BigBuck's
Well-Known Member
I've read through the whole thread and would like to pick up or elaborate on a variety of points, in no particular order, to give a little more context of the current position of this multi-million pound industry.
As others have said, the only way a ban on 2yo racing would work would be if it were a worldwide ban. The Flat racing programme, at top (Group) level does not exist in isolation country-by-country but is a joined-up effort across Europe - the European Pattern - which at the end of the season also feeds into the US Breeders Cup festival. Two-year-old races are woven into the programme of races and some of them have a tradition going back around 200 years. It would take a huge cultural and economical shift to change this. Racing authorities do take immaturity into account in a limited way, as in the early part of the season 2yos are only allowed to race over five furlongs, then as the season goes on into summer and autumn the distance over which 2yos are allowed to race gradually increases.
Again, as mentioned, the sport is becoming ever-more dominated by early speed and sprinter/milers are considered the commercial pinnacle of those breeding to make a profit. There are still some owner-breeders who aim their horses at the more traditional big prizes such as the Derby and King George, but they are a dying breed. Frankel for example didn't run until the middle of August in his 2yo year and if he had shown more stamina and less pure speed, he would have run in the Derby like his half-brother Bullet Train did a year earlier.
This emphasis on speed and relying on it to make a fast buck (no pun intended) reflects the ever-increasing "now, more, quicker" mentality of society generally. In one respect it has been a good thing that racing has shed some of its 'elitist' tag and opened up ownership to syndicates and clubs, but a proportion of the newer owners are people who are ignorant of horses, their physical fragility and unpredictability come into ownership and want results, or at the very least to see their horse on their track and have their day in the sun with their owners' badges, as fast as possible. They don't always have the patience to wait - keeping a horse in training is an expensive business, and it costs just as much to keep an untalented one as it does a star, so they want to see a return ASAP, and it's not because they're cruel or unfeeling, it's because they don't know or understand any better. In today's financial climate more than ever, it's very difficult for any trainer below the top tier to make a living, never mind a profit, and when they're between the rock of pushing a young horse on a little faster than they would like, or the hard place of saying "no" to the owner's pressure and facing those horses being removed and sent to another trainer, when that might be the difference between breaking even and going under (and so all the other horses facing an uncertain future, the staff being made redundant, creditors - feed merchants, vets, farrier etc going unpaid) you can see why it will often end in the horse being pushed.
We are seeing this same impatience filtering into jump racing now too - the days of the traditional Denman-type NH store horse are dying, because owners are reluctant to lose a couple of extra years paying for their horses to stuff themselves in a field slowly maturing when they can buy a precocious, lighter-built 4yo from France with proven form in 3yo jumps races and have it on the track within a few weeks of it joining its new trainer.
Unfortunately it's true to say that in the vast, vast majority of cases the priorities of breeders when choosing mates for their mares are pedigree and performance. Conformation comes a poor third (if it is considered at all) and so if a colt has somehow been able to overcome bad conformation, say poor forelegs, and win a couple of those decent sprint/mile races, and he happens to be from a fashionable - i.e. popular at the sales - sire line, then he is going to be very popular with mare owners regardless of his dodgy legs, and so he goes on to sire goodness-knows-how-many foals who will inherit his poorly-conformed limbs and so be even more prone to breaking down. Multiply this enough times by enough undesirable characteristics and you get a breed that is getting faster but inherently weaker.
Someone mentioned betting, querying the link between betting and racing. A big proportion of racing's funding comes from a tax on bookmakers, called the Levy. In simplistic terms, every bet on a horse race placed in a betting shop contributes to the bookmaker's profits, and a percentage of those profits are skimmed off by the Horserace Betting Levy Board every year. This money, although decreasing because of the rise of online betting exchanges and the competition for gamblers' money from other sports (only racing bets placed in betting shops contribute to the Levy) amounts to tens of millions each year and the majority of it goes towards prize money. A smaller proportion also goes towards funding equine research and the Rare Breeds Trust, so indirectly other horses benefit from this money also. However, I'm sure you can see why it's in racing's own interests to maximise betting turnover and so it would be unlikely that any sort of ban on betting on 2yo races would ever be forthcoming.
There have been a lot of (in some case spurious) parallels drawn between leisure / riding club horses and racehorses but in reality, racehorses are working animals. In fact it could be argued that they and police horses are the last working animals left in the UK. For trainers, a big proportion of breeders, stable staff, suppliers, racecourse managers, racing administrators etc this is a business, not a hobby, and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people rely on racing, hence the pressure for quick results. The majority of trainers are decent people who care about the horses in their yard and try to do their best by them but are not, generally, sentimental or anthropormorphic about them. The horses are there to do a job and if they can't or won't do it or are not physically up to it, they are moved on - that might be within racing, or outside it. Of course there are always the odd unscrupulous bad apples as there is in any walk of life, and when evidence comes to light to prove unsavoury practices, their licence to train (all trainers have to be licenced, which includes an inspection of their facilities) is revoked.
As others have said, the only way a ban on 2yo racing would work would be if it were a worldwide ban. The Flat racing programme, at top (Group) level does not exist in isolation country-by-country but is a joined-up effort across Europe - the European Pattern - which at the end of the season also feeds into the US Breeders Cup festival. Two-year-old races are woven into the programme of races and some of them have a tradition going back around 200 years. It would take a huge cultural and economical shift to change this. Racing authorities do take immaturity into account in a limited way, as in the early part of the season 2yos are only allowed to race over five furlongs, then as the season goes on into summer and autumn the distance over which 2yos are allowed to race gradually increases.
Again, as mentioned, the sport is becoming ever-more dominated by early speed and sprinter/milers are considered the commercial pinnacle of those breeding to make a profit. There are still some owner-breeders who aim their horses at the more traditional big prizes such as the Derby and King George, but they are a dying breed. Frankel for example didn't run until the middle of August in his 2yo year and if he had shown more stamina and less pure speed, he would have run in the Derby like his half-brother Bullet Train did a year earlier.
This emphasis on speed and relying on it to make a fast buck (no pun intended) reflects the ever-increasing "now, more, quicker" mentality of society generally. In one respect it has been a good thing that racing has shed some of its 'elitist' tag and opened up ownership to syndicates and clubs, but a proportion of the newer owners are people who are ignorant of horses, their physical fragility and unpredictability come into ownership and want results, or at the very least to see their horse on their track and have their day in the sun with their owners' badges, as fast as possible. They don't always have the patience to wait - keeping a horse in training is an expensive business, and it costs just as much to keep an untalented one as it does a star, so they want to see a return ASAP, and it's not because they're cruel or unfeeling, it's because they don't know or understand any better. In today's financial climate more than ever, it's very difficult for any trainer below the top tier to make a living, never mind a profit, and when they're between the rock of pushing a young horse on a little faster than they would like, or the hard place of saying "no" to the owner's pressure and facing those horses being removed and sent to another trainer, when that might be the difference between breaking even and going under (and so all the other horses facing an uncertain future, the staff being made redundant, creditors - feed merchants, vets, farrier etc going unpaid) you can see why it will often end in the horse being pushed.
We are seeing this same impatience filtering into jump racing now too - the days of the traditional Denman-type NH store horse are dying, because owners are reluctant to lose a couple of extra years paying for their horses to stuff themselves in a field slowly maturing when they can buy a precocious, lighter-built 4yo from France with proven form in 3yo jumps races and have it on the track within a few weeks of it joining its new trainer.
Unfortunately it's true to say that in the vast, vast majority of cases the priorities of breeders when choosing mates for their mares are pedigree and performance. Conformation comes a poor third (if it is considered at all) and so if a colt has somehow been able to overcome bad conformation, say poor forelegs, and win a couple of those decent sprint/mile races, and he happens to be from a fashionable - i.e. popular at the sales - sire line, then he is going to be very popular with mare owners regardless of his dodgy legs, and so he goes on to sire goodness-knows-how-many foals who will inherit his poorly-conformed limbs and so be even more prone to breaking down. Multiply this enough times by enough undesirable characteristics and you get a breed that is getting faster but inherently weaker.
Someone mentioned betting, querying the link between betting and racing. A big proportion of racing's funding comes from a tax on bookmakers, called the Levy. In simplistic terms, every bet on a horse race placed in a betting shop contributes to the bookmaker's profits, and a percentage of those profits are skimmed off by the Horserace Betting Levy Board every year. This money, although decreasing because of the rise of online betting exchanges and the competition for gamblers' money from other sports (only racing bets placed in betting shops contribute to the Levy) amounts to tens of millions each year and the majority of it goes towards prize money. A smaller proportion also goes towards funding equine research and the Rare Breeds Trust, so indirectly other horses benefit from this money also. However, I'm sure you can see why it's in racing's own interests to maximise betting turnover and so it would be unlikely that any sort of ban on betting on 2yo races would ever be forthcoming.
There have been a lot of (in some case spurious) parallels drawn between leisure / riding club horses and racehorses but in reality, racehorses are working animals. In fact it could be argued that they and police horses are the last working animals left in the UK. For trainers, a big proportion of breeders, stable staff, suppliers, racecourse managers, racing administrators etc this is a business, not a hobby, and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people rely on racing, hence the pressure for quick results. The majority of trainers are decent people who care about the horses in their yard and try to do their best by them but are not, generally, sentimental or anthropormorphic about them. The horses are there to do a job and if they can't or won't do it or are not physically up to it, they are moved on - that might be within racing, or outside it. Of course there are always the odd unscrupulous bad apples as there is in any walk of life, and when evidence comes to light to prove unsavoury practices, their licence to train (all trainers have to be licenced, which includes an inspection of their facilities) is revoked.
