Racing's Good People Provide Hope
I pressed play to view the recent New York Times documentary "Broken Horses" drenched with trepidation. I expected to feel anger at the NY Times and the filmmakers. I expected they would serve the same unfairness and sensationalism we have seen before. But I did not feel anything like that. I was filled with varied emotions, and hope was prominently one of them.
Let me get this out of the way: I did not need to see the breakdowns. Does anyone? I wish that video was not in the documentary. Don't we still feel sad when we hear about the loss of someone's family member or pet if we do not see the fatal incident? It is an inherently devastating event without video evidence. Seeing baby pictures and video of Havnameltdown was enough for me to cry myself a puddle.
Other than that criticism, I feel the filmmakers told a hard story in a fair way. Industry participants made this possible. Stuart Janney III, Arthur Hancock, Lisa Lazarus, Terry Finley, Graham Motion, Jena Antonucci, Dr. Kate Papp, Dr. Sheila Lyons, Lynn Hancock (and others) were not shy about their passion for the game; nor their disappointment in its recent evolution.
Viewers saw the lushness of Lexington, the pageantry of Belmont Park, the historic beauty of Saratoga Race Course, and the elegance of a sales auction. One can easily imagine falling in love with the sport through these images. I can imagine the filmmakers thought it was a necessary juxtaposition to the vials of vile drugs and egregious audio from criminals. It also made the viewer, who was likely ambivalent before, aware of just how much has been lost to greed.
Greed is the overarching villain, and greed wears many faces in this story. Bob Baffert declined an interview and spoke only through a lawyer's statement. Though guilt or innocence should not be inferred from silence, it often is. The viewer is left with only the sad breeder of Havnameltdown, Katherine Devall, to speak in Baffert's favor. Given that her story is woven through the film, and she is the closest victim after the Baffert-trained horse, her defense of him feels even sadder.
In an industry that is trying desperately to survive bad headlines and poor public perception, one is left to wonder why Baffert is not willing to stand up for the sport and the horses that have given him so much. Some elements of the show will further hurt the public perception, such as Baffert and team cheering their 2023 Preakness Stakes (G1) victory just hours after the breakdown of their other horse.
This is why the presence of Motion, Antonucci, Hancock, Finley, and co. matter so much. We get to see that greed has not won over all souls in the sport. Not by a longshot.
Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert, the NY Times writers who contributed to the film, have covered the industry for decades, and it shows. When Hoppert says early on, "A racehorse is the only animal that can take a thousand people for a ride at once," you know she understands and appreciates the love for the game.
And it is clearly the people who love the game who are most heartbroken by the blight hanging over it. Few people know horses like Arthur Hancock, a fourth-generation horseman from a legendary horse family. When he says, "If we don't get rid of the drugs and thugs, they are going to get rid of us," the viewer is given the sense that good is fighting evil, and who does not want to be on the good team?
Enter HISA and the intrepid Lazarus, whose organization's drug policies took effect just days after the featured Preakness tragedy. Lazarus is serious and leaves no doubt in the mind of the viewer that change is necessary, and change is happening. Finley said, "I think, with HISA, the industry has had a restart." Hancock added, "A new sheriff is in town and this sheriff means business."
And while fans of the game, like me, vacillate between hope and fear, we feel very deeply the words Motion leaves us with: "I love what I do. This sport has given me everything I have. But personally, I don't want to be part of it if we can't clean up our act."
With good people fighting the good fight, I feel hope.
Patty Wolfe
Stamford, Conn.
Triple Crown Just the Start
Our industry is busily preparing to kick off the 2024 Triple Crown with the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby. While there is a spotlight on racing over the next two months, HISA's mission is to underscore the importance of year-round care of our horses.
This Triple Crown will be the first to run fully under HISA's Anti-Doping and Medication Control program that took effect 11 months ago. These uniform rules ensure that horses running at HISA tracks have been subject to one national set of medication rules, testing protocols, adjudication procedures, investigative operations, and laboratory standards. And the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit has been hard at work this year, conducting more than 70,000 sample collection sessions since launch.
Similarly, our Racetrack Safety Program has instituted a myriad of national uniform rules, including requiring thorough pre-race inspections and other expanded veterinary protocols. Moreover, HISA's Track Surfaces Advisory Group, established in September 2023, can now be deployed at racetracks as needed to analyze dirt, turf, and synthetic surface consistency. This advisory group has reviewed the track at Churchill Downs ahead of the Derby and will do the same at Pimlico Race Course and Saratoga Race Course in the coming weeks. Additionally, HISA's pre-meet inspection at Churchill and other tracks includes a review of existing protocols and available equipment.
Thanks to uniform veterinary and safety reporting requirements, we are now in a position to utilize AI and advanced data analytics to better identify horses that may be at greater risk for injury. As a first step, HISA is partnering with Palantir Technologies to build a platform for analyzing the comprehensive data contained in HISA's online database to help veterinarians more efficiently identify which horses may be at heightened risk. HISA is also working with the American Association of Equine Practitioners on a process to explore the integration of wearable biometric technology to support equine injury detection.
We're encouraged by the progress we've made so far, as detailed in HISA's and HIWU's recently released annual reports. However, we're still in an all-hands-on-deck moment to protect the health and safety of horses. I hope that you will continue to work and collaborate with HISA as we advance this mission together.
Lisa Lazarus
CEO, HISA
