What's wrong with race horses?

As hardiness decreases, no clear cause emerges

By Alicia Wincze

awincze@herald-leader.com

NTRA to refocus on safety

It is a frame built inherently for speed -- long and lean with dynamic quarters and hard, polished legs. At its best, it can produce athletic feats that leave even casual fans breathless.

Few can question the capabilities and effectiveness of the Thoroughbred racehorse. In the wake of recent events, however, there is renewed debate over whether the modern racehorse is as capable as it once was.

Among the many issues within the Thoroughbred industry that have come under scrutiny since the death of Eight Belles in last Saturday's Kentucky Derby is the perceived lack of durability and soundness within the breed.

The average number of starts per horse each year reached its peak in 1960 at 11.31. But that figure has steadily fallen off, coming in at an all-time low of 6.31 in 2007, according to the Jockey Club.

"I think the evidence of the reduced number of starts is evidence the breed is less sound ... but I think there are other factors that also come into it," said Ed Bowen, president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. "Some trainers prefer to race them less but, statistically, that's not enough to create the breed average marching down.

"I'm baffled by it, to tell you the truth. We are trying to address the situation because I think it is multifactorial."

Bowen is quick to point out that the theory blaming a less sound racehorse is not universally accepted, but those who argue the concept cite myriad reasons.

Over the past few decades, some of racing's most influential stallions have had genetic frailties but still commanded top books because of their ability on the racetrack and their popularity in the commercial market.

Danzig, sire of 10 champions, retired after three starts because of knee problems; the great Mr. Prospector had his career shortened after 14 starts because of ankle injuries; and the legendary stallion Raise a Native made four career starts before a bowed tendon force him into the breeding shed.

"I think as far as the breeding goes, we in the industry have retired stallions who have not been sound themselves but were very brilliant," said Ric Waldman, consultant to Overbrook Farm, which stands top sire Storm Cat. "We have used them and, in some cases, overused them and therefore introduced an unsoundness factor into a large number of our pedigrees."

As the commercial market reached new heights in the early 1980s and syndication deals for stallions ballooned, more breeders and buyers were willing to forgive a sire's flaws in conformation -- his structure and symmetry -- if he was consistently getting talented, precocious runners on the track.

"There have been some drastic changes with the way matings are selected for horses, and it really has to do with the commercial market," said Dr. Rick Arthur, equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board. "Many people prefer brilliance over durability, and certainly the people who breed yearlings have to respond to what the market demands."

Perhaps more influential than the stallions themselves when it comes to the supposed lack of durability in today's racehorses is the prevalent use of medication in racing that allows otherwise unsound horses to continue to perform.

"I think the trend in racing is such that we have been using a lot of medication, and it makes it difficult to know how sound a horse was when they raced, and that's what you used to do," former Calumet Farm trainer John Veitch said during Derby week. "You used to breed either to enhance a quality or to diminish a quality, if it was bad quality, and we can't do that anymore."

Although the average number of starts for racehorses has dropped dramatically during the past half-century, some say it is a change in practices, not in the breed itself, that is responsible for the decline.

It used to be commonplace for trainers to run their horses in the Derby Trial on Tuesday and come back for the Derby Saturday, but the sport goes year-round and worldwide now, and conditioners space out their horses' starts.

The fact that trainers now routinely ship horses across the country -- and, in some cases, across the world -- to compete also has reduced the number of career starts.

"Truthfully, I see something in the horse that everybody else doesn't see. I see a better athlete and a sounder horse," Racing Hall of Fame trainer Carl Nafzger said during the Hall of Fame conference call on April 21. "I want to clarify when I say sounder because everybody seems to say that they're not. I don't think everyone realizes what the airplane has done for racing.

"Horses are under tremendous stress nowadays," Nafzger continued. "We used to go slower. These horses are constantly tuned to perfection to win. You pull up a Grade I, and there will be four or five horses shipping in. So when a horse is doing good in California, he ends up in New York and vice versa. These horses are under constant pressure to win. And we race longer seasons."

While the commercial boom has boosted the popularity of some unsound sires, it has prompted many sound horses to hit the breeding shed prematurely thanks to the enormous value placed on well-bred, talented specimens.

"We're working on a better way to measure the durability of stallions because the economic factors do come into play," Bowen said. "If you have a well-bred, accomplished filly and she gets a pimple on her, she's more than likely to be retired because they're so valuable."

Even if a stallion does have conformation flaws, it doesn't mean he's not capable of producing a durable runner.

Gulch, the leading money-earning offspring by Mr. Prospector, was a versatile performer who made 32 starts in three years. He then sired 1995 Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch, who went on to sire Spain, the former all-time leading money-earning female in Thoroughbred racing.

In addition to siring hard-knocking racehorse and sire Langfuhr, Danzig was the sire of last year's Kentucky Derby runner-up, Hard Spun, who was considered one of the more enduring members of last year's 3-year-old crop.

And while some have scrutinized Unbridled's Song, the brilliant but lightly raced sire of Eight Belles, any notion that his genes condemned her would be premature. According to the stallion durability index compiled by the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and The Jockey Club, offspring by Unbridled's Song average 11.1 career starts, below the overall average of 16.

However, from Unbridled's Song's top-20 progeny, seven have made 20 or more career starts, and 15 have raced past the age of 3.

"We can't dictate what the breeders breed, but we can certainly educate the breeders and buyers about the durability of horses," said Waldman, the Overbrook Farm consultant. "Whatever the cause, we've allowed this degeneration to occur over the last 40-50 years, and it's not realistic to expect it to be reversed overnight. But the change can happen."