not editorializing...just saw this in my sports section

[merasmag]

chicago.suntimes.com/sports-saturday/2024/04/17/broken-horses-review-hulu-fx-documentary-ny-times-bob-baffert-havnameltdown

[PonyGirlJCM]

Can’t open article without subscribing……

[eye123]

FX's The New York Times Presents: Broken Horses will premiere on Hulu on April 27, 2024. The documentary will discuss doping by trainers and owners, and the story of a horse that was euthanized after losing its rider and suffering a leg injury during a race.





Broken Horses examines the systemic issues, questionable practices and urgent calls for change that have shaken horse racing to its core. With confidential documents, recordings and exclusive interviews, the film provides a vivid tour of the business and political forces that control the "Sport of Kings" and resist measures to implement changes that could decrease horse deaths. It is a story of reckless breeding and doping, of compromised veterinarians and trainers, and of fans who are drawn to the sport's beauty and pageantry but increasingly wonder how long one of America's oldest sports can continue to have its social license renewed.

[1hooper]

Trailer.

[1hooper]

Behind the paywall.


By Richard Roeper Apr 20, 2024, 6:30am EDT

When a horse goes down in the middle of the track and a team rushes out with a black or blue tarp to block our view, it’s almost a sure sign all hope is lost.

In all likelihood, the horse is about to be euthanized.

We see the heartbreaking images of a number of these beautiful animals collapsing on racetracks, the jockeys falling alongside them or being tossed into the air, in “Broken Horses,” a sobering and straightforward documentary from FX’s “The New York Times Presents” series. With Times reporters Joe Drape, Melissa Hoppert, Rachel Abrams and Liz Day spearheading the investigation and a number of respected trainers offering valuable insights, “Broken Horses” eschews sensationalism and stylized visuals in favor of an old-fashioned, journalistically sound approach to answering one key question:

Why are so many horses dying?

The answer, as you might expect, has to do with money. With purses for major races increasing over the years and breeding fees escalating into the millions, the stakes are literally higher than ever before, and unfortunately, a small minority of trainers and owners (with the cooperation of certain veterinarians) are all too willing to risk the health and well-being of their horses if it means getting them back on the track to race — until they can race no more.

As the doc reminds us, there’s no denying the glorious spectacle and generational traditions and pure adrenaline rush of the Kentucky Derby and other high-profile races; hence the classic description of the Derby as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports.” But all that pageantry was tempered in 2023, when a total of 12 horses died during the Spring Meet at Churchill Downs. Although horses dying in clusters is, sadly, nothing new in the sport, the spotlight on current tragedies intensified when a Bob Baffert horse, Havnameltdown, suffered a fatal injury during an undercard race at Pimlico Race Course, just hours before another Baffert horse, National Treasure, won the Preakness Stakes on that very same track.
Bob Baffert was suspended from the Kentucky Derby after multiple drug test failures by horses he trained.
The white-haired, sunglasses-wearing, dapper and enormously successful Baffert declined to be interviewed for the documentary, but he is a dominant figure in this story nonetheless. As the most recognizable figure in the sport, Baffert epitomizes the rise of the so-called “super trainer,” with his horses winning six Kentucky Derbies, eight Preakness Stakes and three Belmont Stakes. Even after Havnameltdown’s death, the horse’s breeder, a small-time horsewoman named Katherine Devall from Lexington, Kentucky, absolves Baffert of any responsibility and says Baffert taking an interest in her horse made her feel “like Cinderella.”

Still, there’s incontrovertible evidence of Baffert horses failing drug tests, most notably in the case of 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, who was later disqualified after testing positive for the steroid betamethasone. Baffert was suspended from Churchill Downs for two years, with the ban extended through 2024 when Churchill Downs Inc. released a statement that said in part, “A trainer who is unwilling to accept responsibility for multiple drug test failures in our highest-profile races cannot be trusted to avoid future misconduct.”


“Broken Horses” incorporates a brief history of the sport of kings, with fourth-generation breeder Arthur B. Hancock noting, “They’re smart animals, graceful, beautiful. They’re brave creatures. … America was founded with horses.” They’re also athletes and, just like human athletes, at risk for injuries as they put an intense strain on their bodies.

The difference, of course, is that they’re helpless to communicate exactly how they’re feeling. Says Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Graham Motion: “The horses can’t tell me what’s wrong with them. That’s my job.” There’s no doubt the vast majority of owners and trainers love their horses and want to make sure they’re safe, but with so much cash on the line, a number of less scrupulous figures have used anti-inflammatory, painkilling and blood doping methods.

Trainer Jason Servis was sent to prison for his role in a scheme to drug horses to make them race faster.
At times, the proceedings in “Broken Horses” can be a bit dry, with all the solid but hardly scintillating information about regulatory bodies and investigations, and Congress passing an act recognizing a centralized authority — but it’s encouraging to see the fruits of such crackdowns, as when charges were brought against more than two dozen trainers, veterinarians and drug distributors in March 2020. Jason Servis, trainer of the ironically named Maximum Security, was eventually sentenced to four years in prison for his role in a scheme to drug horses to make them faster.

This is what the doping is all about: to make horses faster, to mask the pain they might be feeling from pre-existing injuries. As trainer Arthur Hancock puts it, for the sport to survive, it needs to keep ridding itself of “the thugs and the drugs.”

[ozzy]

Is this the Hulu documentary dropping next week, just in time for the Derby???

[1hooper]

Yes.

[1hooper]

Not going to be an easy watch. This is from a Disney+ article.


The world’s finest racehorses arrived at Louisville’s famed Churchill Downs ahead of the 2023 Kentucky Derby, but by the time the showcase event started on the first Saturday in May, seven of them were dead. In the days after, five more died. The two other showpieces of the sport’s Triple Crown series, the Preakness in May and the Belmont in June, were also marred by deaths on the track that horrified spectators and intensified pressure on racing officials to reckon with the problem.

The New York Times reporters Joe Drape, Melissa Hoppert, Rachel Abrams and Liz Day investigate the fateful period that threw the sport into crisis and left fans wondering why so many horses, supposedly in peak physical condition, are breaking down so frequently.

With confidential documents, recordings and exclusive interviews, “Broken Horses” provides a vivid tour of the business and political forces that control the Sport of Kings and resist measures to implement changes that could decrease horse deaths. It is a story of reckless breeding and doping, of compromised veterinarians and trainers, and of fans who are drawn to the sport’s beauty and pageantry but increasingly wonder how long one of America’s oldest sports can continue to have its social license renewed.

Executive Producers are Esther Dere, Jason Stallman, Liz Day, Sam Dolnick, Stephanie Preiss, Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver. Dere also serves as the Showrunner of The New York Times Presents. Rachel Abrams is the Senior Producer.

For the latest Disney+ news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

[eye123]

For the general public (one day a year Kentucky Derby bettors) this (the findings) may come as a shock.( timing to coincide with the Derby makes sense if you're looking for the most viewers...but sucks for the industry as a whole),but for the regular horse player will any of this be a surprise. We've been dealing with these stories piece by piece for quite a while now. (to the point it seems we've become immune to the shock of it all) It just makes you wonder. Can the industry get their act together ? Or like dog racing, will some time in the near future be just a memory. For most here, we've reaped the good fortune of seeing racing in it's heyday.......someone new to the game, well.......they'll never know the same feeling ......it hasn't existed for some time now.

[mysaladdays]

I don't know how to respond to this. It will shake stuff up.....but folks who benefit from the status quo are invested in .... the status quo.

They will just blame PETA and/or continue to nit-pick HISA because anything-less-than-perfection is ammunition for them to bash any overall effort to improve things.

They will call it a hit piece but anything that exposes unsatisfactory behaviors is a hit piece in essence. However, all unsavory practices do deserve to be "hit".

I used the word unsavory for a reason. It includes practices that are malicious and greedy. It does not include the myraid of honest mistakes, snafus and misjudgements that are made every day by all human beings because we are not perfect, and either are every one of our decisions.

The different environments I have lived and worked in have influenced my opinions because all experience does that.
Where I live certain types say stuff like "HISA is just another effort by gov'mint to control us."  Even about the EARLY projected weather reports for the Total Eclipse as we were in the area of Totality ("NOAA-informed weatherpeople are gov'mint plants who wanted everyone to stay home"...) Yes that type even faults NOAA because it's a Federal science-based agency.

I am a natural improver so I tend to try to improve whatever I'm involved in, if it is within my power. So I will just say in closing: 

1) Turning thoroughbreds into pharmaceutical phenoms is not something I think improves the individual horse, nor the thoroughbred breed in general. 

2) If any horse has a diagnosis for which there is a treatment, and that diagnosis puts them at risk for participating in high level athletic endeavors, then they should be turned out to heal and not be racing. 

I don't think either of those statements could be contrued as extremist in any way. 

[mysaladdays]

Unavoidable ethical considerations:

A human being can opt not to become an NFL player, not to climb Everest, not to hang-glide, not to Big Wave surf, not to become a NASCAR driver and not to take on a career that causes them stomach ulcers from stress. Humans can evaluate the pros and cons. They have choice and agency.

Horses and dogs don't have choice or agency.

That is why the ethical standards of doing what is in their best interests comes with a higher bar.

The main cruelty to race horses "appears to be"

1) using pharmaceuticals and PEDs to make them to run past their abilities, run past their pain, and/or run past their unsoundness.

2) Overly harsh/draconian training programs that place unnatural (and avoidable) levels of stress on their musculoskeletal, physiological, and mental well-being.

Is not doing these things REALLY so insurmountable?  We put a man on the moon.  This seems simpler. 

TBs love to run. Many will win for fun. Some are not cut out for racing and thats what rehoming programs are there for.


Dog racing was a bit different. Dogs are cheaper than thoroughbreds, so the number of dogs that sport "went thru" was somwhat (terrifyingly) huge. They aren't pieces of garbage to throw away in huge numbers.

[merasmag]

i wood just like to point out a thing or 3
the chicago sun-times
DOES NOT
have a "paywall"
thru a convoluted series of events, mergers
and hand-wringing
any1 anywhere can open a free account
4ever or a date
TBD
secondly
roeper is a DORK
he became their "defacto"
"movie critic"
after roger ebert retired/died
trust me when i tell u this guy doesn't know
one end of a horse from
another
so...if u follow
NO POLITICS
and want to follow
local DNC news
it's there

[merasmag]

btw...u'll see
PLENTY
of retired
ap horselets
at the dnc
ridden by the
cpd

[mysaladdays]

Apr 22, 2024 23:32:17 GMT -5 merasmag said:

trust me when i tell u this guy doesn't know
one end of a horse from
another

The simple things I mentioned that are uneccessary, like drugging horses to enable them to run past their natural physiological, musculoskeletal and age-appropriate abilities,  and not running using them in high level athletic endeavors when ill or injured, requires absolutely ZERO KNOWLEDGE of horses.

All it requires is 1) common sense;  2) basic human compassion and ethics


That even a "dumb movie reviewer" would not find difficult to fathom.   

[merasmag]

^^^
i sorta put the
cart b4 the horse
if you have an abc
affilate down there
i wood guess they push
disney/hulu
as
relentlessly
as here
i never said roeper was dumb
he's just a jerk who licks $%#
i applaud any good investigative reporting
it just shouldn't (and wasn't in "my" day)
be dependent on outside events (the derby)
maybe YOUR local paper made note of this coming up?