NOW that Congress is Involved Thoroughbred Industry Claims Interest in Declining Equine Soundness Seven Years After Major Report
posted by citizen.E on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 / 
Print & Hang in the Barn
Today, the Thoroughbred industry reaches new heights of ridiculousness after patting itself on the back for performing an “investigative report” examining “possible” declines in the breed’s soundness over the last 30 - 40 years. Releasing a report titled “Losing the Iron Horse”, TB industry trade magazine Blood Horse claims to be on the forefront of detecting racehorse breeding practice problems by referencing historical Jockey Club records.
This same exact report, detailing the same conclusions for the entire industry, and more, was performed by The Thoroughbred Times in 2001.
Conclusions of old report:
- Thoroughbreds are less sound than 50 years ago.
- Thoroughbred geldings start half as many races now than in 1950.
Conclusions of new report:
- Thoroughbreds start in less races.
- There may be a correlation to TB soundness and poor TB breeding practices.
Each study looked at the exact same Jockey Club data.
Even by their own account, The Thoroughbred Times has been reporting on Thoroughbred undsoundedess since 1995.
Long before Barbaro, long before Eight Belles, long before Congress became involved, and long before the industry became scared people were questioning the ethics of the Thoroughbred racing, the entire racehorse industry has known anecdotally AND cumulatively their breeding and training practices have been hurting equine wellfare.
New research? Just now onto something?
Give us a break.
Legions of Citizen Horsemanship men and women call bullsh!t on the Thoroughbred racing industry.
In the words of one of our favorite equine writers, nice try, asshats.
3 Responses to “NOW that Congress is Involved Thoroughbred Industry Claims Interest in Declining Equine Soundness Seven Years After Major Report”
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July 28th, 2008 at 12:10 am
ah. Asses with hats. Gotta love em. I work with racehorse people everyday and I can honestly say that they agree with what this website has to say. They are locked into a sport that rewards unethical practices yet they are doing everything they can to uphold ethics. They know full well that the breed is becoming a breed of horses who seem to be made of glass–everything in their physicality seems to break so easily that they can’t help but turn to superstition to try and control it. And if their body works, then their brain doesn’t. Very rarely do the two come together for the TB breed. The TB breed nowadays is such a far cry from the TBs of yesteryear that they might as well be an entirely different breed of horse.
July 30th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
AMEN!
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
LOL! Call em out!
They sure have some interesting timing!
silly thoroughbred industry