Owners’ Economic Pressure Squeezes Many 2-Year-Olds : Training: Whether quarter horses or thoroughbreds, young horses are more susceptible to injury and disease. But the bills must be paid.

Ed and Colette Lisenby felt like prisoners of a corrupt system.

Faced with an economic decked stacked against more humanitarian concerns, the Lisenbys raced their callow 2-year-old quarter horses in pressure-packed qualifiers and big money futurities until, one day last September, they were confronted by grim reality.

Their 2-year-old gelding, Cashs Wonder, was straining for the lead halfway through the $231,000 Breeders’ Futurity at Fairplex Park on Sept. 24. Suddenly, his right leg broke below the knee. The injury was so severe that Cashs Wonder could not be saved.

The Lisenbys were relatively new to the racing game, but already they suspected what the Cashs Wonder tragedy seemed to prove: That horse racing puts too much emphasis on competition among 2-year-olds, when the vast majority of them have not yet reached physical maturity.

Two-year-old race horses, whether quarter horses or their close cousins, the thoroughbreds, are highly susceptible to a stress-related disease of the long bone beneath the knee called periostitis, better known as bucked shins. A recent survey indicated that 70% of all 2-year-old thoroughbreds suffered from bucked shins, and veterinarians agree that the rate among quarter horses is at least that high.

The best cure for sore shins is a drastic reduction in training pressure and rest. Those who try to train a young horse through shin problems use analgesics, ice, ultrasound and sometimes even swimming or treadmill therapy to reduce concussion while still maintaining muscle tone.

Sore shins can lead to other complications. A horse in pain will alter its stride, overcompensate and sometimes injure another part of its body. Eager young horses have not yet learned how to pace themselves through the routine discomforts of being an athlete.

According to the Lisenbys, however, Cashs Wonder was a healthy 2-year-old who became a casualty of an economic system in which the welfare of the animal was running a distant last. And they had seen enough. His death moved them to write an impassioned letter to the California Horse Racing Board, the newspapers and various private racing associations, pleading for an end to competition among 2-year-olds.

To date they have received one response, from Leonard Foote, the racing board executive secretary who expressed his condolences but also pragmatically noted, “ . . . horse owners do have the option of withholding their 2-year-olds from active racing.”

Therein lies the problem. Some 2-year-olds are anatomically advanced enough to survive early training and racing. Clearly enough of them exist to justify some kind of 2-year-old racing programs.

However, Dr. Joe Cannon, a trainer and former practicing veterinarian, says that these are the exceptions to the general rule of equine development.

“Certain individuals are hopelessly unsound,” said Cannon, who trains the thoroughbreds of Oregon lumberman Aaron Jones. “No matter how long you wait or what you do, it will not matter. So it’s to an owner’s advantage to find out about these horses sooner than later.

“It’s my feeling that conditioning in young horses means applying enough stress to induce change but not damage. And it’s always better to err on the side of not asking enough.

“Still, just getting one to the races early puts you ahead of the pack already,” Cannon added. “More often than not, the rest of the 2-year-olds are still in their stalls.”

Unfortunately, a talented young horse usually will run too fast for his own good. He might have a fluid stride and a perfect physique, but his bones are still growing, making him almost defenseless against the ravages of excessive training and racing. It takes a disciplined trainer-owner combination to know when to press on and when to back off.

But at $15,000 to $20,000 a year in upkeep on a race horse, the meter is always running. Further tightening the fiscal screws, people in the quarter horse business are faced with a never-ending round of nomination payments to the rich futurities. There is a constant temptation for an owner to maximize the slimmest trace of ability in his young quarter horse.

If they are lucky, someday they will be able to run in such events as the All American Futurity, the Rainbow Futurity and the Sun Country Futurity in New Mexico, or the Dash for Cash Futurity and the Ed Burke Futurity in California.

“It’s a lottery-type syndrome,” said Dan Fick, director of racing for the American Quarter Horse Assn. “It’s hard to keep people from shooting for the big dollars.”

But at what price?

“Their legs and hoofs are just not formed enough to where they can take that pounding on the track,” said Ed Lisenby, who along with his wife has 22 quarter horses in training. “You end up having to give a lot of medication to these horses.”

Henry Moreno, who trained quarter horses for 12 years before switching to thoroughbreds in 1962, says a 2-year-old should never race before September.

“Any sooner and you’re just asking for trouble,” Moreno said. “I know I lost some good ones running for that early money.”

To a certain extent, the thoroughbred industry has tried to wean itself from early 2-year-old competition. Santa Anita used to offer three-furlong straightaway races for 2-year-olds in January, but those ended in 1972. Today there is no 2-year-old racing at Santa Anita.

Twenty years ago, Hollywood Park’s summer meeting included nearly a dozen stakes for 2-year-olds. This year there were only two stakes of any significance.

These days, the big money for 2-year-old thoroughbreds is stacked at the end of the year, affording owners and trainers the luxury of waiting a few extra months before putting a young colt or filly into the fire. And the richest opportunities for thoroughbreds occur during their 3-year-old campaigns, making it even more imperative that they survive their 2-year-old season.

Quarter horse tracks, on the other hand, continue to gear their programs toward the futurities, some of them scheduled as early as February and March, when many race horses are barely 20 months old. The American Quarter Horse Assn. estimates that half the prize money offered in quarter horse racing is won by 2-year-olds, spawning a vicious cycle that only the most independent owners and breeders can resist.

“If you haven’t got a 2-year-old, you’ve got nothing,” said one quarter horse trainer.

Statistics bear him out. According to the AQHA, more than 40% of all quarter horse starters are 2 years old. Through 10 months of 1989, of the 21,009 quarter horse starters at sanctioned AQHA tracks in the U.S., 8,688 were 2-year-olds.

Dr. Ed Allred, who operates quarter horse meetings and has owned several top speed horses, acknowledges that the numbers paint a bleak picture and admits that his industry has severe problems.

“We’ve spent a lot of time talking about it, but so far no one has an answer,” Allred said. “We’ve talked to many owners and trainers. They all say the same thing. The money is in the futurities and they don’t know how to change it.”

In that regard, quarter horse racing is a victim of its own success. The early payment system created such renowed events as the All American Futurity, run on Labor Day at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico, with its million-dollar purse predating the first Arlington Million for thoroughbreds by three years.

“We’re saddled with the futurity payment system, but that was the way we got our place in the sun originally,” Allred said. “That’s been copied successfully by the thoroughbreds, especially by the Breeders’ Cup, to where now even the All-American doesn’t have the glamour it once had. What’s a million dollars to the winner anymore? Pretty commonplace nowadays.”

In the meantime, said Allred, the futurity system has expanded to the point that it has become both the means and the end in quarter horse racing.

“We put a lot of real strain on immature horses,” Allred noted. “I had a good gelding this year win a half a million dollars. But I ran him almost crippled half the summer, because you almost have to take the chance. It’s not good, but nobody has the answer.”

There is a good deal of finger-pointing and head-shaking in the quarter horse business when people discuss the imbalance of racing. At various times, the blame is placed with breeders, owners, trainers and the racing associations.

“I blame the whole industry,” said Ray Seeley of the California Racing Commission, who has owned several top quarter horses in more than 40 years in the business.

“It starts at the sales, where people who may not know much about the game buy their yearlings,” Seeley pointed out. “After that, they look around and see all these races for 2-year-olds, and they figure they ought to be able to participate.

“If the race tracks would shift some of that money over to the 3-year-old derbies, rather than the futurities, I’m sure there would be plenty of owners willing to wait.”

Dan Fick, AQHA director of racing, has been making that argument for more than two years.

“But we’ve seen a lot of pressure from the trainers to keep up 2-year-old racing, and to some extent pressure from the race tracks,” Fick said from his office in Amarillo, Tex.

“The tracks don’t have enough older starters, so they need more 2-year-olds to fill their programs. The trainers don’t have enough older horses in their barns, so they need the 2-year-olds to make their day money.

“The solution is simple,” Fick added wistfully. “If everybody would just have a hiatus for one year, we might get the emphasis switched over to 3-year-olds.”

In September of 1988, Fick sent out a report to the more than 11,000 subscribers of the Quarter Racing Journal that called for:

--A shift of emphasis to racing older horses.

--A reduction of 2-year-old races held before March 1.

--A restriction of distances to no more than 350 yards early in the year and no more than 400 yards throughout the 2-year-old season.

In addition, the AQHA makes it a policy not to solicit corporate sponsorship for 2-year-old stakes races. It has eliminated 2-year-olds from regional championship honors. And it has altered the World Champion title balloting to make it more difficult for a 2-year-old to win the ultimate honor.

Ray Baran, former track veterinarian for the quarter horse meetings at Los Alamitos, pointed out another down side to the continued emphasis on 2-year-old racing. There is a very real impact on the continued health of the entire breed.

“When you retire a horse at 2 because of a career-ending injury, you never really know if he could have gone on to be a truly sound horse when he matured,” said Baran, currently the official track vet at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita. “By the same token, you don’t know if they end up passing on some kind of inherent unsoundness, either. They simply have not been tested.”

Reform is possible, but nobody wants to be the first to blink. Breeders will continue to market yearlings who are eligible to rich futurities. Owners will push for an early return on their dollars. And tracks will pander to demand as long as possible, rather than anticipating the pressures placed upon an increasingly frail supply.

Ed and Colette Lisenby are as practical about the business as they are compassionate about their horses.

“We’d love to hold back our 2-year-olds,” Colette Lisenby said. “But then the people who go ahead and run their horses at 2 and still have them at 3 are so far ahead that the 3-year-olds coming in green are going to get wiped out.”

In a perfect racing world, the Lisenbys would hope that the horse would always come first.

“They’re not just a business with us,” Colette Lisenby said. “We really love our horses. A lot of people are just in it to move them out and get the money, but our babies are our pets. We put a lot of care and emotion into them.”

Cannon sounded a more realistic note, however, when he voiced the most common philosophy of the race horse owner:

“Is this the kind of horse that is going to do me some good later on? Or should I try to get what I can right now?” Cannon said.

“That’s not necessarily the most sportsmanlike or humanitarian decision,” Cannon added. “But it does reflect the economic forces at work.”