Another Reason Why Synthetic Tracks are NOT the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dwyre-santa-anita-20100305-13,0,101184,full.column

It's been awhile since I've had a rant regarding synthetic tracks. I'm overdue.

But the weather and its foibles and the humans and their politics have intervened. The story is less the race and more whether there will be one Saturday. And if not, why not and when will this all be fixed? The entire saga of California horse racing these days has fans demanding, in Jim Healy radio style, "Who goofed? I've got to know."

This will be the 73rd running of the Big Cap. It has never been postponed or cancelled. Saturday's forecast is for 70% chance of rain. In the good old days, before Santa Anita followed the mandate of the California Horse Racing Board and installed a synthetic track in 2008, that wouldn't have been an issue.

On Thursday, one veteran track official described a particularly bad winter in the late 1960s. He said there was constant rain, mudslides, houses sliding down the hills surrounding the track.

"There were some pretty lousy off-tracks, but we never missed a day of racing," he said.

If the Big Cap is rained out Saturday — with two other Grade I races, the Kilroe Mile and the Oaks, as well as the rescheduled Grade III Sham Stakes — it will mark the sixth lost day at this meeting. It will also be the 18th lost day since the installation of synthetics in 2008. Before that, Santa Anita had lost four — count ‘em, four — days to weather since it opened Christmas Day 1934.

Note to California Horse Racing Board and Santa Anita: next time you come up with a brilliant multi-million dollar idea like this, ACTUALLY TEST IT FIRST. *transfers blame from Santa Anita to CHRB* The track has missed more days this season than it's ENTIRE history. Does this not tell you something? If other synthetic tracks don't have this problem, then what's different with your track and theirs??

This was all headed toward a logical conclusion. On Jan. 18, Santa Anita President Ron Charles announced that, after the meeting ended in April, a new track would be installed. The CHRB now said that was OK. Charles didn't specifically say so, but the presumption was that the surface would be good, old-fashioned, time-tested dirt.

But early this week, track owner Frank Stronach plodded into the muck. He said the surface might not be replaced, that it might remain synthetic. In the midst of bankruptcy proceedings involving his parent company, an action from which Santa Anita was recently removed, Stronach seemed to be concerned about the $10-million price tag to replace the track.

Why? You're a businessman. Canceled race days = NO MONEY. Somehow I think trading back to a track that actually drains will help you make money in the long run. And will teach you a lesson about spending millions of dollars without considering what happens when it rains on your track. Why doesn't the CHRB pay for it since it's their idea to make tracks pay for these new surfaces?

In a classic head-scratcher quote, Stronach said, "As an intelligent person, you don't go out and spend $10 million without research."

A hundred years of horses racing on dirt is not research?

He must not have had anything to do with the installation of the synthetic track.

It also has the Breeders' Cup wanting to come to Santa Anita on a permanent basis, but to a track surface it won't accept.

NO. The Breeders' Cup is traditionally held at a different track every year. The BC is a big money event! Not only would it give western bred horses an unfair advantage, but it also makes it difficult for eastern fans (like, you know, me) to experience it.

Paragallo - We Have News

I haven't posted for three months. I know. I'm going to try to bring this blog back. It's just hard when all the news I have usually once comes once every two months or so.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/55536/da-paragallo-horses-malnourished?utm_medium=email&uid=137179EC-A1BF-4028-9E56-6396FB79BC31&utm_source=DailyNewsletter&utm_campaign=20100224

Today, I got news on Paragallo.

The 177 horses seized in a raid of an upstate New York farm last year were malnourished, a prosecutor said Tuesday at the start of the trial of the farm's owner, prominent Thoroughbred breeder and owner Ernie Paragallo, who was banned from racing.

Excellent. I hope he's banned for life.

Michael Howard, a lawyer for Paragallo, said he will present documentation that the horses were properly cared for.

Uh huh, where are you going to get that? Photoshop doesn't work that well. Do you honestly think whatever documentation you have can negate documentation that proves 177 horses were mistreated? This isn't a case of five in a hundred, this is a case of almost TWO HUNDRED horses being improperly cared for.

Two days after the raid, Paragallo told The Associated Press he didn't intend to harm any of the horses and blamed their mistreatment on ``mismanagement.''

Your "mismanagement" caused a lot of pain to almost two hundred horses. You can't tell me that's an accident. Even if someone else WAS responsible for caring for the horses, it's still YOUR responsibility as their owner to make sure that job is being carried out. Something like this does not happen overnight as a lot of people seem to imagine.

$2,500 Reward Offered for Wisconsin Shooter

Link

In most cases, they didn’t hear any shots fired. In others, it was several days before the owners of a horse and a number of cattle had been shot at.

It all started when the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department received three different reports of horses that were shot and killed on Sunday, Nov. 29, between 3 and 5 a.m. in an area near Prairie Farm.

According to Rhonda Abbuehl, she and her roommate were awakened by a gunshot. It was later discovered that her 9-year-old horse “Rex” was wounded in the rear quarter after someone apparently shot him from the road near her home on 1450th Avenue in the Town of Sheridan. Although his wounds were treated, Rex died Monday morning.

Nearby, fellow Sheridan resident Denise Stuber found her horse dead from a gunshot wound in its front quarter. And in a field just a few miles away on County Road V in the Town of New Haven, Rose Ellsworth reported that a horse in her care was shot in the head and killed.

On Friday morning, Capt. Mike Tietz of the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department said that although the investigation was progressing, no arrests were imminent.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) announced on Friday afternoon that it is offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information “leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible” for the shootings.

“These helpless animals were shot to death, and the killer needs to be held accountable,” said HSUS’ Wisconsin State Director Alyson Bodai. “This kind of intentional cruelty to animals is unacceptable to the people of Wisconsin, and those responsible for these senseless deaths need to face a stern penalty.”

The perpetrator(s) would be charged with felony animal cruelty and if convicted, could face more than three years in prison.

I believe the shootings span over three counties now.

Only three years??? You know what this reminds me of? The Washington D.C. sniper. You know what he got? Death penalty. I'm not saying we need to go that extreme, but we need to be a heckuva lot harder than this. Whoever's shooting these animals could easily turn to choosing children as his targets next.

Woman Off the Hook After Killing Horse

Short rant. Sorry. I was going to talk about the mustangs, but I'm not sure if I can do that without getting fully ticked off anymore.

The Fairbanks district attorney has dropped charges against a Two Rivers woman accused of killing her neighbor's horse.

The neighbor did not respond to the district attorney's phone calls and letters about the case.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported 48-year-old Jamie Rogers had been charged with misdemeanor weapons misconduct for the shooting in October 2008.

She said she fired a warning shot to scare off horses and was unaware she hit one. She said she was protecting her property and should not have been charged.

The criminal complaint said the neighbor's horses had escaped a wire fence and had been in the area previously, biting and kicking Rogers' horse, and she was afraid for the lives of her animals.

You do not shoot a horse to scare it off. How can you possibly kill a horse and be unaware that you shot it?

Barn Fire at Ohio Harness Track

Today we need a moment of silence for the two people and 55 horses killed in a barn fire at Lebanon Raceway in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Link

Two people and at least 55 horses were killed in a fire that swept through a barn at the Lebanon Raceway near Cincinnati, Ohio.

The fire occurred early Saturday morning. It was reported at around 5:30 a.m., but by the time firefighters reached the scene, the barn was engulfed in flames. CBS affiliate WHIO said the fire caused the roof to collapse.

The station also reported that the barn housing was made of wood, but wrapped in sheet metal, essentially creating an oven-like environment.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but authorities do not suspect criminal intent.

Keum H. Lee Update

Case continues. Next court date is December 14th. Wish I had more news than that, but I don't. :(

Case Updates

Wow. It's been almost a month since I posted last... I'm sorry guys! Life hit me and then the laptop broke and I'm just now getting back into the swing of things. Though until I get the laptop back in two weeks, I can't guarantee my posting being very reliable. I just thought I'd drop in and update all the cases.

But before I begin, I'd like to congratulate ZENYATTA and all those involved with the training and care of this world-class mare. She's truly one of a kind and I'll be the first to cheer if she wins Horse of the Year. She's earned it. (if you know nothing about horse racing, Zenyatta is probably the greatest filly in history. A few weeks ago she became the first filly in history to win the Breeders' Cup Classic and did it in an incredible fashion, overcoming issues that would've defeated a great many colt.) We'll miss you Zen. The only thing I wish you could've done was a match race between Rachel. Now that would be the race of the decade.

Now let's move onto the horses that aren't as lucky.

Keum H. Lee -- Trial's in three days!

I'm starting to doubt that I'll ever find out what happened with most of these cases. A lot of them had court dates over a month ago, but without being able to check up on them directly it doesn't do me a lot of good to know that.