To Upstate New Yorkers Travers Day will always be a big deal to us. For the rest of the world, “Travers Day”, is just a strange term thrown around when the Kentucky Derby hits or the Preakness is around the corner. If you haven’t heard, American Pharaoh is a thoroughbred that just won the American Triple Crown; one must win the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes, and Preakness Stakes to gain such a title. This feat hasn’t been accomplished since 1978 by the horse “Affirmed” and American Pharaoh is only the twelfth horse in history to do so. Saratoga as stated obviously in the title is ominously known as, “The Graveyard of Champions” or “House of Upsets”. To simply put it THREE Triple Crown Winners met their demise when they set foot within the walls of Saratoga- and it was always at the Travers Stakes.
I don’t believe Bob Baffert, the trainer of American Pharaoh, expected to cap the holding capacity at the Saratoga Racetrack (which is fifty-thousand by the way). Of course a decent crowd was to be expected of AT LEAST thirty thousand; but I was just as shocked as anyone for an audience of that scale. I also don’t think he expected his prize colt to lose to Keen Ice which had the odds of 12-1 with American Pharaoh at 1-5. Nonetheless both trainer and horse were gallant in defeat- Baffert lead his horse to his stable only stopping to let a little girl feed him a handful carrots. Adorable. As I was scanning for interviews with Baffert I found a good sum up from The New York Times; “He was valiant in defeat,” Baffert said Sunday. “If he would have stopped running and finished fifth or sixth, you would have scraped me off the track. I would have been so mad at myself. You begin to feel like they’re invincible, and you forget they all get beat.” And it’s something as simple as that makes you realize they all DO get beat, no living thing is invincible. It also makes you realize that a lot of people lost money that day…. I may or may not have been one of those people.
A replay from the Travers on Saturday, taken from YouTube from the TVG Network Channel. I must say watching that all over again get’s me pumped more and more. Frosted and Keen Ice just blew me away and it must have to do with the winter name analogies but hey what do I know.
But I must get to the real nitty-gritty here.
Therefore to bring things down to a more serious level I want you all to understand something about horse racing; yes it is fun, it is glamorous, it’s exciting, thrilling, and horses die daily. Let’s reiterate that DAILY and I know you’re probably thinking, “If it happens so often why isn’t it talked about more?” That is a great question and it still bothers me to this day. I have only gone to the Track a handful of times (mainly when I was with my dad) and even though I didn’t know it at the time I probably saw my fair share of “humane euthanasia”. Did you know that 126 racehorses perished at NYS tracks last year? Did you know that 14 racehorses “fell” at Saratoga alone in 2014? And as of August 28th eleven have “fallen” at Saratoga as well. I understand that if your prized horse is injured during a race it can no longer compete- but I guess it is better to well kill it than spend the “excessive” amount of money to heal it instead. If you have the stomach I would like you to look at this PDF of the enormity of deaths as of last year, America’s Dead Racehorses, 2014.
I honestly don’t mean to shock people with these statistics but word needs to get out there! The horse racing industry CAN change and CAN make better efforts in protecting its athletes just as much as the NFL can. PETA or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are great advocates in voicing opinions about these atrocious deaths and will do anything to help these horses. If you are looking to learn more about PETA or even willing to donate please click here!
Personally Travers Day will always be a tradition within my family. If we don’t decide to go to Saratoga Racetrack, which is a task in itself; we will always fall back to hamburgers, hot dogs, clams, and simple betting around a television screen.
Hope I made you think a little bit but anyway I’ll be back next week with another RIVETING post!
Hugs Xoxoxo
tessamariaa 