State of the Nation?

The apparent return of 8 year old gelding Lava Man from retirement to training has brought out the predictable "the sky is falling" mass hysteria. I guess in this day of instant commenting on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter or whatever it is, we have to expect instant commentary and opinions.

Myself, I cannot give an instant opinion. I would rather wait and see before commenting on the issue. I want to see the workouts of Lava Man, read the Trainer's and Vet's comments to the press, see what type of races they are thinking about actually racing Lava Man in, before I make any comment. Maybe bringing back Lava Man is a bad decision, maybe it is a good one- but can we wait a few weeks before declaring this a bad decision?

It gets really weird when a blogger named soothsayer99 on the popular left wing site The Daily Kos decides to blog on the issue. The blog is filled with the typical bashing of the game quotes you would expect including this gem:

"Horseracing is now an obscure and sullied sport, left to the gamblers and those who love horses too much to turn away."

"Left to the gamblers?"-does anyone want to explain to soothsayer99 that the game only exists because of gambling. Take away gambling, bye, bye horse racing.

Of course soothsayer99 also pulls out the "death" card with this quote:

"This is a recipe for disaster. Horseracing is a brutal sport that claims the lives of at least 3 horses per day - Barbaro, Eight Belles, Inesperado, and tens of thousands of nameless more. It is rife with drugs, risk, and tragedy.

Lava Man was one of the lucky ones to make it out alive - he has earned his retirement."

"tens of thousands of nameless more?" Soothsayer99-- is that tens of thousands figure per day, week, year? soothsayer99 does not specify, but I figure it was just thrown in the sentence because soothsayer99 knows it sounds so evil and will surely fire up the crowd, so who cares about specific data and numbers.

Perhaps it is cold to say it but the truth is the Thoroughbred is specifically bred for the game and is only alive today because of Horse racing. But I have also witnessed many a Thoroughbred being taken care of so lovingly, often treated better than any pet dog or cat, by the trainers and backstretch workers who see to it that the horse gets the chance to do what he/she is bred to do, which is race.