How Much Is too Much?
Scaling back takes attention, but it is doable, said Stevens, who raced in Europe during previous rules tweaks and found a more conservative style. “It didn’t change the outcome of the race,†he said. “I started getting better results.â€
Her well-balanced story gets picked up by The Awl with the headline “What is the Appropriate Level of Violence Against Animals?” and tagged “Beatings – Horses.” Tweets one observer in response, “in horse racing, the answer is anything goes.” Ouch! That’s not the nuanced view of most in racing. Yet, while we can talk about padded crops making more noise than causing pain, when the limits for use — in the wake of a display such as the 30-odd strikes rider Victor Espinoza gave American Pharoah in winning the Kentucky Derby — seems to be welts or it’s no big deal, anything goes will be a common perception among the broader public, which is a problem, because social norms re: animal welfare and use for sport aren’t shifting in the game’s favor.
The Thoroughbred Daily News addressed the issue last week with essays from eight contributors — trainers and jockeys, fans and turf writers — covering just about every angle on the debate (the headline is polarizing; the respondents are thoughtful). Pull the Pocket distilled the essential points, including this one, relevant to Stevens’ quote:
We know best — I’ve heard “let the participants decide what to do, the jocks know best.” I think that opinion matters, but it should be taken with a huge grain of salt. If football players made up the rules, clotheslines and leading with a helmet would be legal and more and more players would be eating through a straw. Participants hate change because it means they have to change the way they have always done things. The culture, as Chris Mac notes in his piece, is very strong and these folks need to be listened to for their experience, but they need to be led, not appeased.
California’s revised whip rules, restricting a jockey to three strikes of the crop before pausing for response, go into effect on July 1. Officially, anything won’t go. What follows will be a test of setting and enforcing limits, for stewards as much as for jockeys. There’s potential for California to be a model.
