Front Burner - After thirty horses die, questions about racing’s future

Episode Date: June 26, 2019

The death of 30 horses at the famed Santa Anita racetrack in California this season has sparked a public outcry over animal welfare. The facility is owned by The Stronach Group, a wealthy Canadian company. Today on Front Burner, L.A. Times contributor John Cherwa explains what it all means for the future of horse racing, and the Stronach family business.

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Felt like a murderer had gotten away with something. Tell me now, did you have anything to do with the murder? Someone Knows Something with David Ridgen, Season 5. Now available. Go to cbc.ca slash sks. Hello, I'm Jamie Poisson. So there's this racetrack in California. It's called Santa Anita. And if you're into horse racing, it's a pretty big deal. It's very story.

Seabiscuit and Kayak, they're coming down there in Seabiscuit. Seabiscuit wins in a new world championship down there. He wins and Elizabeth excels. It also happens to be owned by the Stronach Group, which is owned by a wealthy and connected Canadian family. Well, this racetrack's latest chapter, it's not too pretty. So far, 30 horses have died there this season. And these deaths, they've thrown the track and the whole world of horse racing really into turmoil because the deaths, they're not that uncommon. The more I've read

about this, the more I've started to wonder if this is kind of like what we saw with captive whales and circus animals, a growing backlash against something that went largely unscrutinized for a long time. That's coming up on FrontBurner. My guest today is John Sherva. He writes about horse racing for the LA Times. John, hello. Thank you so much for joining us from sunny Florida. Oh, my pleasure.

So this story is centered on the Santa Anita racetrack. Can you take us back to the beginning of this season? What was happening? Well, the season opened as it traditionally does on December 26th, and they started having some breakdowns. And a breakdown is essentially when a horse breaks their leg and has to be euthanized. And the next thing you know, the numbers are starting to add up and then they eased off for a while. But then around the middle of February, I started noticing that, you know, there seems to be more deaths than normal. And then I'm actually on the phone with somebody at the racetrack and they said, oh, a horse just went down. Oh, it's Battle of Midway. Now, Battle of Midway was a Breeders' Cup winner.

Battle of Midway has defeated Sharp as Tecca in the dirt mile. And was third in the Kentucky Derby a couple of years ago. And I'm thinking, wow, this is pretty big. And I did some calculations and it was number 17. And we're talking about the middle of February. The 17th horse that has died. Yes, the 17th horse since the start of the meeting. And so the next thing you know, you know, I write it in the Times

and then it just kind of exploded into a national story at that point. Santa Anita racetrack is down for inspections today after the track confirmed that 19 horses died since opening day in late December. They actually ended up shutting the training track down a couple days while they did some testing of the dirt. And then eventually, you know, things got so out of control that they shut down the track for about almost a month, about three and a half weeks. A major prep race for the Kentucky Derby was set for Saturday. Instead, it will be silent. And so when you say that things got out of control, tell me more about that.

Yeah, the jets just started, you know, mounting. And at one point, they were going to close the training track. And Tim Ritfo, who's the COO of the Stronach Group, decided, you know, okay, no, we'll leave it open for like half a day and another horse dies. So it just really became public relations nightmare because by this point, the animal rights people were all over everybody. About a dozen of them demonstrated outside the Arcadia racetrack today. The part that bothers me the most is they're putting them in a situation where they need to be put down. If everything was safe, then we wouldn't have these horses, these dead horses on our hands.

So that's when they just closed down the track for three weeks. But then they had to keep it open at some time for training because you can't just keep a horse in the barn all the time. They've got to get out. You mentioned the Stronach. So this is a very powerful Canadian family. And tell me how they fit into Santa Anita Racetrack. Well, they own it. You know, it's TSG, the Stronach Group.

And previously to that, it was called Magna. And that was started and owned by Frank Stronach. Frank Stronach's life is a rags-to-riches story. A struggling tulle and dye maker landing in Canada from Austria at 21, building a multi-billion dollar empire that began in his garage and is now Magna International. They own about six American racetracks? Yep. And, you know, before we go any further,

I myself am not steeped in the world of horse racing. I don't know very much about it. And what would I need to understand about this particular racetrack, Santa Anita? Well, I think it's sort of the crown jewel of the Stronic group, although they would tell you it's probably Gulfstream because Gulfstream makes more money. But Santa Anita is incredibly picturesque.

It's up against the San Gabriel Mountains. It's just a very beautiful track. It even has a hillside course where horses start at the top of a hill and then come down and come around and race on the turf. The biggest names of the movie colony and society's blue bloods are as enthusiastic as the grandstand following to get inside where they may see the track and start picking their favorites. And, you know, there was a time that it was drawing 50, 60,000 people on a weekend. Ferdinand and Ali Sheba. What a race this is.

Just what the fans wanted. But that goes back into the 60s and 70s. But horse racing has declined so much now that now a big crowd for them would be about 30. And so just to go back to what's been happening this season, you know, you mentioned there had been multiple deaths. And then I understand that things really took a turn in March. And tell me what happened then. Well, by the time they actually shut it down, we were up from 17 to 23. And on a day that they were doing a local TV station, the Fox 11 in Los Angeles, was doing a stand-up with the track in the background with Bob Baffert, who's probably the most recognizable trainer in horse racing with the white hair and all that, twice winner of the Triple Crown.

Okay. And as Bob was telling me, you know, he was looking out of the side of his, you know, sort of out of the corner of his eye, and he sees this horse that's really sort of laboring down the stretch. And he's thinking to himself, you know, you got to pull that horse up. And so, oh, I got it. Hey, hold up, boys. Hold up. Hold up.

Hold up. Hold up. Well, they Hold up. Hold up. Well, they didn't. And the horse kept running. And then as she was near the finish line, she basically broke both front legs. And it's all happening in the background of this TV interview. So this is essentially caught on camera. It's caught on camera and it's live. And it was supposed to be, you know, a softball story about, you know, how you transport horses or something like that.

And that was number 23. And that was really sort of the flashpoint. And can you tell me what that looks like? You know, the image that was captured on television? Well, basically, you see a horse go down almost to like their knees and the inability to get up. It's quite horrifying. I mean, I'll be honest with you, I only watch a breakdown once if I see it live or because I have no desire to see it over and over again. Here's the thing. Normally, when horses break down, it's completely uneventful. You'll suddenly see a jockey just sort of pull the horse up and stop the horse.

It's because horses don't always collapse, but horses don't always break two front legs. That's what made this one even more horrifying. As a matter of fact, it's unusual to see the horse just collapse onto the racing surface. But that's what happened here. And what happened to this horse, Lily B? Was she euthanized? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And can we talk about what's causing this?

What's causing Lily B's legs to break, but also what's precipitating all of these deaths that we're seeing at Santa Anita over the last several months? Well, they still don't know the answer to that. But I actually wrote a story over the weekend where I had a few theories. And the first theory is that the excessive amount of rain created the situation where the dirt surface got out of balance, you know, the clay and the dirt and the silt, all the things that make it up. And one of the things they were doing is called sealing the track where they compress the dirt so that the water stays on top of the dirt and then runs off rather than creating mud. Well, when horses run on that, it's really hard and it could create micro fractures. Those micro fractures may not show up, you know, in that race or the next one or the next

one, but at some point it could lead to a catastrophic situation. The second theory I had, or that others have, is that the racing office was, let's say, putting undue pressure on the trainers to run their horses. The third theory is that the business model for horse racing is just broken when it comes to the safety of horses. You know, in the end, horse racing has got to decide whether it wants to minimize the risk to horses or whether they want to maximize the profits. And I think for them to survive, they're going to have to minimize the risk of the horses. Of course, we've been talking about, I think the number's around 30 now, these deaths of horses at the Santa Anita track.

You know, as you mentioned, some have died from broken bones. My understanding is some have also died from heart attacks. You've gone through some possible theories. But can you explain to me how Santa Anita compares to other racetracks and training facilities? To have these clusters of deaths is not that unusual. It actually happened at Del Mar a few years ago with a bad turf course. In only the first two weeks of the racing season, seven horses have had to be put down, eight in total have died. It happened at Saratoga with a bad dirt course. And then in 2011-2012, Aqueduct had 21 deaths. That was actually sort of the point that horse racing decided they need to really look at safety measures. and like 108 horses have died in races over the past decade. And I know that these numbers have been contested, but there are some estimates that put the number of horse deaths

in North America last year close to 500, which is an average of 10 fatalities per week. So, I mean, this is interesting to me as someone who doesn't know very much about this industry. This isn't really something I think about when I think about horse racing, right? Like I think about Seabiscuit, this like great underdog story from the Depression era. Seabiscuit by three. Seabiscuit is the winner by four lengths. And you never saw such a wild crowd. Yeah, and that's a really interesting story because Seabiscuit was not

in good shape, but he rallied the nation behind him because he was this great underdog horse and did all these wonderful things. And it was just like a huge story. 17 times he went postward before winning a race. Still he campaigned, his great heart refusing discouragement, participating in the amazing amount of 35 events in his first season, enough races to have ruined an ordinary two-year-old, but Seabiscuit took it and came back for more. So that's in, I think, the 1940s or whatever that happened. That was the story, and everybody reveled this horse. If Seabiscuit were alive today or an analogous horse, people would be appalled that this horse was running because he was not a sound horse. And what that does is that sort of answers the question, why is this such a big deal here in 2019 and not such a big deal in 2009. And that's because the way that people view their animals

is on a much higher level. I mean, we appreciate our animals. And while I do not think that my dog is equal to me, I would risk my life to save his life. And I think that that's just sort of a cultural change that you're seeing. And you mentioned that, you know, when we're talking about Santa Anita, in particular, like animal rights groups have been protesting this track. Yeah, they have. And they've been at Del Mar and they've been everywhere. And that, I think, is sort of indicative of California, which is is a very progressive state. You know, like this happens in Kentucky.

I think everyone just sort of accepts that that's part of horse racing. California, not so much. We'll be back in a second. Discover what millions around the world already have. Discover what millions around the world already have. Audible has Canada's largest library of audiobooks, including exclusive content curated by and for Canadians. Experience books in a whole new way, where stories are brought to life by powerful performances from renowned actors and narrators.

With the free Audible app, you can listen anytime, anywhere, whether you're at home, in the car, or out on a jog. The first 30 days of the Audible membership are free, including a free book. Go to www.audible.ca slash cbc to learn more. Can we talk about how the Stronach Group has responded to this crisis? Well, what the Stronach Group has done, and that is essentially Belinda Stronach, because Frank, who was the person who founded the group, has stepped away and turned the company over to his daughter and then proceeded to sue his daughter. Right. And I guess before we move on, before we move on, let's sidebar

this for a second. For people who who might not know, the Stronachs are locked in this legal battle right now over an estimated $1.2 billion fortune. Frank, as you mentioned, stepped away from the company, but he is now suing his daughter, who took control of the company, and he's arguing that like she's essentially mismanaging the fortune. Strana goes on to accuse his daughter of hiring unqualified friends to position of authority with grossly inflated salaries. Belinda has countersued her father and she's arguing that he's squandering money on like vanity projects. In her statement of defense, Belinda claims, quote, unfortunately in the arc of Frank's career, business failures in the pursuit of idiosyncratic passion projects are just as pronounced as his success in the automotive industry.

Let's pick up where we left off. How are they responding to this particular crisis? Yeah, Belinda came out with a series of reforms because she really believes that the public has lost confidence in the sport. And the major reform she had was the elimination or partial elimination of race day Lasix. Lasix is a drug that helps a horse breathe easier because horses, when they run, tend to get exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhaging, which is essentially bleeding from the lungs. And this mitigates it a lot. But she wanted to do away with that because she doesn't think horses should be running on drugs, which is a fine position to take, except there is no science that links Lasix use to breakdowns. The other thing is

she wants to eliminate the whip. But again, there is no tie, no science between whipping a horse and breakdowns. Now, she has also put in a lot of places some pre-checks. She's really upped it on the vets, the veterinarians, to make sure these horses are as sound as possible. They've added a – well, actually, the state of California has added a five-person screening committee before any horse can run. They have to passperson screening committee before any horse can run. They have to pass the screening committee. Vets will check a horse now at least a minimum of four times before they go to post. So these are all sort of the reforms that she's put in. And I think it, but a lot of it is just for public perception to try to gain the confidence of the people back. I'm also curious to hear from you what other people in the industry are saying.

I know we could talk about this for a long time, but briefly. Well, you know, horse racing, clearly it's in decline. In many places, it's propped up by the casinos that are attached to them, although not in California. You know, you're asking me, will horse racing be around in 20 years? I think so. Will it be around in 50 years? Maybe not. I don't know. But people know the sport is at a critical juncture right now. The number one problem is they've got to regain the confidence of people that it's just not a place where horses go to be slaughtered, that essentially the horses need to be safer. Everyone in the business understands that horses die in horse racing. But I'm not sure that the general public really did, and certainly not to the number, to the degree in which horses die.

So that's what they've got. That right now is the most critical thing they are dealing with. And then after that, you know, we'll just see what the next crisis is. I do want to touch on some very recent events that have happened. This week, the Stronach Group banned Hall of Fame horse trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, I understand. Four horses under his care are among the 30 that have died at Santa Anita since December. And we are being joined right now with trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. I mean, there's been a lot of pressure on racing here at Santa Anita during this week. So things are, I think, more magnified.

But I mean, everybody's doing the best that they can to keep their horses safe. And on Monday, the California legislature voted to give the California Horse Racing Board the power to suspend or move racing days without a public notice period. So the story's not going away. We've been talking about California. not going away. We've been talking about California. Here in Canada, we're coming off new legislation banning the captivity of new whales and dolphins, with the exception of conservation. This is obviously part of this big cultural shift in animal welfare that you were talking about earlier, you know, in parts spurred by the documentary Blackfish. All whales in captivity are all psychologically traumatized. It's not just telecom. Do you think it's possible that we could see something like this in horse racing as well?

Well, here's the thing. Horses, thoroughbreds in training or at the track are better cared for than those that are on a farm. You know, they see a veterinarian daily. They have acupuncture. They get daily baths. They get to run or to gallop on a daily basis. They're actually better cared for. But, you know, at some point, you know, a 110-pound person gets on their back, takes them out to a track, and then starts hitting them to have them run as far and fast as they can.

But horses generally love to run. This is what they like to do. This is what they were bred to do. You know, so I don't think it's totally analogous to the, to the, you know, the, the whales at SeaWorld or, or other things. But, you know, again, at the end, because they are doing something for our entertainment, they can end up dead, And because they are doing something for our entertainment, they can end up dead, which is not a high number, but it can happen. John, thank you so much for this conversation today. It's my pleasure. Just a note to say that after I spoke with John, we reached out to the Strana group to see if they wanted to comment on this story.

And we hadn't heard back from them by the end of the day yesterday. That's all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening to FrontBurner. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts. It's 2011 and the Arab Spring is raging. A lesbian activist in Syria starts a blog. She names it Gay Girl in Damascus. Am I crazy? Maybe. As her profile grows,

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