During this historic week for horse racing, there’s another vastly more important story that needs to be told.
Jeannine Edwards (pictured interviewing a former equine vet) will file a report on Outside the Lines (ESPN, Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET, replay Sunday at 9 a.m. ET) on 23 horses dying in an 18-week span at Aqueduct Racetrack, just 10 miles from where I’ll Have Another will be running Saturday at Belmont.
That’s an average of more than one horse per week dying during that span at Aqueduct. Horrifying.
Edwards, who attended her first race at the age of 12 at Belmont, loves the sport. Yet as her report shows, horse racing clearly has major problems that have dire consequences.
Here’s my Q/A with Edwards.
What will your story say?
It is going to say the sport has a problem. It has been working hard to correct these problems. In the last four years, many (organizations) have put forth new institutional safety reforms to make racing safer. Statistics, though, show things aren’t getting any better. Our piece asks, this is what happened; where does the buck stop? Who is looking out for the horses? It’s clear more needs to be done to find an answer.
What is happening at Aqueduct?
When there’s a cluster (of deaths), that’s an indication that something is wrong. We introduce the story with a couple who had a horse die at Aqueduct.
Clearly, there needs to be a better enforcement of the rules and better testing. We interview a veterinarian who feels like there is no enforcement, no surveillance of the horses (throughout the country)
Anytime, there’s money on the line, and your living relies on a horse winning a race, people are going to push the envelope. The horseman, though, need to be more ethical. The fingers are going to be pointed at the vets and the trainers.
Did you time the story to come out during Belmont when so much attention is on the sport?
No. Initially we were talking about doing it in the spring. Then when we heard (New York Governor Andrew Cuomo) had assembled a task force to investigate horse racing, we said, let’s wait until we see what the task force says. Now we hear the report won’t come out until late June, maybe July. We didn’t want our interviews to become dated. We felt if we want our story to have maximum relevance, it should air around the Belmont, considering the fact that horses are dying at a New York track.
Given the controversy around trainer Doug O’Neill, how do you feel about I’ll Have Another this week?
Personally, I like Doug. He’s a great guy. Yes, he is carrying these allegations. And they are haunting him. But he’s not the only one. Let’s not make him the poster child for this.