Farm Bill Includes Tax Breaks for Horse Racing Industry

Moonshadow wrote:

"...are you a vegan? Wear leather? Wool? Eat cheese or milk? Just wondering. Did you miss the part about my keeping him well after I couldn’t ride him any more?"

This is a copout. Meat production for food and clothing is deeply ingrained in our society - one has to work to avoid it (and it is a worthy effort to do so). Keeping and using horses for racing, breaking, riding on top of - this is an easily avoidable activity, and one has to really spend time and expense to pursue it. You, and all the rest, do it because you enjoy it, because it is profitable or because it satisfies you in some other way.

You continued:

"You feel so strongly about riding being cruel, then by all means adopt a few rescue horses and keep them in your back pasture in bucolic splendor for their entire lives. They eat quite a bit, they need to be regularly medicated, their hooves need trimming and they can live for 30 years. I have some phone numbers if you want them."

The fact that there is a significant population of horses needing "rescuing" attests to the moral wreckage of the system of human captivity of horses for pleasure racing and ego owning. By your own words, you own horses for more reason than simply altruistic care; you describe how you have been riding them since an early age, and your enjoyment of controlling the animals you own is evident, making them act how you want them to. This is far removed from animal rescue. People who truly engage in that activity rehabilitate animals in order to return them to native environments or to simply provide care for the ones that are unable to - not to manipulate them, threaten them, master them, or make them accept you as a passenger.

You continued:

"Those horses in Eastern Kentucky that are starving and being shot at by teen-agers for the fun of it are living that free existence you think is the epitome for all horses."

And what sad commentary this is on the relationship humans have created with horses, animals which natively require significant area to roam, but which area people want even more. People have learned how to capitalize on horses in more ways than one. Teenagers with guns or "benevolent" owners with crops, corrals, or racing plans - it's the same sense of mastery and entitlement.

Moonshadow writes:

>>SFisher wrote:Larry Jones, Eight Belles’ trainer, said right before the Kentucky Derby, that if she came back to the barn at all after the race, they would have had a good day. Inside rumor has it that Eight Belles suffered multiple fractures before the race, but the trainer and owner ran her anyway. She was loaded with steroids, and no doubt would rather be alive today than lay claim to placing second in the Kentucky Derby.

SFisher, you know nothing about what went on, and nothing about horse racing. What Larry Jones ACTUALLY said was that no matter what Eight Belles did in the race, so long as she came back to the barn sound, it was all good. There was no economic sense in racing an unsound horse-she was worth much more alive as a broodmare than even a first-place Derby finish would have earned her. ONE of her foals would have brought more at auction as a yearling than the first-place Derby purse. Eight Belles did NOT suffer multiple fractures before the race-trainers don’t start a horse in a race if their horses are off their feed, have heat or swelling in their legs, if anything at all looks wrong. And the track vet would not let her run if that were the case.<<

Dear Moonshadow,

It appears I have struck a deep nerve for you. If it is true that *I* know nothing about horse racing, then here, the blind leads the blind.

You reiterate what I said earlier, in your own words. Larry Jones said that if Eight Belles came back to the barn AT ALL, they would have had a good day. Yes, or no? Saez whipped the daylights out of Eight Belles coming down the stretch, and then could not stop her. Why? Why did he need to whip a filly, who characteristically runs more aggressively than a colt, mercilessly? She was slowing down, and something was already wrong, that is why, Moonshadow.

Moonshadow, I have close associations with the Kentucky Thorougbred racing circuit, even closer than those you claim to have. Eight Belles was abused, by both Larry Jones and Gabriel Saez, and I hope with all my heart that both are suspended, if not expelled, from the racing industry. Rumors still circulate that the filly already had fractures before the Kentucky Derby, and steroids were used on her. You know as well as I that there are plenty of trainers, every day, who run horses under adverse conditions. The only precautionary measures taken at the tracks are after the race is run when the winning horses are then blood-tested for drugs.

The economic considerations you speak of are commensurate with the egotistical gratification that keeps the Yums! Brand Kentucky Derby going year after year. It's the holy grail of the hideously corrupt and greedy industry. With that nice, big, shiney silver trophy glittering before their dumb eyes, Jones, Porter, et al, surely weren't thinking of what the future odds on Eight Belles were worth as a brood mare without the Derby under her belt, were they? If yours was the case, Moonshadow, they never would have made her run in that goddamned race at all.

With all my heart I hope that the ASPCA and PETA continue to aggressively pursue their demands for Congressional investigation into the horse racing industry.

Whether you mucked stalls for two years on a Thoroughbred farm or polished saddles doesn't matter. I tend to agree with 'blessthebeasts' who says; "Moonshadow--have another mint julep."

Moonshadow--have another mint julep.

Yep, they have a stong spirit...:o)

Ouch, that's rough. I have enough trouble catching one of my girls on seven acres! Good exercise though...Talked a mare to sleep once, that was impossible to catch and got her that way.

My grandfather managed a 4,000 acre ranch with cattle horses. He trained horses and he would only let me ride a horse that I could catch. For a long time I couldn't catch any of them...

How, Treefrog? Do you own or ride? Did you ever own or ride? Work in the industry in some capacity? You never did answer my question, so I'm done here.

When you use a demonstrated cue, that is whip a horse and then use a lesser cue in its place it has the same affect on the horse. It is like a man that beats his wife when he gets home from drinking to get her to do something she doesn't want to do. After a while, all he has to do is hold up a fist.

Yes, I know about horses.

Yohocoma, are you a vegan? Wear leather? Wool? Eat cheese or milk? Just wondering. Did you miss the part about my keeping him well after I couldn't ride him any more?

You feel so strongly about riding being cruel, then by all means adopt a few rescue horses and keep them in your back pasture in bucolic splendor for their entire lives. They eat quite a bit, they need to be regularly medicated, their hooves need trimming and they can live for 30 years. I have some phone numbers if you want them.

Those horses in Eastern Kentucky that are starving and being shot at by teen-agers for the fun of it are living that free existence you think is the epitome for all horses.

I should add that I'm not an apologist for the racing industry. There are a LOT of ways in which it could be improved. And the tax breaks were very much Mitch trying to drum up support in an election year. Which may mean he's feeling the heat a bit and it's all to the good. I know who I'm NOT voting for on May 20.

But folks who don't know anything about horses in general or racing coming on boards to spew rumors about horses running with broken legs don't help. And good answers aren't always readily found. The law that was passed recently prohibiting slaughter of horses for food in this country would seem to be a great thing for horses. And it is, on the surface. But now, since they can't be slaughtered here, they're being crammed into trucks and ships in cruel conditions and shipped overseas and down to Mexico. The problem hasn't been solved, it's just been moved under the table And folks in Eastern Kentucky who couldn't sell their horses for riding animals or even slaughter during the drought and couldn't afford to buy them hay (the price rose over 100%) simply turned them loose to run on the mountains. Some of them are starving.

Those are the horses I'm worried about, as well as the racehorses that are used up.

So the horse is a "total shithead" because he doesn't want a human on his back? And therefore you have to threaten him with a pain-causing tool, and at least once actually hit him, to impose your will on him, do what you want to him and get your way?

Who's the rationalizing shithead here?

Treefrog, do you own any horses? Have you ever been around them? Because I have two sitting out in my back pasture right now and have been riding since I was seven years old. A whip is a tool. It is used in training to cue and direct a horse. That doesn't always involve hitting the horse-but sometimes it does.

I have one mare who doesn't need a whip and freaks when she sees one, so she never sees one. My other mare doesn't need one either, but she doesn't mind it being shaken at her to direct her when I longe her. And I had a gelding who was a total shithead unless I rode him with a stick in hand and declared my willingness to wallop him as soon as I got on. I spent a long time after I got this particular horse trying to reason with him-he would shy and try to pitch me off at the least provocation, pretending to be scared of everything. Weeks upon weeks of gentle encouragement and "don't be afraid, poor fellow!" Finally, one day I carried a whip and let him have a good one when his antics started. And then I knew I'd been had, because he never shyed at anything after that. I never rode him bare-handed again. As long as I had a stick, he was sweet as pie.

And he died of old age when he was 31, in case you are thinking I am some sort of terrible horse abuser. He got arthritis in his knee and couldn't be ridden for about eight years before he died, but I kept him anyway.

Race horses are the same way. Some never see a stick and others do. And BTW, I have been hit with a racing bat and know exactly how it feels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGd-SfsAl08&feature=related

Moonshadow

Whipping an animal is about what "whipping" is and does, just because it doesn't mutilate the horse doesn't mean it isn't painfull. It produces a startle response and that is the equivalent of someone scareing you and you know how good that feels. A lot of rationalization on your part if you consider these actions in the best interest of any animal.

I worked for two years on a Thoroughbred farm, back in the early eighties. I've been to the yearling sales. I can tell you that those horses are treated a lot better in many ways than the people who care for them.

Are there problems with the racing industry? There sure are. Thoroughbreds have become too inbred, too delicate. Several of the top sires were retired after limited racing because of unsoundness, and everyone breeds to them anyway because they produce winners. I remember taking care of a three-year-old filly whom they were breeding and who had never raced. She was really, really crooked in front, which was why she had never raced and they bred her anyway because the bloodlines were good. I wouldn't have had her for a pleasure horse if you'd given her to me. "Crooked-legged mares can produce straight-legged foals" the broodmare manager told me. They can, but the odds are good they won't. There's a lot of gambling that goes on in the breeding shed as well.

Do they race them too early? They sure do, and I spat when one of the vets commenting on this business in the newspapaer claimed that you had to start training young horses as soon as they matured at 20-26 months or their muscles would atrophy. That's bullshit. People who train performance horses don't start doing much with them until they are four years old, precisely because they are not yet mature.

And there are people who only care about the insurance. I had a broodmare in my care once who colicked, and though they operated upon her for a bowel torsion, she died on the table. But the man who owned her could have cared less. His son told me she was worth about $75,000 and they had her insured for $250,000, so they weren't exactly crying.

But racing whips don't hurt the horse-they have poppers on the end. Thoroughbreds are very thin-skinned-if those whips cut or welted them, it would be very obvious on camera. I've been popped with one and I know. And there are a lot of people in the sport who truly love horses.

SFisher wrote:Larry Jones, Eight Belles’ trainer, said right before the Kentucky Derby, that if she came back to the barn at all after the race, they would have had a good day. Inside rumor has it that Eight Belles suffered multiple fractures before the race, but the trainer and owner ran her anyway. She was loaded with steroids, and no doubt would rather be alive today than lay claim to placing second in the Kentucky Derby.

SFisher, you know nothing about what went on, and nothing about horse racing. What Larry Jones ACTUALLY said was that no matter what Eight Belles did in the race, so long as she came back to the barn sound, it was all good. There was no economic sense in racing an unsound horse-she was worth much more alive as a broodmare than even a first-place Derby finish would have earned her. ONE of her foals would have brought more at auction as a yearling than the first-place Derby purse. Eight Belles did NOT suffer multiple fractures before the race-trainers don't start a horse in a race if their horses are off their feed, have heat or swelling in their legs, if anything at all looks wrong. And the track vet would not let her run if that were the case.

As for the poor jockey, he did nothing wrong. He did not know Eight Belles was injured. What he told the trainer was that she was switching leads on her front legs as she entered the turn galloping out. That is not limping-horses switch leads to balance better in turns. But her ears were pricked and she was not running like she was in pain-I have seen the film. Gabriel had no warning anything was wrong. Jockeys don't want to be whipping an unsound horse to victory-it can get them killed, and he was not whipping her when she went down-he was slowing her down. Gabriel was thrown clear over her head-he could have broken his neck. There is no cause to suspend him or throw him out of racing. No jockey who abuses horses has a very long career.

I remember Charismatic missing the Triple Crown by a hair by coming in second in the Belmont after winning the Derby and Preakness. He broke his leg right before the finish line, you could see it on the film like Barbaro. And like Barbaro's jockey, Chris Antley yanked him up short as he could and stopped him. And then he peeled off of Charismatic and grabbed the broken leg and held it off the ground so he wouldn't hurt it worse. Little man holding this huge horse's leg. And because he did that, Charismatic is alive today.

Our local track, Keeneland, just installed a synthetic surface to the tune of millions of dollars. This has to date reduced the breakdown rate from 1.6 horses per 1,000 starters to 1.37 breakdowns per 1,000 starters. Breakdowns do not equate to euthanasia on the track, they mean any race a horse has to drop out of because it is unable to continue. The industry is looking very hard at surfaces and shoes and anything that will keep the horses healthy, because it's not good business to have them dying on the track-particularly on TV. Like any sport, there are good apples and bad apples, but the vast majority of folks who work in it truly love horses.

kman2 writes: It's a twisted world when the leftwingers on Commondreams start to support Bush. You sit here and complain about a very minor part on horses like it's some huge deal."

No one sits here, kman2. An article was posted on this site - not our decision! - and a few people made comments.

This is not some organized group of "lefties" - sorry to disappoint you! - just a bunch of individuals expressing their views.

But, to address your point that this is not a big deal. I'm no fan of the military, and I'm appalled at how US soldiers are behaving in Iraq, but where are Bush's priorities? Putting aside my own view that the occupation of Iraq is entirely unacceptable and illegal, soldiers in Iraq need adequate equipment, and they need support - financial and psychological - after they have returned from their tours, neither of which they are getting.

Also, by making the tax code as complex as possible, it is corporations and the super wealthy that benefit. Congress and the White House deliberately underfund and understaff the IRS; and they intentionally convolute the tax code by adding all sorts of provisions and provisos for various groups. The result: CEOs, and the corporations they work for, avoid and evade hundreds of billions a year (enough to help fund universal health care). It is turning the public against a progressive tax system, which is no longer that progressive, encouraging the public to cheat themselves, and lending support to the idea of a flat tax, which is exactly what corporations want, exactly why the White House and the Congress are making things so messy, and exactly what ordinary Americans do NOT need.

People have forgetten how animals live, they have made artifical lives for themselves and the animals around them. It is not good for the animals as this extreme points out unless you consider a money industry good, and it is having a bad effect on human nature. People make up more unnatural rules and then wonder why there is crime and violence in there society. Why Blackwater is a grother industry...The farmbill is an embarassment.

Know thy topic. The author of this opinion knows nothing of the topic in total.
The so called "Farm Bill" doesn't contain much on farming anymore, but as pointed out above, is about nutrition, food safety, etc. 14% of the "Farm Bill" is about farmers. The other 86% is about conservation, food stamps, etc.
Get a grip. Sheeeeeesh.

It's a twisted world when the leftwingers on Commondreams start to support Bush. You sit here and complain about a very minor part on horses like it's some huge deal. Did you know food stamps and other nutrition programs account for about two-thirds of the bill's cost? Actually it increases food stamps by over 10 Billion$.

Here'e something from a newspaper "Around two-thirds of an almost $300 billion, five-year bill moving through Congress is devoted to nutrition programs, most of which goes to food stamps for the poor. That compares with 55 percent six years ago when Congress last set the nation's agriculture priorities" http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/BUSINESS01/805...

Since when have you lefties become such hardcore against feeding poor people???

This is not much of a price to pay for keeping America and the world safe from Arabs.

In 2001, Arabs were sweeping across Europe. Spain was the first country to fall, then France, Italy, Germany, and Holland. Unable to force back - let alone check! - the Muslim Caliphate, countries were falling like dominos. Muslims had united across the Arab world and were on the march. Much of Europe had been forced to live under Islamic Law. Tens of thousands of Europeans who refused to become Muslim were beheaded. These were some of the blackest days the world has ever seen.

Bush contained the threat; then pushed it back. Spain was the first country to be liberated, then, three months later, France. Arabs saw that the game was up, and fled the rest of Europe.

Let us reward Bush for his unstinting service to mankind. Let us allow him to shower a bit of favoritism on a sport that gave him much pleasure in the one of the bleakest periods of world history.

Let us, for Heaven's sake, CELEBRATE!!!!!!

Thanks SFisher for the clarification. I no longer desire to watch those travesties. I had not realized she had been whipped as well. I schooled green horses in shows from 11 through 16. I rode Hunters on open courses for jumping. I loved them so. People think they are stupid animals! My horses that I regularly jumped knew everything about me, they knew how to test me they knew my voice, smell and touch. My first instructor at 9 taught me to ride with reins in a knot and stirrups flipped over saddle and use of pressure in guiding my mount. No need to yank a horses mouth, whip, or any inhumanity at all needed to love these beautiful creatures. Pardon my misspelling of filly, how quickly we forget. I however did mention the need to end these barbaric Triple Crown do or die literally for the horse, races. I would no sooner harm a creature than my grandchild.

In the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and many other countries, easily over 3,000 horse races are run every day throughout the world. Easily more than 60,000 races per month. Many outside the "super-rich-white-man's" America. And I know that many thoroughbred owners are, well, not white. If anyone cares to investigate, the amount of horses that have catastrophic breakdown's resulting in on-track or same-day euthanization is extremely rare. In triple-crown racing catastrophic breakdown's are extremely rare. Barbaro and Eight Belles were loved by many, including their owners and trainers, and to assert that their loss was taken frivolously and a common occurance at hundreds of racetracks is emotional conjecture and simply doesn't compare factually to documented statistics. Do your own test. Watch as many horse races as you can for one month on TVG and HRTV and count how many catastrophic breakdown's you personally witness and compare that to the total number of horses you watched race. You'll get a percentage, but more likely,as in my many years of personal experince, you'll see none go down.

Our governmnet has become such a farce! Hey, but what continues is the consideration and true quality of service to the selfish and rich!

Turce,

Yes, Thoroughbreds in particular do have very vulnerable fetlocks, which are the metacarpophalangeal and metatarsophalangeal joints of the horse. Their legs are like toothpicks, and two and three year olds still have weak bones and ligaments and are not fully developed. It seems as though Eight Belles jockey began whipping her mercilessly when she started showing warning signs at the end of the race. She was not a horse that needed to be whipped -- her breeder said she always did whatever was asked of her. Clearly, Saez wanted to win the race, and clearly, he knew something was wrong. Clearly, Larry Jones, her trainer, knew something was wrong as well. After the filly was killed, Jones said, with a tear in his eye, "she ran the race of her lifetime."

After Gabriel Saez, the jockey aboard Eight Belles, whipped her mercilessly, he said he heard something "pop" and "tried to stop her." Should he be suspended? He shouldn't only be suspended, he should be permanently expelled from horse racing.

Your mother is right -- three horses were euthanized last Saturday, May 3, at Churchill Downs. And the band played on.

What has happened to the "DITCH MITCH" campaign launched in Kentucky a good year or so ago?

After the hideous tragedy of Eight Belles being killed before some 150,000 spectators popping champagne bottles, nothing should stop activists organizations from all but putting a stop to horse racing.

I've searched several websites in the past week, from horse-races.net to dolittler.com, and have witnessed as wide a range of opinions, from the left and right, as I do experiencing the presidential race. But there's no comparison. Presidential candidates exploit themselves of their own volition. Thoroughbred race horses are exploited by the greed and egotism of their obscenely wealthy owners and their bloodthirsty trainers and jockeys.

Larry Jones, Eight Belles' trainer, said right before the Kentucky Derby, that if she came back to the barn at all after the race, they would have had a good day. Inside rumor has it that Eight Belles suffered multiple fractures before the race, but the trainer and owner ran her anyway. She was loaded with steroids, and no doubt would rather be alive today than lay claim to placing second in the Kentucky Derby.

The inhumane practices and abuse of Thoroughbred race horses must be investigated and brought to justice. Eight Belles' owner not only cashed in on her victory, but on his insurance policy as well. The horses are seen as disposable commodities, for the pleasure and entertainment of the sadistic human race that perceives everything as a McLuhanistic game.

From the breeding barn to the training center, the abuse of the Thoroughbred race horse is more than extensive -- it is criminal. The biographies of the owners of the Kentucky Derby contenders read; diamonds, oil, CitiBank, sheiks,developers, automobile tycoons,etc.-- the typical good old boys chewing their cigars and tipping their ten gallon hats to one another, without a clue of what it means to be conscious.

Both PETA and ASPCA have launched campaigns demanding Congressional investigations into the inhumane practices of horse racing. While PETA seems a somewhat controversial entity, their immediate action regarding the death of Eight Belles brings justice to a cause that has remained unchallenged for years. http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/eight_belles_congress

Horse racing IS NOT for people who love animals. Porter, Jones, and Saez killed Eight Belles. Who will the next victim be? Is it true that Big Brown has quarter cracks in his hooves? Will he be the next?

BOYCOTT THE TRIPLE CROWN!

Thoroughbreds have very fine forelocks, Phillys even finer. They are run at young ages, they run because it is what they DO. To have your mounts forelocks break, both, and not feel it? No. I do try to believe that the jock would have stopped immediately, who knows. My Mom, Alzheimers, so I hope this did occur told me they put down 3 that day at the Derby. That must end.

"The Bush administration has denounced the farm bill legislation as a costly, gimmick-filled package that will distort trade and enrich farmers who don’t need the money."

And what about the gimmick-filled energy legislation that gives tax-relief to multi-billion dollar oil companies? Are we to understand they "need" the money?

Since when is George Bush concerned about cutting people out of the loop who really don't need money? He's been feeding the wealthy with our tax dollars since he landed his ass in office. Why is he being selective all of a sudden?

The top race horses are bred for light bones and speed and are drugged and worked while injured. They have now been overselected to a point of fragility. If their legs break during a race, oh well, kill them and collect insurance.

This is what too many rich white men do in this country. They use every earthly resource, every living plant, animal or human for their profit and amusement. When it is no longer amusing or profitable, or it has been used up or ruined, they discard it.

I used to go to the Belmont Stakes to look at the stunning animals. The miraculous beauty created by nature still shone throught. Maybe things have gotten worse or it is I who see everything differently. It seems is a cruel use of animals for the amusement of the public.

But circuses are important. You can deduct all of the expenses of raising horses for sport and profit from your taxes, but darn little for each child. Golf courses, horse racing, stadiums for millionaire gladiators are all generously subsidized by our tax money in different ways, direct and indirect, but children, the sick, the homeless, the hungry and the elderly are nickel and dimed to death, literally.

BTW, the things Bush wants out of the farm bill - I don't know for sure because he didn't tell me, but I can guess it is the subsidies for good small things like local farming and organic farming. Bush likes to subsidize bad large things.

So much for the big lie that they do it for the "love of horses." More like the love of money they can make off the horses and once the profit is gone, off to the auction house for them. Oh and since it's "hard to trace the use of the whip to breakdowns," what the hell, go ahead and whip them. What a marvelous sport!

Doesn't anybody pay taxes anymore but me? Oh and you folks too.

Well that takes care of working people... now about my stable of race horses which I keep in my apartment...sigh.

Every time I hear about how some special interest gets tax breaks et al...

I always wonder who still left that pays taxes ...except working people?

With all the debt that has been borrowed by bush to give over two trillion in tax cuts...everytime tax breaks are dedicated to some wealthy group (my apologies to all those race horse owners who are on food stamps of course)...

...I wonder how and more importantly whose tax burden (proportion of that debt taken out of my wages etc.) will have to make up the difference?

Sigh... sadly I know the answer to that question.

"whether the sport is genuinely inhumane is subject to debate — certainly if we forced humans to perform under similar conditions, it’d be reasonable to say that was inhumane"

**I think you know where to shove that human supremacist idiocy.
First-the word inhumane is a bad one. Because it implies humane/human = good

and inhumane/inhuman-nonhuman = wicked

and we all know it wasnt horses or pigs that lock up their offspring in cellars for 24 years, or rape them at 3 months.

So if we are asking whether horse racing is cruel or harmful to horses--the answer is YES. Obviously. If horses werent raced they wouldnt be dying on tracks. Horses end up with unnatural injuries and enlarged hearts. So debate over(among rational people).

Saying that it hasnt changed in 100 years is like saying child abuse techniques hasnt changed in 1000 years.
Not a defense.

And comparing the treatment of horses to a presidential race--nice way of taking a serious subject and showing one's disrespect for it by a failed effort at humor.

"The Bush administration has denounced the farm bill legislation as a costly, gimmick-filled package that will distort trade and enrich farmers who don’t need the money."

I believe this is the first time I've agreed with the Bush administration on anything. Aside from the horse-racing provision, the bill provides even more funding to huge agribusiness. It offers some tiny little carrots to organic farming and environmental stewardship, which pale in comparison to the damage the huge agribusiness subsidies will do. It will accelerate the loss of family farms, fund more chemical-laden huge mono-culture farms, and worsen the problems we already have with huge amounts of subsidized crops messing up the economies of third world countries like Mexico, which in turn send thousands of unemployed immigrant farmers to the States.

Veto the farm bill!!!! Call your congress people and urge them to vote down this crap! Urge them to shift that funding to family farms and local production instead.

the chartmakers for racing create speed figures for thoroughbreds -- these figures show that whatever else is true, the speed of the horses hasn't changed much over the past century -- in fact, the difference between the top level horses and the bottom level is maybe three or four seconds at the mile distance --

as for drugs that mask pain -- yeah, that is bad, and racing makes some effort to stop it

as for the relentless whipping -- well, horses do get whipped in the stretch of races, 'relentless' is not really accurate, and it's hard to trace use of the whip to breakdowns -- horses break down coming out of the gate as often as in the stretch drive (as did prior derby winner Barbaro)

whether the sport is genuinely inhumane is subject to debate -- certainly if we forced humans to perform under similar conditions, it'd be reasonable to say that was inhumane ---- however...hillary clinton will run until she breaks down, and howard dean hasn't asked Obama to stop whipping her

Evidently race horse owners will get to write off their entire cost of buying, breeding, upkeep who knows what by the time their horse is three years old. For the better horses like Big Brown, their productive life can be well over 20 years. For the lesser claimers in the sport, it can be maybe 5 years. So this is definitely a gift of accelerated depreciation which enables the owners to defer taxes to later years. Other taxpayers theoretically pay for this gift. Question is why does an industry that has shown blatant disregard for the horses deserve this gift? For years horses have been bred only for speed causing them to have less and less stamina resulting in more and more injuries and deaths. Horse racing allows drugs that mask problems allowing unhealthy horses to run causing injuries and deaths. Relentless whipping is allowed causing injuries and deaths. Very little of this tax gift is being used to study safer track surfaces resulting in more injuries and deaths. This is an industry that does not deserve tax breaks until they start caring for these horses.