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Conditions Under Foot - how different surfaces change the movement of a horse's foot

By Fran Jurga
First Published: 16 July 2009 - Issue Number: 13

It’s a Tuesday afternoon in August in Saratoga Springs, New York. They call it “dark” Tuesday because there’s no racing. Most trainers and track workers have gone south to The City for a 36-hour hiatus during America’s premiere boutique race meet.
But today there’s some activity inside the Fasig-Tipton sales arena. Speakers file up to the podium, one after another, instead of sleek yearlings. Slides change on a giant screen instead of seven figure bids.
The emptiness in the huge arena is palpable. Trainers and owners sit in the fan-shaped theater, one or two to a row. No one is really looking at the stage. No one is looking at the others. They glance at watches, check cell phones, shift in their seats.
This may be the darkest Tuesday of the race meet.
The speakers are a star-studded cast of veterinarians, researchers, and track experts. They are briefing a state-appointed task force that is assigned the protection of the welfare of the state’s Thoroughbreds. Included in the to-do list is a preliminary exploration of possibly converting New York’s Thoroughbred tracks from dirt to synthetic.
The committee members know how tough their assignment is. They are in the difficult position of possibly asking the racing universe to change.
Change is a four-letter word at the racetrack, no matter how you spell it. Training racehorses is about routine, about keeping the horses on a schedule, about meeting your owner’s expectations. It’s about standard excuses, common injuries, predictable winnings. For a sport supported by gambling, the sure-thing routine of the backstretch is a stark contrast.
When it’s over, the trainers and horsemen file out. Only then do their eyes meet. They acknowledge each other as if just waking from a nap. One chuckles. Another laughs out loud, “Hey, Dan,” he grins, grabbing another trainer’s arm. “They don’t know anything more about this artificial track business than we do.”
Farrier Mitch Taylor is used to carrying a shoeing box in one hand, his apron slung over his shoulder. Today he is also lugging a camera, and behind him trails a crew of technicians, a couple of horses, an exercise rider and an equine motion-analysis software developer. Their goal is not to shoe the horses, but to watch them run and catch it on tape. But first they must convince the exercise rider that only the strides caught by the camera count, and that the horse needs to maintain the same speed.
Working with the support of the Grayson Jockey Club Foundation’s Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, Taylor has set out not to do research, but to collect simple video footage that real people – trainers, owners, racetrack officials, veterinarians, farriers – can understand. He needs to make the footage so simple, that the point is obvious.
But what, exactly, is the point?
Welcome to American horse racing. Since the public outcry over the tragic deaths of Eight Belles, George Washington, and other stakes horses on national television, racing is on the defensive, but not on the run. Like a fairgoer caught in a hall of mirrors, racing looks one way, then the next, and sees a distorted picture of ...

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