Ailing sport can’t catch a break
Horse racing and its fans will survive the disappointment that bloomed Friday morning with word that Ontario-owned I’ll Have Another has been scratched from Saturday’s Belmont Stakes.
The colt, owned by Paul Reddam of Windsor, reportedly has a tendon problem and good for the connections for removing him early if that is the extent of the issue; the last thing anyone needs is a post-time scratch with 100,000 people in the track or, God forbid, another high-profile breakdown. Why take a chance, particularly with an animal worth millions?
Still, as reasonable and justified a move as it is, from a horseman’s point of view, racing just can’t seem to catch a break. It used to be said, by those in and around the business, that horse racing was its own worst enemy, but this clearly is no longer the case as long as the Mcguinty government is around in Ontario. Like never before, racing needs all the help it can get and a victory by the 3-year-old colt in all three U.S. Triple Crown races, for the first time in 34 years, would have been particularly delicious. The game faces an unsettled future almost everywhere and particularly locally, exacerbated by the Liberals’ reneging on a reliable source of billions of dollars in no-risk revenue, namely Ontario’s slots-a-trace-tracks program.
It would have been — what? Ironic? Fitting? — if in the very season Ontario effectively declared war on horse racing, the game received a shot in the arm from an Ontario-owned horse that was bidding to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.
Not that having a horse sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont would cure all or any of racing’s ills. It wouldn’t and it’s unfair to put a sport’s laundry list of financial and ethical issues on one animal’s withers. Still, some positive publicity, some buzz from the casual sports fan, would be welcome after what feels like an avalanche of bad news. Certainly some of it is self-inflicted, as usual. For instance, I’ll Have Another’s trainer, Doug O’Neill, is dealing with so-called “milkshake” issues back in California and faces suspension, his latest in a long list of doping infractions, which plague the sport in general. Closer to home, news arrived this week that Fort Erie, once dubbed Canada’s Saratoga, will be shuttered Dec. 31 after 115 years of racing. Again, none of these problems would vanish if I’ll Have Another had raced and won, but in a sports world that thrives on superstars and instant gratification, anointing a legitimate megastar would have brought both attention and historical context. It makes sense that younger fans want to witness greatness in their time; how much does a Triple Crown mean to people in their 20s or 30s when they’ve never seen one? If I’ll Have Another had been put up there on the achievement shelf with Secretariat, Whirlaway, Seattle Slew et al, it would have generated undeniable interest from beyond the usual sources. That couldn’t hurt. Gone, too, is the opportunity to add to the impact Canadians have had on a few of the 11 Triple Crown winners. The first, Sir Barton in 1919, was owned by Commander J.K.L. Ross, early chief of Canadian Pacific. Jockeys Willie (Smokey) Saunders (Omaha in ’35) and Johnny Longden (Whirlaway, ’41) were both raised in Alberta and the sainted Secretariat (1973) was ridden by New Brunswicker Ron Turcotte and trained by Quebecer Lucien Laurin.
It’s an impressive legacy. Given the current climate, particularly in the owner’s home province, there would have been no better time to add to it. Alas, it won’t work out that way. Still, always better to err on the side of caution.