If my memory serves me right his next song was "Wrecking Ball".
Bring on your wrecking ball
Bring on your wrecking ball
C'mon and take your best shot
Let me see what you've got
Bring on your wrecking ball
That sphere of destruction swung on a tensile string bludgeoning the side of buildings, stadiums, and industry. Kentucky seems to be swinging that wrecking ball directly at itself.
And all our youth and beauty, it's been given to the dust
And your game has been decided, and you're burning the down the clock
And all of our little victories and glories, have turned into parking lots
On the surface, the proposed Lasix ban, that old anit-bleeder med, seems prudent. Get the athletes off this medicine, let the bleeders find refuge elsewhere, the non-bleeding winners play on, and there will be generations of horses to come who will bleed less. The idea works only if every other racing jurisdiction adopts it too. Jennie Rees of the Courier-Journal paints a bad picture for Kentucky racing, the Palace of the Sport of Kings, if you will.
"The ultimate outcome of Kentucky becoming the first jurisdiction to repeal Lasix would not be universal trumpeting about how great and courageous the commonwealth’s racing regulators are," she writes. "Instead, it would result in the further exodus of horses to other jurisdictions and heads shaking everywhere by those grounded in reality."
It's as if Pennsylvania (slots), Indiana (slots), West Virginia (slots), and Ohio (possibly slots) are lobbying to get this bill passed so that they can benefit from said exodus.
A commenter on Bill Shanklin's Horse Racing Business Blog said, "Clean up racing and its image and start in my Old Ky. Home." I merely replied with Ms. Rees's column. It's not that simple. The Kentucky Derby could turn into a blood bath with horses who use Lasix in every other state they train and race in, then come to Kentucky and have what looks like a collective brain aneurism at the finish line.
I'd love to see horses race without chemistry. But if Kentucky is hoping other states will follow suit, I think they are greatly mistaken and greatly underestimate other states' desire to survive even at the cost of the Bluegrass State.
Hard times come, hard times go
And hard times come, hard times go
Hard times come, hard times to
Yeah just to come again
Bring on that wrecking ball.
Brendan O'Meara tweets.
19 Apr 2012 at 06:45 am | #
B,
Have seen Mr. Springsteen on seven occasions. He’s about my age and did three hours on Monday night. After a three-hour wagering session I’m looking to lay down somewhere.
While I was not fortunate enough to be in the crowd Monday night, there were 16 musicians on stage. I guess when you lose Danny Federici and the Big Man you need to augment E Street somehow.
I read that it took five horns to fill the void left by Clarence Clemens, including his nephew, who I’m told stood stage left alongside Bruce, the space normally afforded the Big Man. And to some accounts, the encore amounted to six songs. Is that right?
Perhaps, after all the Wrecking Balls have been swung, we could all meet in the Land of Hopes and Dreams.
This train carries whores and gamblers…
This train carries lost souls…
Don’t need no ticket; just get on board.
JP
19 Apr 2012 at 09:01 am | #
Those proponents of this drug are persons who are putting the horses on the track, driven by financial considerations, not the horse. It is as simple as that. Don’t care how many enemies I make with that statement, it is the truth.
Difficult dilemma. Wouldn’t it be great if the major venues banded together, and banned it, and also banned horses for 30 or 60 days who have raced with it at the smaller venues. Guess what, the major venues would not lose horses, and the smaller venues would soon follow suit. That is all it would take for this righteous revolution. A nation of drug addicts, who don’t even know they are drug addicts. Soon they will be giving pills to dogs for depression. Beam me up Scotty!
TTT
19 Apr 2012 at 09:29 am | #
I wish both sides would cut it with the hyperbole and the accusations back and forth. Teddy, I don’t think it’s only financial considerations. Most of them don’t know any other way. And on a simple logistical level, I don’t think the factory stables could function. Downsizing would be required. Yes, money is a part of it. But only part of it. It is a business afterall. And Brendan, spare us the “blood bath” scenarios. If the breed has deteriorated that far, this game is not long for the world anyways.
Although uniform rules across jurisdictions is preferable in the short-run and essential in the long-run, I’m not so sure that the argument against Kentucky blazing the trail isn’t a specious one. It could end up that the “bleeders” that flee the state are more than made up for by the horses that don’t really need a diuretic and are just given it to level the playing field. Smart owners and trainers would naturally send those horses to a venue where their less fragile pulmonary/respiratory systems are a natural advantage - one currently blunted by the ubiquitious use of lasix.
19 Apr 2012 at 02:29 pm | #
Kyle,
It was Jennie Rees who first referenced “bloody corpses” and Rick Violette who spoke of “strong-arm tactics.”
The way proponents and opponents of the ban are throwing hyperbole around--mostly the opponents, really--they should jump into the presidential campaign.
But you’re right about one thing; the majority of today’s trainers don’t know how to do their jobs any other way.