Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/283499
1 4 8 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4.14 IT'S OK TO BE A DERBY DOWNER. 1. Two words: Eight Belles. 2. If you've read the New York Times March 2012 front-page story "Mangled Horses, Maimed Jockeys," chances are you enter each Derby season with a heavy sense of confiction. The piece highlighted a troubled racing industry with lax oversight and practices that increasingly put rider and horse at risk. The story focused mostly on New Mexico racetracks with the worst safety records. But just one week afer the 2012 Derby the Times brought its reporting to Kentucky, specifcally to trainer Doug O'Neill, whose horse I'll Have Another had just won the Kentucky Derby. Prior to this high-profle victory, over the span of 14 years, O'Neill had racked up more than a dozen viola- tions for giving horses illegal drugs. 3. People lose a lot of money. People drink a lot of booze. When the two com- bine, rudeness ripens. As pockets drain, the reality of four-fgure sums (no, don't tell us we need to replace that four with a six!) lost at the beting window, not to mention the cost of Oaks and Derby tick- ets, sours moods. All that's lef is a bunch of empty commemorative julep glasses wearing wet napkins like diapers. 4. In their horse-racing industry report- ing, the New York Times listed all of the LEGAL medications Thoroughbreds can receive to prep for a race in Kentucky. It's a pharma alphabet soup. Clenbuterol helps force mucus from the airways; GastroGard treats stomach ulcers, a common ailment among racehorses; Carbazochrome handles the symptoms of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, aka bleeding in the lungs . . . . 5. Those. Cab. Fares. — Anne Marshall Yikes. www.nawbo.org www.ypal.org/connect 136 TIP 138-160 BACK.indd 148 3/19/14 5:42 PM