Quote Originally Posted by Spoons View Post
I can't speak for other countries, but I'm glad there are more regulations at least. We DO use drugs on the horses here, painkillers to make them sound for running, etc. It should not be allowed. One of my main beefs, besides general treatment, is that they are racing the horses so young. It often cripples them to put so much stress on their growing bodies, and most Off Track thoroughbreds I know have some kind of problem from their racing career (I own horses, so I've got a few hands in the general horse industry). They race them hard young and then dump them after they're not good enough any more.

This is of course a generalization, and I do know there are good jockeys and good owners and whatnot. I've seen a few myself - though I do think that here, at least a little bit of that jockey dedication comes from that $$$ they bring in

I'd be interested in looking into it more overseas. It sounds like a much more pleasant operation over there!
I Couldn't agree with that first statement more. The flat horses often start at two years of age and peak at about 3 or 4. A jump horse will rarely start a race before their 4th or 5th birthday, due to the size that they need to be to race the races they race in. I know Australia has a problem with the amount of horses that die and also the amount of jockeys that die, 2.2 on average a year. This is mainly due to the firmness of the ground that they run on. What we in the UK would class as good ground, they class as soft! Horse racing certainly still has its demons, but it seems Europe has cleaned up its act a bit over the past 30 years. I can't speak for Asia, I don't follow the racing over there much, I know of a few Japanese star horses and that is about all. Glad to see there is one other person on this site with some knowledge of horse racing, and I would suggest watching some videos of AP McCoy, and the flat jockey, Richard Hughes, who was yesterday crowned the British flat champion jockey 3 years in a row. Do you know much about jumps racing being from America? From what I gather it is non-existent over the pond?