San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Horse racing industry reels
Trainer punished, state legislators intervene as sport confronts public outcry over deaths
Dozens of horses dying at a storied racetrack. The banishment of a Hall of Fame trainer from two tracks, including one in the Bay Area. An ongoing criminal investigation and new legislation passed to rein in the sport.
This all raises an obvious but complicated question: Is horse racing in trouble?
Statewide, the industry generated more than $3 billion in wagering in the 201718 fiscal year, according to the California Horse Racing Board’s annual report. But even if the sport remains healthy economically, and embedded in American culture, there is growing concern about the ethical dilemma of horse safety.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed SB469, a bill giving state regulators the authority to shut down tracks for safety reasons. Also, the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2019 was introduced in the U.S. Senate on June 12, seeking to create a private, independent horse racing antidoping authority.
The spate of deaths at Southern California’s Santa Anita racetrack — 30 in the winterspring season ending last Sunday — has sparked investigations by the racing board and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. It also prompted protesters to gather outside the track, where one woman hoisted a sign reading, “Stop racing animals to their deaths,” above the words, “Crueltygreedego.”
“I don’t think it’s acceptable to have entertainment where animals are dying,” Kathy Guillermo, vice president at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a phone interview. “I’ve been working on racing issues for 10 years, and this is the first time I’ve seen the public so appalled. That makes all the difference.”
As the outcry intensifies, mixed messages emerge from the industry. Jerry Hollendorfer, the trainer banned because of safety concerns from Santa Anita (outside Los Angeles) and Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley, was allowed to bring his horses to the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton and Los Alamitos racetrack in Orange County. One of those horses, Many Lights, won the third race of Thursday’s session in Pleasanton.
At the same time, horse racing officials have enacted new guidelines in recent months, including Santa Anita’s ban of raceday use of Lasix, a diuretic commonly used to prevent respiratory bleeding in horses running at high speed. Racing board Chairman Chuck Winner also pointed to regulations requiring thirdparty administration of Lasix.
“In some ways, this situation with the spike (in deaths) at Santa Anita has brought the industry together in a way that allowed us to pass rules and regulations that will improve the safety of riders and longterm health of the horses,” Winner said. “So at the end of the day, I think the industry will improve substantially.”
Racing board data show horse deaths at California racetracks dropped in the 201718 fiscal year to 138 (including 112 in races or training). That total was 206 in the previous fiscal year and 205 two years earlier.
The aggregated national rate of fatal injury was 1.68 per 1,000 starts in 2018, according to the Equine Injury Database kept by the Jockey Club, the breed registry for thoroughbred horses in the U.S. and Canada. That marked a slight increase from 2017, when the rate was 1.61, but a decline from 2009 (2.0), the first year data was collected.
These numbers might not resonate with the public as much as the headlines about Hollendorfer, who has won more than 7,600 races (third alltime) and earned nearly $200 million in a career starting at Golden Gate Fields in 1979. He has collected most of his victories at Bay Area racetracks.
Hollendorfer had four horses die at Santa Anita during its winterspring season, plus one in November at Golden Gate Fields and another during the East Bay track’s winterspring season. The most recent death, on June 22 at Santa Anita, prompted the Stronach Group — which owns both tracks — to ban Hollendorfer from its facilities.
The Stronach Group issued a statement describing his record in recent months as “increasingly challenging” and “not matching the level of safety and accountability we demand.” Hollendorfer has been sanctioned 19 times by the racing board since 2006, according to CNN, for overmedication or use of illicit medications on horses.
“I’ve been working on racing issues for 10 years, and this is the first time I’ve seen the public so appalled. That makes all the difference.”
Kathy Guillermo, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
“If you are going to run a lot of horses, there are going to be horses hurt all the time,” Hollendorfer said in an interview with The Chronicle.
Then he referenced the Warriors’ injuries in this month’s NBA Finals by adding, “(Kevin) Durant and (Klay) Thompson got hurt in the playoffs. Did they play too many minutes?”
Worth noting: Horses are commonly euthanized when they suffer a broken leg.
Guillermo, the PETA vice president, characterized Hollendorfer’s ban as a significant statement about the need for horse racing officials to become more vigilant.
“There are so many trainers with multiple medication violations,” Guillermo said. “They’ve been sanctioned by various states repeatedly, they pay a fine and then they go back to work. That has to change.
“Mr. Hollendorfer is not an unknown trainer; this is someone in the Hall of Fame. But he has six dead horses in California since January (actually November). … That’s more powerful than his plaque in the Hall of Fame.”
There’s little consensus in horse racing circles about the cause of the deaths at Santa Anita. Many industry insiders point to track conditions, worsened by uncommonly heavy winter rains; one trainer told the New York Times that pressure from track owners to run full fields led to unfit horses running; and the question of improper medications perpetually lingers.
Rick Arthur, equine medical director at both the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the racing board, insisted horse fatality rates have dropped in California by 55 percent in the past 12 years. Arthur also was encouraged by the lack of opposition from horse trainers and owners when state officials proposed new regulations during a June 20 meeting in Pleasanton. But he acknowledged there’s still much work to be done.
“What really needs to happen is a culture change, so horse safety and jockey safety come first and winning the race comes second,” he said. “Part of the success we had at the end of the Santa Anita meet was because trainers and everybody were paying closer attention, and some of our (earlier) failures were because some of those people didn’t get on board.
“It’s a competitive sport. The goal is to win, but not at the expense of horse safety. I don’t think they’re necessarily mutually exclusive.”
As California officials grapple with the turmoil at Santa Anita, federal regulation efforts inch forward. Jockey Club President Jim Gagliano expressed hope for national guidelines to help govern a sport with disparate rules in various states.
Gagliano acknowledged the industry is at a “tipping point” and expects the recent troubles to serve as a “catalyst for a series of reforms” to make horse racing safer. He said this should not only include improved medication rules but also increased veterinary scrutiny of horses, better analysis of surface safety and injury data and more rest time for horses.
It’s a complicated equation, unfolding in the context of an ethical quandary: How many horse deaths are tolerable? State Sen. Bill Dodd, DNapa, who sponsored the bill Newsom signed into law that expands the CHRB’s authority to stop racing at tracks with dangerous conditions, realizes there’s no easy answer.
“I don’t really know where the ethical line is,” Dodd said. “This is a sport that has been going on for a long time. … That ethical line is really not bright right now, but the closer we get to being the gold standard bearer, the brighter that line becomes.”