TUCSON, Ariz. - Those who have been in racing long enough to get their feet wet - or burned - are aware of the misunderstandings that can occur between owners and trainers. They range from mild disagreements to wild fights and expensive litigation. A large part of the problem is the lack of written agreements as an industry standard.
But that will change soon in Ontario.
Stanley Sadinsky, chairman of the Ontario Racing Commission, has tackled the owner-trainer problem head on.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Just as generals are always fighting the last war, jockeys frequently ride the last race. Everyone in the Kentucky Derby was acutely aware of what happened in 2001, when several horses gunned for the gate and set a fast pace that was suicidal for all of them.
Riders were so determined to avoid such a fate in Saturday's race that the 2002 Derby was like no other. Nobody moved. Allowed to set a slow pace, War Emblem and jockey Victor Espinoza led all the way to score a 20-1 upset that gave trainer Bob Baffert his third triumph in America's greatest race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Over the years, we have come to see racing as a sport of considerable balance.
Bob Baffert lost two heartbreaking Kentucky Derbies with Cavonnier and Point Given. Cavonnier lost by a nose to Grindstone in 1996 and Point Given was probably not at his best last year, as subsequently indicated by his Preakness and Belmont form.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Regardless of how Saturday's Kentucky Derby came out, a result unknown as this edition is printed, it is clear that many things about about this most famous of races are changing rapidly.
The way horses are prepped and pointed for the race is almost unrecognizable from a generation ago. An increasingly fragile breed has prompted a less-is-more approach to training. Will we ever again see a champion 2-year-old with a long summer and fall campaign win the Derby off a demanding series of winter and spring preps?
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Since he began his quest to win the Kentucky Derby, Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum has sent woefully unprepared horses to Churchill Downs. One of them had raced only twice in his life. One had never raced beyond seven-eighths of a mile. One hadn't competed as a 3-year-old. None had the benefit of a prep race in America.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Eddie Delahoussaye is not the type of guy to daydream. He is a practical man who has built a Hall of Fame career by rarely kidding himself. But on Wednesday, while hanging around Hollywood Park waiting to ride, he found himself awash in a thought that was too sweet to fight.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There is no race in the world today that can compare to the Kentucky Derby.
Its value derives from the incredible difficulty of winning it and from the effort and expense willingly incurred in order to mount a serious challenge by some of the world's best-known racing men. The requirement for a talented horse is obvious, but the element of luck in determining the outcome cannot be overemphasized.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In almost every sport, today's athletes are bigger, stronger, faster, and better conditioned than their counterparts in the past. But Thoroughbred horse racing is a conspicuous and mysterious exception.
The starters in Saturday's Kentucky Derby are not as strong as the runners in the 1950's, 60's, and 70's, and this conclusion is not based on any romanticizing of the past. Anyone who studies Daily Racing Form's past performances for this year's field and compares them with earlier decades would suspect that modern horses are a different breed altogether.