Breeding faster horses means more injuries

Last Modified: Sunday, November 2, 2003 at 10:11 a.m.

Is it a race fan's imagination, or are thoroughbred horses becoming more brittle?

Injuries appear to happen at an alarming rate. Star runners who capture the nation's fancy one day are seemingly gone the next. A sport that used to see such horses run every couple days now see them run every couple months.

So what gives?

A lot. And it's usually in the leg area of the high-powered breed.

While good sound data just doesn't exist on the amount of injuries suffered by horses in racing and/or training, national statistics show a dramatic drop in the average number of starts a racer makes in a year. Since 1950, when The Jockey Club began publishing such numbers, the average yearly starts has dropped 37 percent from a peak of about 11 in 1960 to just under 7 last year.

"It's like coming straight down a rocky mountain," said Andy Plattner, a Georgia-based turf writer who written several articles on the decline of race starts. "The numbers speak for themselves."

Career starts by great horses are legendary, even from different eras. Seabiscut (1935-40) had 89, John Henry (1977-84) had 83. Triple Crown winner Whirlaway (1940-43) had 60, and the Florida-bred wonder, Carry Back (1960-63), with 62, is the last Kentucky Derby winner to have more than 45 career starts.

The 1997 Derby winner, Silver Charm, was considered durable by modern standards with 24 career starts, and no Derby winner has approached 20 since '98 winner Real Quiet.

Top-shelf horses are valuable as breeding prospects and are often syndicated for millions of dollars long before their racing careers are over. And it is well accepted in the industry that fear of injury is the primary reason for retiring a horse long before his running days are complete.

But author and pedigree analyst Avalyn Hunter says that as whole, the industry has other priorities in mind than breeding for soundness.

"Precocious speed, not durability, is the name of the game as far as the commercial market goes," said Hunter, who authored the recently-released "American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002" book. "I don't think it's so much breeding for raw speed that has been the problem as breeding for early speed -- precocity."

The overall industry trend has switched from breeder/owners racing their own runners (and therefore being more patient with their development) to selling to buyers wanting a quick return on their investment.

"The type of horse that comes to hand quickly and wins races early usually isn't the type that will be around at 4 years old," said Hunter. "It's similar to junior high kids. The ones that are the star athletes in eighth grade are often has-beens by their senior years, either because injuries and burnout have ended their careers, or because their slower-maturing peers have caught up and passed them."

To impress buyers, most commercially-bred horses are asked to run hard at 2 years old, at a time when their knees are still fusing together.

"They are racing on undeveloped knees and ankles," said local horseman Marion Lewis, whose career began in the 1950s with the legendary Dickey Stables and concluded with Eclipse Award-winning Farnsworth Farms a few years ago. "It has gotten very commercial, and too many are in it just for the money."

Current stallion lines are overwhelmingly dominated by horses that can give the early speed -- but bring potential leg problems as well. A striking example is Storm Cat, who tops all public stud fees at $500,000.

"We are breeding lines that don't have soundness," said Adam Staple, a pedigree analyst with Signature Stallions in Ocala. "Mr. Prospector, Danzig, Storm Cat -- they are true classic lines. But they were unsound themselves, and are continuing to pass along that unsoundness."

In general, thoroughbreds today are regards as slightly chunkier than their counterparts from earlier days in the 20th Century. And they sometimes have thinner legs, presenting an "apple on four toothpicks" look that is often viewed as a quarter horse cross.

"The thoroughbred of Man o'War's day was a rangier, more rawboned-looking type with less weight up top," said Hunter, noting the legendary 1920's era colt who is neck-and-neck with Secretariat when comparing the best of all time. "The more heavily-muscled type of today looks very impressive, but it is pounding more weight onto each leg with every stride. It only takes a few more pounds ... to translate to a tremendous amount of extra force."


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