This latest renewal of the Breeders’ Cup will be the most stressful and possibly most damning edition in the 36 years since its inception.
The crisis of horse deaths at Santa Anita that began in December of 2018 have not stopped. A 35th and 36th horse were euthanized just last week as the best horses, trainers and jockeys converge on the famed Southern California racetrack for the sport’s Super Bowl.
I don’t even know who’s running. I don’t want to know.
Santa Anita has made rooting for this sport all the more challenging. In fact, following the Sport of Kings is starting to feel more akin to greyhound racing. It feels increasingly sad. You start to ask yourself: Why and how is this fun? How has this been allowed to carry on? Do people really enjoy this?
Of course there will be the old guards and the hard liners, the people who don’t give a lick about anything beyond a live Pick 4 ticket and the prospect of an empire-building stallion. The game persists, it would seem, to line the pockets of the legacy families and the few mega-trainers who have all but monopolized the game’s premier talent.
In a sense, horse racing is a microcosm of America and the American Dream. Bernie Sanders would categorically blow up horse racing.
And yet, in the face of perhaps the worst PR nightmare to tornado the sport perhaps ever, the Breeders’ Cup will heighten the focus and multiply the tension by an immeasurable degree. If Spinal Tap took it to 11, the anxiety at this year’s Breeders’ Cup will be a terrifying 13.
Given this crisis at the track where something is wickedly off-kilter, whether it’s the racing surface, the nature of the horses, the horsemanship on the backstretch or just dumb luck, to persist in the face of that is Russian roulette. Real lives are at stake. And if the lives of the horses don’t matter — which to many they don’t — think of the lives of the jockeys aboard these horses.
We’re talking full fields of the biggest, baddest, fastest horses on the planet with a lot of money on the line. Jockeys will be aggressive. They will fit into tight holes because hitting the board in the Breeders’ Cup might mean a new house.
These are also great horses - and great horses, a trainer once told me, are the ones you have to worry about because when they feel a little bit of pain — like our great human athletes — they grind on.
Santa Anita, and the powers that be, should have moved the Breeders’ Cup and they failed to do so.
Outgoing Breeders’ Cup Ltd. CEO Craig Fravel said (h/t horseracingnation.com), “The Breeders’ Cup going somewhere else would send entirely the wrong message. When people are trying to do the right thing, you need to stick with them. The entire Breeders’ Cup board was unanimous in that decision and we’re certainly glad to be here.”
I disagree. I think it sends the wrong message to keep running this experiment with live ammo. You can stick with your people, but let them keep using crash test dummies instead of actual people.
Banning the likes of Jerry Hollendorfer from running his horses at these tracks for having an excessive number of horses break down is ceremonial. It’s the kind of move that looks impressive, looks strong, but lacks nutritional value. It says, “Look, we’re taking action.”
Talk to any serious horseplayer (few as they number), and they’ll tell you that this sport long abandoned them with greater takeouts and a customer service experience that bordered parody. Horseplayers are the drunk uncle of the sport. You’ve got to invite them to the wedding, but when it comes for table arrangements, they’re at Table 9 with all the freaks (h/t “The Wedding Singer”) and most certainly — and without question — the last to walk up to the buffet line.
But when the sport turns its back on the horses, the critters who light us up and give it all, this is something entirely unforgiveable and shows the true colors of the people who really hold the reins.
Now, the Breeders Cup could have been moved, but it would’ve taken a phalanx of brave owners to say, “I’m not running my horse(s) at your track. I’d rather miss this year’s Breeders’ Cup than put my horses at risk.”
The Breeders’ Cup has given us thrills the likes of which we carry forever. Some of the most thrilling races and racecalls we’ve ever seen take place on this great weekend around Halloween. It’s a legacy cementer, a king and queen maker.
And I can’t — and won’t — watch as the Reaper waves its scythe over that oval.
Brendan O’Meara is a freelance writer. He lives in Eugene, OR. Follow @BrendanOMeara on Twitter
