My Take on the Congressional Hearings

First a confession: I was not able to get my Real Player software to cooperate during the entire testimony of the first panel of yesterday morning's Congressional hearings on racing. It did kick in for portions of the audio and then the video miraculously appeared from about noon on so I saw the entire second panel and the second part of the first panel, after the break. I apologize for not responding to everything but I feel compelled to respond to what I did see, which was riveting.

The most compelling testimony, in my opinion, came from Allie Conrad, Executive Director of CANTER, who spoke for the horses who cannot speak for themselves. She painted, in no uncertain terms, a portrait of the abuses in the sport that brought tears to my eyes. She described the conditions of horses who run on injected joints until they can no longer earn their keep. She told of their horrific withdrawal from the drugs they are administered when they finally are released into the care of the volunteers from her organization. And she took issue with the figures quoted by the New York Times last week about deaths of race horses since they did not include the horses who meet their ends in her barns. "We are trying our best to clean up racing's mess without any funding from the industry," she stated. "Racing is not bothering to take care of its horses and there need to be funds set aside from starting fees or a percentage of purses at every racetrack in the country for re-homing."

And how amazingly ironic that Conrad was followed by Alex Waldrop who told the incredulous (I do believe they were incredulous) committee members that racing was doing a better job of regulating itself, working within the individual laws of the states in which it exists. Clearly the status quo is severely broken--what planet does he live on?--and clearly it is going to take some serious action at a national level--and by serious I mean sanctions with deep financial implications--for anything to change.

The cynic in me was silenced by Conrad's testimony. This is the time to make a change. And if it doesn't happen, then all the people that are employed by the industry need to make their own peace with the Devil. Because they have all sold their souls.