![]() ![]() Now there's an attraction worth celebrating! If nothing else, the plan helps illustrate how wildly contradictory we are when it comes to how we view and treat animals. "If you use past five-year averages, the new Belmont Park will now be the destination where more horses go to die than any other track in America." "What kind of destination are we building?" John Schieb, a critic of racing subsidies, asked during a recent legislative hearing. It isn't an appropriate use of public money. Even if the so-called loan really does boost the economy, the boon will come at the expense of gamblers - including some whose families can't afford the losses - and the horses themselves. The further decline of horse racing is inevitable, no matter how much money the state throws toward the cause. The money will winterize Belmont, allowing it to operate year-round build a new grandstand, and allow for the construction of a casino at the nearby Aqueduct track in Queens.Īll of this, we're told, should be celebrated because it will be an economic boon for Long Island and protect thousands of jobs statewide. Kathy Hochul has decided to gamble on the industry, offering a "loan" to rebuild Belmont that is unlikely to be repaid without continued public subsidies and revenue from state video lottery terminals. At Belmont, meanwhile, attendance fell by 88% from 1978 to 2019, a decline that is somewhat due to televised racing but also stems from falling interest. Consider that 41 horse tracks have closed nationally since 2000, a drop happening in no small part because the main reason people go to a track - betting - is now widely available in other places. Why are we propping it up? Is it a wise investment?Īll available data suggests it isn't. Horse racing would hardly exist without taxpayer backing that in New York alone totaled $2.9 billion since 2008, according to a Times Union analysis. The question here is about public support. ![]() When it comes to animal welfare, most of us have areas where we can improve. I eat meat and dairy from farms that are more industrial than pastoral. I have spent afternoons at the Saratoga Race Course. Not that it's my place to tell people what leisure activities they should enjoy. Already this year, 35 horses have died at New York tracks, according to a state database. No new rules or regulations can change that, so the embarrassing weekends for horse racing won't stop. ![]() The incentives to push thoroughbreds toward their breaking point will always be impossible for some breeders and trainers to resist. An activity that encourages animals to run at the highest possible speeds with incredible sums of money at stake is going to put those animals in danger. Particulars aside, the reasons for the deaths should be obvious. Federal and state regulators are investigating the spate of fatalities. In fact, it seems to be getting worse.Ĭhurchill Downs in Kentucky recently was forced to suspend racing after 12 horses died at the famed track from April 27 to May 27. The dead horse problem is not going away. So, let me again ask: Why should taxpayers be asked to bless the industry? Meanwhile, that very same Belmont is getting a $455 million taxpayer-funded loan from the state, funding that is just a sliver of the staggering amount of public money handed to horse racing in New York in recent years. Two more horses died at Belmont Park over the weekend, the 16th and 17th "equine deaths" at the Long Island track this year the latest stains on a troubled industry. ![]()
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