Howard Hamilton

The Kentucky Derby is the greatest horse race in the world, but it is also one of the most physically demanding. Both aspects of the Run for the Roses were on display at Churchill Downs last Saturday, from the way BIG BROWN validated his considerable hype with a dominant win, to the way-doomed filly EIGHT BELLES collapsed after finishing second.

The tragic end to the recently run Kentucky Derby once more brought into focus the quality of horses currently being produced by the American thoroughbred breeding industry.

The lone filly in the race ran on gamely to finish second to the winner BIG BROWN, but fractured both ankles as she was being pulled up at the end of the race. EIGHT BELLES was a tragic manifestation of a problem that is more pronounced every year.

Fragile thoroughbreds

In a recent article written by Andrew Beyer in the Washington Post, he treated this problem in a manner which is worth sharing with readers.

He writes: "The American breeding industry is producing increasingly fragile thoroughbreds. They may not breakdown, but they have shorter and shorter racing careers before going to stud to beget even more fragile offspring."

He goes on to point out that in 1960 the average US racehorse made 11.3 starts per year. The number has fallen every year and now the average US thoroughbred races only 6.3 times per year. Almost every trainer whose career spans the decades will acknowledge that thoroughbreds are not as robust as they used to be.

He writes that there are at least two good explanations for this phenomenon. In earlier eras, most people bred horses in order to race them and they had a stake in the animal's soundness.

By contrast, commercial breeders produce horses in order to sell them and if these horses are unsound. they become somebody else's problem. Because buyers want horses with speed, breeders have filled the thoroughbred species with genes of fast, but unsound horses.

As this change in the breeding world took place, the sport was allowing the use of pain killers and other medications that are forbidden in most other countries. They have allowed infirm horses to achieve success, go to stud and pass on their infirmities to the next generation.

That outstanding breeder, Ogden Phipps, lamented the introduction of medication in the thoroughbred industry and predicted just this sort of decline, which is now manifesting itself.

Greater glory

Many of us will recall the legendary rivalry some three decades ago between AFFIRMED and ALYDAR. They faced each other six times as two-year-olds. They battled each other throughout their three-year-old season and split the racing public into fervent AFFIRMED and ALYDAR camps.

After sweeping the Triple Crown, AFFIRMED went on to even greater glory at four years old. Such prolonged campaigns and sustained rivalries are almost unheard of today. The best horses don't stay healthy long enough, and even if they do, they are hastily sent to stud to cash in on their reputations.

SMARTY JONES was little known before he won the 2004 Kentucky Derby and then was retired because of a minor injury after the Belmont Stakes ending a nine-race career. Beyer continued to write that racing fans barely get a chance to know the top thoroughbreds before they are retired to the breeding shed.

This year, Kentucky Derby winner, BIG BROWN was only the second horse in the history of this race to win from post-position 20 and to have done so after only three starts with only one grade-one victory.

Here today, gone tomorrow

What can we expect from this outstanding three-year-old? Certainly, he seems much better than the current crop and once again we have hopes of a Triple Crown winner after 30 years.

Let us hope he stays sound and provides that thrilling spectacle that the racing public so badly needs.

The scenario is almost too easy to predict as far as the future of BIG BROWN is concerned.

He will run brilliantly and be retired in the fall as his owners sell him for stud duty, probably to some Sheik.

His whole career will last no more than nine races. The tragedy of all this is that committed racing fans might not want to invest too much emotion into a colt that they know will be here today and gone tomorrow.

Howard Hamilton is the former chairman of Caymanas Track Limited and is currently the president of the Jamaica Thoroughbred Owners' and Breeders' Association. He may be contacted at : howham @cwjamaica.com.