Twilight at the Track
Jehad Nga for TIME
At
Keeneland, a premier track in Lexington, Ky., the stakes can run to
$750,000
Correction Appended: May 6, 2013 and May 30,
2013
In the center Island of a sleepy cul-de-sac in
my suburban Kansas City, Mo., neighborhood, a pair of huge stone markers stand
in memory of two horses buried beneath the stones. lawrin, one stone announces
solemnly. A darkly handsome Thoroughbred with matching white socks on his
forelegs, Lawrin charged from the pack at Churchill Downs to win the 1938
Kentucky Derby by a length with a 22-year-old Eddie Arcaro on his back. Though
Arcaro went on to become an international celebrity, the only jockey to win two
Triple Crowns, he would go to his own grave saying Lawrin's run for the roses
was the most thrilling ride of his career. Next to Lawrin lies his father Insco,
who passed down the genes of his own pop, the great Sir Gallahad, one of four
horses to sire three Derby winners.
Quite a lot of racing history to find planted so far from the shrines of
Louisville, Santa Anita or Saratoga. This surviving remnant of the local
Woolford Farm stables, where brilliant trainer Ben Jones served a stint on his
way to the record books, recalls a time when America was still largely rural,
most Americans knew something about horses, and racing was a truly national
passion.
But the graveyard on Le Mans Court now says something about the endangered
future of Thoroughbred racing. On May 4, the nation's fastest 3-year-olds will
enter the starting gate for the 139th running of the spectacle at Churchill
Downs. But while a huge crowd in Louisville and a vast TV audience marvel at two
minutes of thundering excitement, elsewhere the sport of kings is struggling to
avoid being buried--as Lawrin is buried under the march of suburbia--beneath
inexorable forces of change.
Tracks are closing. Purses are dwindling. Fewer foals are being bred.
Veteran breeders and trainers are hanging up their boots. Once privileged as the
primary form of legal gambling in the U.S., horse racing now fights to be
noticed in a gaudy arcade where strategy-minded punters choose among games from
blackjack to Powerball to fantasy football. The arcane art of handicapping a
pari-mutuel wager is downright tedious in an age of slot-feeding,
card-scratching instant gratification. Very few Americans are raised on farms
anymore; even fewer feel confident in their understanding of horses. And those
who do know and love the animals are finding themselves turned off by the
culture of doping in horse racing and the frequent breakdowns that go with it.
Add a massive recession and the near paralysis of racing's many-headed
management structure, and a once robust pastime is now scrabbling for a
future.
As Dan Singer of McKinsey & Co. reported to the Jockey Club--the
venerable protectors of the Thoroughbred breed--after completing a head-to-hoof
examination of the industry in 2011: "Handle is down 37% ... attendance is down
30%, starts per horse and race days are both down 14%." "By any measure," Singer
noted, "Thoroughbred racing has declined over the last decade," primarily
because of "a failure to innovate fast enough and well enough to compete for new
fans." Unless things change significantly, the situation will get much worse
over the next decade, McKinsey projects, as horse owners see an already
expensive sport submerged in a sea of red ink, while 1 in 4 tracks will be
forced to close.
The End of Horse Racing: Photographs by Jehad Nga
In its heyday, horse racing had it all.
It was the speed and danger sport before NASCAR came along; movie stars and
gangsters rubbed glamorous elbows; and a couple sawbucks on a winning long-shot
could put you on Easy Street.
As with all nostalgia, the reality could never match the legend. But there
was a current of excitement and passion around horse racing back in the days of
fedoras and two-toned shoes. Perhaps the popularity of racing was as simple as
the fact that Americans used to grow up around horses and knew them as
personalities.
(MORE: Twilight at the
Track)
And they are personalities. Some are born with loads of talent, but won’t
do the hard work to become a champion. Some love a challenge, and won’t stop
working until they win. Some are playful; some are mean. Some are smart; some
aren’t. Such traits seared the names of great racers into the public
consciousness as deeply as the names of some presidents and some billionaires:
Gallant Fox, War Admiral, Citation, Seabiscuit.
The glory days endured through a golden age of racing in the 1970s, when
Affirmed battled Alydar to join Seattle Slew and the incomparable Secretariat as
winners of the Triple Crown. Since then, a long twilight has settled over the
Sport of Kings. Attendance, wagers, purses, and new foals all are in decline.
Such storied tracks as Hialeah in Florida, Bay Meadows in California, and Garden
State in New Jersey have padlocked their stables and turned out the lights for
good.
The causes are many. Competition for the gambling and entertainment dollar
is more intense than ever. But even more damaging is the widespread culture of
doping in the racing business, and the high rate of fatal breakdowns that goes
with it. As these photographs make clear, amid the fading memories of glamor and
excitement, the beating heart of the sport is, and always will be, the horse.
Whoever wants to save racing must first care about that.
Jehad Nga
is a photographer who lives in New York. LightBox previously featured
Nga’s Memories of Libya and
his Green Book project.
David Von Drehle is an
editor-at-large for TIME, where he has covered politics, breaking news and the
Supreme Court since 2007. He is the author of four books, including Abraham Lincoln and America’s
Most Perilous Year, published in 2012, and Triangle: The Fire That Changed
America.
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