Incentivizing
To change the breed, change the tracks, writes Jay Hovdey in his latest column (DRF+):
Remodeling the breed will be a slow process, but first it will be necessary to increase the incentive to produce a different product; otherwise, the cruel realities of the unfettered free market will lead to racing’s own version of the subprime mortgage disaster.
The solution is already out there, waiting to be spread. Perfecting and adopting the technology of engineered surfaces — a combination of natural and synthetic material built to drain moisture and cushion impact — is the only way to prompt a change in the breed.
Makes sense. For breeders to produce horses with qualities other than precocious speed, there must be a market …
And Yet They Continue
To take just one example, the racehorses that descend from the popular sire Mr. Prospector make, on average, 30 percent fewer starts in their careers than do horses from other sire lines…. The progeny of that other supersire, Storm Cat, show similar, if not quite so extreme, fragility.
A committee is at work on a durability stats database for breeders, but disagreements hinder its development.
Related: Superfecta asks, “Who would you geld today?”
Disingenuous Defined
“We need heroes,” Jackson said. “And since we need them so badly, we’ve decided to race Curlin this year. We want to give the fans and the industry what we need.”
Vanishing Lines
“Last year … saw what will almost certainly be the last graded-stakes winners descending tail-male from Secretariat (Take d’ Tour) and Affirmed (The Tin Man) … Since the turn of the century, several historic sire lines have produced what will likely be their last American-bred graded winners.”
$100M Reasons Not to Run
Estimated combined price Darley paid for Street Sense, Hard Spun and Any Given Saturday: $100 million (TDN). Sheikh Mohammed’s stable has also scooped up European runners Teofilo and Authorized, and this past weekend, Arc-bound Manduro and a percentage of Invincible Spirit. “The extent of his outlay in his quest for potent future stallions is unprecedented,” marvels Julian Muscat in the Times, “even in a bloodstock world fuelled by the petro-dollar.”
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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