Arlington Breakdown Info - The truth
 

Christine can't say any better then this article on bloodhorse.com

Human Error
Date Posted: 7/11/2006 8:39:46 AM
Last Updated: 7/11/2006 8:39:46 AM

By Christine Janks
Who is the advocate for the horses? Recently, a rash of breakdowns at Arlington Park has prompted media attention. Interestingly, the Chicago Tribune, which does not even publish entries or results on racing at Chicago-area tracks, seemed to lead the pack with the most coverage on the subject.

Undeservedly, the track surface has drawn most of the blame, even though the jockeys, exercise riders, and a great many prominent trainers have all said it was fine. Other "experts" were called in and also pronounced it excellent, which it is.

The "problem" then became a mystery. Or is it? I offered my own thoughts and suggestions in a commentary published in the Chicago Sun-Times, a newspaper that does publish racing information. Following are some excerpts from that commentary:

There is no mystery to me why we are having all these breakdowns. Even one is horrific, but when I see breakdowns occurring on almost a daily basis, I feel that finally the time is right to point the finger back where it belongs. Trainers are responsible for the health of these horses, and along with the owners choose when and where to race them.

The trainers are the first line of defense for the horses. Sadly, not all trainers put the welfare of the horse first, and it is clear that we will not police ourselves. I am calling for reforms to better ensure the safety of the horses and the jockeys participating in our sport.

The Illinois Racing Board needs new rules and stricter standards to ensure that only racing-sound horses are going to the post. The track has a conflict of interest in that it needs to fill races by encouraging entries. Many practicing veterinarians simply do what the trainer says if they want to keep their jobs. Jockeys do not want to scratch horses and lose business, either.

The horses are running for their lives, and who is there to protect them? In many cases, training is big business and horsemanship is secondary to promotion. Get one more race out of them, drop them down, and get them claimed. If they break down, fill the stall the next day with another young face. Do we really think that we can grow the business of racing by making these marvelous animals just part of the equipment?

I am pushing as hard as I can to get reforms in Illinois and hopefully it will lead to reforms wherever they are needed. I would like rules in place to prohibit running horses with fractured cannon bones, or with any other major fracture. We need rules that require practicing veterinarians to report horses entered with these fractures and more stringent examinations by the track and state veterinarians pre-race and post-race. I would like to see better veterinary list procedures and investigation of pre-race vet records on any horse that breaks down. To its credit, I am told the Illinois Racing Board has already started some of these procedures.

There will always be the rare accidental breakdown, but we need to make it easier for trainers and owners to do the right thing.

It is simply good business to protect the soundness of the horses. If we give them more rest time as needed and keep them sounder, they ultimately make more starts and more money for everyone.

Thank God. It's about time someone spoke up. And you all wonder why I like trainers like Barclay Tagg...

In most cases, it's not the surface. Replacing the dirt surfaces on the tracks with a synthetic surface is not what we need to be changing in most cases, although I will admit that some dirt surfaces are bad. However, there are not very many that are.

I just don't think that most people want to admit the real problem...

Tagg is great. He always looks out for the horses.

Sumitas
 

I hope the above puts an end to the artificial surface, at least for Arlington. Christine Janks is the most respected trainer on the Arlington grounds....For the record, she is refering to Larry Rivelli, who is the king of claiming, winning off the claim and dropping next out to get claimed and they never run again.

It's not just the surfaces that cause breakdowns. It's a combination of incompetent trainers, unethical trainers, and poor racing surfaces.
Hollywood Park is the safest track we have in Southern California. Even at Hollywwod Park, some of our horses will come out of breezing workouts with puffy ankles. I've heard that this will not happen on polytracks. If you work a sound horse nice and slow on a polytrack, they will usually come out of the work great. The surface is much kinder on them.
At Santa Anita, the track is so bad that you have to hold your breath after every workout and hope your horse comes back in one piece. That's why they're going to close the track for the next two weeks and try to figure out what's wrong with it.

I don't think I agree with Christine, at least completely. Yes, the trainers are partly responsible. But these are the same people who train at Hawthorne, and there was no outcry about breakdowns there. For one thing, the breakdowns are almost all in the same spot; near the far turn on the main track. They've had problems with their surface being biased the past few years. I think the easy way out is for the track president to claim its the horseman's fault, and not his surface.

The track president NEVER claimed it to be the horseman's fault. How come the good trainers, the responsible ones haven't had one breakdown. From what I know, Janks and Catalano, two of the mainstays haven't lost a single horse....

As far as Arlington being bias, it is like EVERY OTHER TRACK in this country in the summer. The heat cooks it (keep in mind 99% of tracks are in an open space with no shade, thus it gets even hotter) and it turns into a NASCAR strip, it is no worse then any other track in the country this time. they can only put soo much water into the surface. Arlington was watering after EVERY race this weekend, which is uncommon

Scav Catalano had a horse pull up pretty bad on friday's 3rd race...didn't think the horse would make it but luckly the horse will survive but never race again according to Catalano.

I'm not talking about it being speed favoring, which it isn't. I'm talking about the dead rail; its been gone now for about a month but will likely resurface (no pun intended) at some point; it was prevalent for the first month of the meet and was prevalent for virtually the entire 2004 and 2005 meets. One thing about AP, it is definitely NOT like every other track.

Like Habersham said, Mike's Pride, the 3-5 ultra chalk in the 3rd on Friday was a Catalano trainee who broke down. Is Catalano that different from Rivelli? Both claim lots of horses and both will be aggressive in dropping horses. I'd be hesitant to claim a horse of EITHER of them.

I guess I am wrong about the Catalano not having one that broke down. I will say that Rivelli and Catalano ARE different. Catalano trains for one guy, who all he cares about it getting the owners title. Rivelli, while from all accounts a decent guy, runs horses that shouldn't be running...I understand that it is part of the game to run a horse with minor aliments, and to try and 'get' them off your hands, but if you would see what some of his horses look like when they come out of the paddock, at short odds, you would be amazed.

If you'd listen to the show last week you could hear Christine discuss the situation. I've had her on 3 times now and she's terrific. When I saw her article in the Sun-Times, where it appeared a week ago Friday, I reached out to her knowing she was anxious to get the topic into the public eye.

Here's the link to the archives.. Christine was on Thursday..

http://www.attheracesandbeyond.com/s...2006_July.html

2 Year Old Easy Strider broke down in the first race on Saturday at Arlington. Anyone know his status ?

Mikes Pride was vanned off Friday. Status ?

She is excellent. She is truly concerned about the horses. However, polytrack needs to be put down at these types of tracks and we need more grass racing and more horses bred to run on grass. I would love to get rid of dirt racing entirely. It is boring to watch and grass is much better for the horses. We should atleast have 50-50 dirt/grass racing.

Both euthusized. Easy Strider was on-track, tarp and everything

Easy Strider was a first time starter, so that shoots holes in the "overraced" theory. Also trained by Williamson, who's never been known as a butcher.

I'm not crazy about Kee or SA putting in Polytrack or an artificial surface but it looks like it would be the logical thing for Arlington to do.

The arlington surface is SAFE, Christine wouldn't be saying that if it wasn't, she could train on ANY circuit out there. Illinois racing is garbage because of legislation, point blank....Here is another thing, do you think riders like all those churchill riders would be coming here if the surface wasn't safe? Guidry would have NONE of that.....

Where else are they gonna go? Ellis Park? No, the purses are too small. Saratoga? Too much competition. Besides the regular NYers, you'll have Leparoux, Bejarano, Bridgmohan and probably Dominguez there. If Douglas didn't have a falling out with Romans, he'd be at Saratoga, not Arlington. Guidry and Douglas have great reputations in Chicago. They will have no problem lining up great mounts. Guidry arrived after CD last year and won over 25%. Even if the surface is bad, it doesn't mean that EVERY single horse is going to break down.

I'd like to see a who's who of all the trainers who've had horses that have broken down at the meet. I guarantee you its not all Alnaz Ali's horses.

Mike's Pride is fine but won't race again according to Catalano and Easy Strider was euthusized....for both of these horses I don't think it was the track that broke these horses down....Mike's Pride reinjured a ligament and Easy Strider back leg broke really high up, I haven't ever seen anything like it...

As a bettor, I don't like seeing any bad publicity for racing. It just gives ammunition for our non-racing friends/family members to fuel the anti- racing fire. And like Janks said, the Tribune is the paper that has really run with this topic, which is ironic since they basically do not cover horse racing.

Only one problem: the attention is warranted. As one who has owned horses before, this definitely is a concern and certainly appears more than a bad random sampling. Who/what are we going to believe? There's a good trainer who says there's no problem because she hasn't had any horses break down. Isn't that a bit close-minded? BTW, being a horse trainer does not make one qualified to be a track surface maintenance chief. So do you believe: Christine Janks or your own eyes?

oh the great Alnaz Ali, I had a friend that had two horses with him, I tried soo many times to get him to pull them and send them to someone else, Playa's trainer is better then Ali....