It Gets Dark Early These Days

Real Writing on Racing 💯

There are occasions in ones life where the entire world seems to be crumbling around us, absolutely nothing will ever go right again, dark clouds creating a thick fog of adversity where no light at the end of the tunnel can seep through.

Thoroughbred racing is presently immersed within that murkiness unless you are one of those industry mavens who choose to wear the ostrich costume and bury their heads in the sand or Tapeta or whatever the latest ‘quick fix’ is. There are fires raging everywhere you fix your racing world gaze, even the fabulous French and indomitable Irish racing scenes are dealing with scandals.

I began writing this prior to Monday morning so I’m going to not gloss over the less bombastic issues to take on the obvious elephant in the room (yet) because they do still exist and they still do matter.

Let’s start in Maryland where there was no racing conducted this past weekend at Laurel. The reason that the Friday-Sunday cards were scrapped was because the main track surface that underwent extensive renovations and repairs this summer, which caused a great deal of inconvenience for the local horsemen, has been deemed to have an area so unsafe that immediate attention (though allegedly this has been brewing) was required to deal with it. When racing or even training at speed can fully resume is anyone’s guess and heading into the winter with spotty weather, falling temperatures, freeze and thaws, snow and ice…well let’s suffice to say it might be an ongoing, difficult situation.

We can then head north to Aqueduct where the blatant herding and excessively aggressive tactics by the circuits biggest riding star finally went over the top when last Friday afternoons 8th race was the scene of a backstretch hit and run.  Apprentice rider Omar Moreno Hernandez wound up being being unceremoniously dumped when Irad Ortiz, Jr. recklessly veered in impeding Hernandez mount, causing him to stumble badly. Thankfully Hernandez and the horse escaped serious injury and a potentially tragic situation was avoided. Perhaps it’s better said that this time a tragic situation was avoided, next time might result in a catastrophe. While this manner of reckless riding has no place in any situation, the fact that the veteran rider was to blame and the inexperienced bug rider was the victim, colors the incident even a few shades darker. Our biggest stars have a responsibility to the sport of horseracing,  like it or not, to behave and conduct their business in a professional manner as that spotlight shining brighter on them adding to their fame, also magnifies the flaws of our game. More on that thought process later…

The very next day the grade II Remsen Stakes could have had a bright yellow NYPD crime scene tape draped between the eighth pole and the finish line post-race as Mr. Ortiz capped off his 2021 NYRA season sweeping the two year old stakes but employing tactics that Bill Laimbeer of the ‘Bad Boys’ Detroit Pistons would have been envious of. When the chart reads “…rallied outside to take the lead outside the furlong marker, moved in closer to the runner-up under a right handed crop at the sixteenth pole, had the rider put away the crop and throw repeated exaggerated crosses with the left-rein near the face of the runner-up and narrowly prevailed while bumping with that foe near the wire,” you would assume that intimidation using his elbow had caused Irad to get his number taken down for the second consecutive day…but you’d be wrong. With not one but two substitute stewards in the stand the result was left up, once again rewarding overly aggressive, bordering on dangerous riding tactics which is the primary reason that herding is at an epidemic level in New York.

Late Sunday afternoon it was announced that Ortiz would be receiving a 30 day suspension that he was choosing not to appeal, starting sometime this coming week. Granted there was grumbling about December being a very a slow period with few important races but it’s difficult to complain too vociferously when at the very least the punishment is greater than the usual slap on the wrist. Whoever the new Director of Racing at NYRA is going to be, let’s hope they make eliminating excessive ‘race riding’ a priority before something grave occurs.

That announcement topped off a difficult week at the Big A where the photo finish camera malfunctioned in a race with a very tight 3rd place finish resulting in the placing judges doing the best they could by calling a dead heat. Timing issues also continue to plague our biggest circuit as they have since the summer, just the latest fiasco showcasing major tracks being unable to consistently time races properly.

Gulfstream opened its “Championship meet” on Friday with no infield tote board, construction projects abounding, a new tapeta track that doesn’t have poles to measure distances and turf races that apparently weren’t started at the proper locations leading to bizarre internal race fractions being posted. By Saturday the turf gate placement issues seemed to have been resolved but the racing action in the Claiming Crown featured a few ‘performances’ that were reminiscent of indicted trainers gone by which harkens these famous and sagacious words:

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”

-Winston Churchill

Late Monday morning all those other issues seemed trivial as word started to spread that controversial Kentucky Derby winner Medina’s Spirit had collapsed after a routine workout at Santa Anita and died on the track. My phone was blowing up with calls, texts, and emails asking if I knew if the news was accurate or was this just a twisted racetrack rumor gone wrong. I could feel my emotions swung from shock to sadness to anger to frustration to disgust as the reality hit, the news was true. He was gone.

As I tended to the menial task of folding my laundry, I struggled to digest this bombshell and that dark cloud reappeared to envelop my thoughts even more severely. Any end of a living creatures life is a profound tragedy yet we learn to cope with the inevitability of death in our own lives and we have also been forced to accept it in our racing ones. Having been at the scene of a distressed horse that has collapsed on the track, it is the deepest of all cuts. The amazing athlete stricken while in the process of executing their purpose here on earth, running fast. They struggle to comprehend as the life is draining out of them. As shock envelopes their body and they begin to fade away, the ripple effect hits the humans who are not quite believing what we are witnessing, this strong, noble creature so helpless, laying degradingly in the dirt. When that last breath finally comes…we are jarred back to the conscious world as the majestic being that carried the hopes and dreams and admiration of so many has morphed into a large, burdensome carcass that has to be removed from the track in one of the most inglorious manners possible.

You never forget the wide range of extreme emotions that race through you. That empty pit in your stomach, no matter what level of fame or accomplishment that beautiful creature laying eerily still in front of you had achieved, never leaves you. I feel true sadness for those who loved Medina’s Spirit and feel real sorrow for those who had to witness the last moments of his all-too-short, roller coaster ride of a life. Without even looking up to face the oncoming fracas sure to come as a result of this tragic situation, it’s difficult not to feel crestfallen.

I have a lot more to say on this topic in the coming days beyond the latest Going in Circles Big Monday Show . If racing had only made the changes that needed to be made before we arrived at this disastrous juncture, think about the following quote and how things might have never gotten to this dark place…

“The best decisions have little to no immediate impact. The best choices compound. Most of the benefits come at the end, not the beginning. The more patient you are, the bigger the payoff.”

-Shane Parrish