9/23/2023 0 Comments Watch dogs bad blood trainerOr, perhaps, a throwback to the early 1900s, when much of American racing was simply abolished in the name of “reform,” which a “reform” movement later led even to prohibition! It’s perhaps instructive that prohibition of alcoholic beverages ended about the same time that modern pari-mutuel betting on newly approved tracks began in the 1930s. What we have witnessed in the last few years, however, is something new. And gradually, with politically appointed state regulators, non-racing politics, real politics, became more and more intrusive as the decades marched on. To be certain, there have always been politics within racing-our own politics. The objectivity of the photo-finish camera, invented nearly a century ago now, was a welcome relief from all the conflicting opinions outside the track enclosures. I can remember a time, not that long ago, when people went to the races, or owned horses, to get away from politics. Our mutual feelings of stress are ubiquitous-that is to say, they’re everywhere in virtually everything we’re doing. My old horse trainer, one of the wisest people I ever met-and I find many trainers to be so wise, way beyond their formal educations-used to define stress this way: the confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living out of some who so desperately needs it.Īny trainer reading this will immediately recognize the sensation, surrounded as he or she is by countless other “experts” (at least in their own minds): regulators, do-gooders, gamblers, veterinarians, reporters, owners, blacksmiths, hotwalkers, entry clerks, and track officials-to name only a very few categories of her or his advisers.Įveryone else in racing these days (not to mention virtually everyone else on Earth) is experiencing that same sensation.
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