The author is a contributing columnist based in Chicago
It’s been a tough decade for American horse racing – and the last few weeks could mark a new low for the king of the sport.
This should be the best time for the sport: for a magical few weeks in spring and summer, three-year-olds compete in the Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing, beginning with the legendary Kentucky Derby.
But the headlines of this Triple Crown season – my 60th – have been dominated by death. A dozen horses died at Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Derby racecourse, last month and one horse, Havnameltdown, had to be euthanized at the racecourse – in front of all those quirky-hatted fans and millions more viewers on national television – before the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Crown.
According to Lisa Lazarus, executive director of the new US Agency for Horse Racing Integrity and Safety, the number of deaths among Thoroughbreds has fallen since the new rules went into effect last July: According to the US Jockey Club, the number of deaths per 1,000 starts down from two in 2009 to 1.25 last year Horse Injury Database. But the new rules could not prevent the recent spate of tragedies. Lazarus encourages me not to jump to conclusions about the causes of these deaths that are being investigated. Havnameltdown, for example, was hit by another horse early in the race.
Peta, the animal welfare organization, says this could be a game changer for racing in America. The sport “has never been so close to having its ‘corporate license’ revoked,” Kathy Guillermo, Peta’s senior vice president of equine affairs, told me. She predicts that any catastrophic injury just before the final game of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes on June 10, could be “the death knell for the industry.”
An outrider intercepts Havnameltdown after the horse lost its rider and suffered a leg injury. The animal was euthanized en route © Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun/`
That would break my heart: I’ve been a horse all my life, with multiple fractures to prove it, including a concussion in my 60s from being pushed by an angry pony in the Mongolian desert. But even I’ve begun to doubt that thoroughbred racing will survive my generation.
The most famous races are hugely popular: 14.8 million people watched this year’s Kentucky Derby, making it the most-watched sporting event since the Super Bowl. But that hides a decline in racing as a part of American life: the number of races fell from a peak of 74,071 in 1989 to 33,453 last year.
David McCaffrey, executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which represents owners and trainers, says the best he can hope for is that American racing has now “bottomed out” and will bounce back if it does significantly by revenue can be subsidized. “racinos” (casino-like gaming facilities on racetracks).
Fan demographics aren’t helping. I asked my 20-something kids to give me $20 as a Mother’s Day gift this year and take me to the races. We attended the only live racing track near our home in Chicago, but the atmosphere at Hawthorne Race Course was more of a sad senior club trip than a fun day at the track. Hawthorne had his grandstand torn down for a “Racino” that hadn’t been built yet, but that meant it was difficult to even see the race we were betting on without going inside and watching it on TV. I picked the right horses to win and place and made $9.41 on a $2 bet, but neither of us wanted to hang around and gamble the rest of my $20. I tried to get the kids interested by suggesting an app that uses artificial intelligence to place bets, but they weren’t seduced and instead pushed me to eat tacos.
For decades, racetrack betting was the only legal way to gamble in many areas. There are countless options for sports betting and casinos these days. I can see a bright spot: crowdsourcing for racehorse ownership. About 382 investors bought a stake in Kentucky Derby winner Mage through the Commonwealth Sports Investment app — it costs just $50 to own a Thoroughbred. Commonwealth users more than doubled after the Derby, co-founder and CEO Brian Doxtator told me, adding that the average age of users is 36. Apparently they’re not ready to ditch horse racing just yet: greyhound racing in the US has all but died out for many of the same reasons.
We’re hoping for a safe Triple Crown final – another tragic headline could spell the end of one of America’s oldest sports.
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