THE SPORT OF KINGS STUMBLED IN LOUISVILLE

My  brain is still reeling from what happened at the end of the Kentucky Derby.

I thought that I would watch the news on Sunday after the event and see what  the experts are saying.
  THEY ARE NOT SAYING MUCH.

After hours of coverage that started at noon  and seemed to be roaming the world looking for topics from the horse farms, to the stud fees, to the jockeys and to the deaths at Santa Anita.  It was  a nervous number of topics.
I was glad to see Jerry Bailey who usually seems  innocuous  to actually speak up for the  24 horses that have died at the Santa Anita race track.  When  his co-hosts stressed the unusual rains, he insisted on talking about the  abuses of medical treatment on the day of the races. In other  countries they must be given  30 days before the horse races.

I learned that some of them are severe diuretics that  lighten the horse of many pounds of  water,  but also leave them exposed to possibilities of damage when they are straining to run  fast.  He also brought up the use of  whips--and some one else said that it was not good optics.
How trite a response!
Jerry explained that they now have alternatives that are not as cruel using  more of a hardened foam with some  give  to it.
  
Has every one become  sensitive only to the optics?  Jerry said that when he  has ridden a horse and used the whip, he could feel the horse flinch in pain.
I have never heard these topics discussed so openly, and Jerry was shut down pretty quickly by his two co-hosts who changed the subject.

HOW CAN THE SPORT OF KINGS BE  FALTERING?

The immense profits that racing generates  don't seem to go where they should to generate more attendance.
In a news article today it was just revealed that several thousand seats at the race track at Pimlico--the next stop in two weeks for the BIG THREE of Racing  are in such bad repair that they will not be safe enough to be used.

So I wonder where does all the money go--besides the multi-million dollar purses?
So many race tracks have closed all over the country that many people  never visit a race track. Anyone of a certain age in Pawtucket can recall the track that  was just off Newport Avenue NARRAGANSETT RACEWAY. My father  spent many days there, and I went there as a child. Also there was Lincoln Downs which is now the site of TWIN RIVERS CASINO.  So the Racing Book may still be open there,  but there are no horses around.
There is horse racing at Suffolk   but it will close after a brief meet in June,
 There is  still a Race track for Harness Racing at Plainridge--also now a casino. But it is quite limited.
It seems that increased gambling opportunities have actually pushed  horse racing to the  background and in New England to the edge of extinction. 
I guess the Royals and the Sheikhs will  have to keep it going.

 ROYAL ASTOR  COMES UP SOON. STAY POSTED.  LET US SEE  WHICH HORSES WIN THE PIMLICO AND THE BELMONT.  SEE IF EITHER "COUNTRY HOUSE" OR "MAXIMUM SECURITY"  COME INTO THE MONEY.
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