purses — an annual $30 million cash infusion from the Atlantic City casinos set to expire after this year — or bringing slot machines to the state's racetracks, the replacement subsidy that the horse racing industry prefers.

That brought a sharp retort from Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak.

"Their first commitment, from a fiscal responsibility position, should be to ensure that the industry can sustain itself without outside funding sources," Drewniak said. "It would have been better to hear some constructive ideas from the Senate president before he started complaining about our serious efforts to address the gaming and racing industry problems in New Jersey."

The pledge to save the tracks came less than 48 hours before Friday morning's gaming summit at the Atlantic City Convention Center, an event that will feature comments from Atlantic City casino executives and analysts before public testimony begins.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, who has been at odds with Sweeney and Whelan over adding more gambling in the Meadowlands, said he hoped that the latest pronouncement was a first step toward "not making all this a North Jersey vs. South Jersey issue." Sarlo said the Hanson report was too focused on Atlantic City, and did not examine the state's gambling, entertainment and horse racing industries as a whole.

Tom Luchento, who runs the state's harness racing industry group, said he hoped Sweeney and Whelan were signaling their awareness of how important the equine industry is. He said the state's horse farms provide jobs and preserving open space in a congested state.

Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex, a former Atlantic City casino marketing executive, is still backing slot machines or video lottery terminals (VLTs) at the racetracks because he says such a move could solve some of the state's fiscal problems faster than a marketing campaign can ease the casino industry's woes.

"Is there any way to save the horse industry without VLTs?" Caputo asked. "Where will we get the revenue [otherwise]?"

The gaming summit itself is facing criticism.

Republican Senate leader Tom Kean Jr. called it "unacceptable" that all 10 Senate and Assembly members of the summit will be Democrats. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver replied that Christie has offered the overall Republican plan, so Democrats need to begin to fashion their response.

While Friday's meeting is expected to focus on Christie's plan of a virtual state takeover of the Atlantic City casino district, the issue of Meadowlands gambling is so intertwined with the casinos that it also may be a significant topic.

Hanson has proposed privatizing the Izod Center and exploring ways to offer tax breaks to incoming Xanadu investors to get that long-delayed project open by 2012.

E-mail: brennan@northjersey.com
 

Two influential South Jersey legislators vowed Wednesday to find a way to keep the Meadowlands Racetrack and Monmouth Park open for the long term, while criticizing a key adviser to Governor Christie for "abandoning our horse racing industry."

A report by a Christie-appointed commission that the governor endorsed last month suggests several options for the future of the money-losing Meadowlands and Monmouth Park race tracks, including privatization.

FILE PHOTO

A report by a Christie-appointed commission that the governor endorsed last month suggests several options for the future of the money-losing Meadowlands and Monmouth Park race tracks, including privatization.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and state Sen. James Whelan, D-Atlantic, were referring to a report handed to Christie two weeks ago that recommended selling the two tracks — or closing them if a buyer can't be found. The author of the report was Jon F. Hanson, the chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority from 1982 to 1990.

Wednesday's announcement mentioned neither the current method of subsidizing horseracing purses — an annual $30 million cash infusion from the Atlantic City casinos set to expire after this year — or bringing slot machines to the state's racetracks, the replacement subsidy that the horse racing industry prefers.

That brought a sharp retort from Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak.

"Their first commitment, from a fiscal responsibility position, should be to ensure that the industry can sustain itself without outside funding sources," Drewniak said. "It would have been better to hear some constructive ideas from the Senate president before he started complaining about our serious efforts to address the gaming and racing industry problems in New Jersey."

The pledge to save the tracks came less than 48 hours before Friday morning's gaming summit at the Atlantic City Convention Center, an event that will feature comments from Atlantic City casino executives and analysts before public testimony begins.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, who has been at odds with Sweeney and Whelan over adding more gambling in the Meadowlands, said he hoped that the latest pronouncement was a first step toward "not making all this a North Jersey vs. South Jersey issue." Sarlo said the Hanson report was too focused on Atlantic City, and did not examine the state's gambling, entertainment and horse racing industries as a whole.

Tom Luchento, who runs the state's harness racing industry group, said he hoped Sweeney and Whelan were signaling their awareness of how important the equine industry is. He said the state's horse farms provide jobs and preserving open space in a congested state.

Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex, a former Atlantic City casino marketing executive, is still backing slot machines or video lottery terminals (VLTs) at the racetracks because he says such a move could solve some of the state's fiscal problems faster than a marketing campaign can ease the casino industry's woes.

"Is there any way to save the horse industry without VLTs?" Caputo asked. "Where will we get the revenue [otherwise]?"

The gaming summit itself is facing criticism.

Republican Senate leader Tom Kean Jr. called it "unacceptable" that all 10 Senate and Assembly members of the summit will be Democrats. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver replied that Christie has offered the overall Republican plan, so Democrats need to begin to fashion their response.

While Friday's meeting is expected to focus on Christie's plan of a virtual state takeover of the Atlantic City casino district, the issue of Meadowlands gambling is so intertwined with the casinos that it also may be a significant topic.

Hanson has proposed privatizing the Izod Center and exploring ways to offer tax breaks to incoming Xanadu investors to get that long-delayed project open by 2012.

E-mail: brennan@northjersey.com
 

Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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