An Artificial Future?

I found Knightmare’s article regarding the increasing fragility of thoroughbreds quite interesting. There are a few points I’d like to make in response.

Firstly, I don’t think it’s realisitic to expect that we’re ever going to achieve the aim of exclusively breeding conformation-perfect animals. We’re breeding first and foremost for a speed/stamina combination – there’s no prizemoney for conformation.

Before I go on I’ll give some brief info about myself to give you an idea of my perspective on this matter. I live in Australia but work professionally as a U.S. racing analyst. I much prefer working on Dirt racing – I prefer it as a spectacle and also believe it’s more reliable for analysis and betting purposes.

Obviously, dirt is harder on the horses than turf, but another factor is the track layouts and racing styles. So, a U.S. dirt sprint is an exceptionally high-speed contest (compared to an Australian Turf race for example) around a tight 180 degree turn. This is always going to be very unforgiving on horses who aren’t quite built for that kind of wear and tear. An Australian Turf sprint race is generally run at a more sedate tempo around a more gradual 90 degree turn, and on a more forgiving surface – obviously this all means a lower horse attrition rate.

I know that so far, for many of you, I’ve just been stating the ‘bleeding obvious’, but it brings me to my main point.

While I agree with much of what Knightmare had to say, I do feel he was too quick to dismiss the possible benefits of Artificial Surfaces such as Polytrack. They show every indication of being easier on the horses. And also they should cost less to maintain.

The breeding industry will probably never change – although someone should tell them that we “breed to race”, not “breed to breed” or “race to breed” – so maybe the next best option is to explore the alternative racing surfaces. By the way, I’m definitely not suggesting that we expand the use of turf as a racing surface – that could be a step backwards, and hell, I just don’t like the turf as much.