SAD CARTOON: Mike Cavna's attempt at a cartoon in last Sunday's paper is pretty sad. Considering that Barbaro's chance at being put down was still 50/50 after five-plus hours of surgery on Sunday, I would say sick on his part. He needs to go back and review Saturday's TV footage; the injury was not trivial. And, as an aside, I wouldn't put Barbaro anywhere near the trailer trash known as Britney Spears.
CAROL LAFFOON, San Diego
SAD CARTOON II: I honestly fail to see what's so funny about what happened to that horse. Furthermore, I can't even get the joke.
BRYAN PLANK, Scripps Ranch
SAD CARTOON III: I found Mike Cavna's cartoon, “What really happened to Barbaro . . . ” distasteful, insensitive and disrespectful of a true sports hero. Britney Spears is not in his league and certainly does not warrant our time and attention – good or bad. Bad taste all around.
CAROLE LELAND, Ph.D., San Diego
RULES ARE RULES: I could not disagree more with Nick Canepa's column concerning CIF swimming: “Prep swimmer pays stiff price for computer error.” Computer error? Nope, human error.
As a parent of a competitive swimmer, I know how disappointing it must have been for all involved to not let Dani Kimmel compete in breaststroke at the championships. However, coaches make mistakes that players pay for all the time. If they make too many, they lose their jobs. That's part of all sports.
In this case, Canepa makes the argument that the player didn't make the mistake, the coach did. If the football coach sends in the wrong play that is executed perfectly but loses the game, should the player get a do-over?
I'm also wondering if Canepa is aware of how common a mistake this is. Over the years, many of my daughter's friends were upset when the coach accidentally put them in the wrong event. Just because it happened to a top seed is no more devastating than to the girl who was hoping for a chance to make consolation finals, or the one who has just barely made the cut and will not ever be competing again. Rules were never changed for them.
KRISTEN THORNTON, El Cajon
GWYNN-LOSE SITUATION: The Sports pages on Thursday (SDSU runs out of luck in Vegas) headlined what most San Diegans already know: Tony Gwynn is having more trouble than he ever expected teaching a baseball team to win.
Gwynn is not the first superstar to fail at teaching others to duplicate his success. Ted Williams was coaxed back into managing. Tony Perez gave it a shot. Pete Rose tried it before baseball banned him. They are all Hall of Famers, as Tony will soon be, but they couldn't teach others to play as they once did.
So why isn't Gwynn teaching success? Some can have it and others can have it and teach it. So far, Tony Gwynn is in the first category and unless he changes his approach, his name alone might not carry the same weight as it did when he was first given the opportunity at SDSU.
STEVE TARDE, El Cajon
IMPRESSIVE COVERAGE: Kudos for “Ethics vs. economics: Barbaro saga sheds light on racing industry,” San Diego Union-Tribune (May 24). I'd expect something like this from an animal-rights activist, but frankly it surprised and impressed me that a mainstream sports writer such as Tim Sullivan would dare pen an article detailing the shocking plight of racehorses no longer able to return their owners' investment.
MIKE WEINBERG, San Diego
RICH MAN'S SPORT: I agree the Sport of Kings is totally ruthless, much more so in the U.S. where any Tom, Dick, Harry or even Charlie can own a horse when at times they should not do so.
The treatment of racehorses happens to be particularly brutal at the levels below Santa Anita, Belmont Park, et al., where owners push trainers to constantly enter horses unfit to perform.
I have been a publicist at many minor tracks in the past and can tell you stories about the treatment horses received from incompetent trainers and greedy owners who should not be in the business for any reason.
It is a rich man's sport and should stay that way for the welfare of the horse. The finest breeder in the world has long been the various ones who give their 2-year-old a race or two late in the year just for education, put them away until they have grown some more and then send them to the races.
One horse at Santa Anita this year ran three times in a 17-day period in those so-called baby races, never contending but still being pushed to the limit. That is cruelty, but racing officials overlook it to fill programs.
ALAN LAYTHORPE, Lakeside
HORSES HAVE HEARTS, TOO: John Clay's astute analysis of horse racing's dark side (“Breakdowns part of game?”) may have also revealed the real reason tragedies such as Barbaro's continue to play out at every racetrack in North America. One need look no further than the comments of the CEO of Pimlico, a track firmly mired in the 19th century, who likened horse racing to NASCAR.
“There's always going to be accidents,” said Joe DeFrancis.
DeFrancis' quote epitomizes a bottom-line mentality that has been too prevalent for too long in the horse racing industry. A race car is a soulless piece of machinery pieced together my human hands. Thoroughbred racehorses are living, breathing creatures with huge, noble hearts. That DeFrancis would compare them to something powered by a fuel-injected engine speaks to an underlying taint that permeates the entire sport.
If track bosses continue to view the animals that fill their coffers and grandstands as mere objects to be repaired or replaced, then the injuries and deaths will continue, in front of an already dwindling fan base that looks on in horror. And never to goes to the races again.
I applaud the California Horse Racing Board's decision to encourage the use of Polytrack, and the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's forward-thinking management for pushing for its installation locally. It can save lives; equine and human. Meanwhile, horse racing's owners, trainers, riders and breeders must stand together and insist on safer track surfaces from coast to coast. If a racetrack will not install Polytrack or take other safety measures, then it should be boycotted.
When one of the country's best 3-year-olds can't make it through the Triple Crown in one piece, I'd say that's exactly where to begin.
NANCY SCHLESINGER, Carlsbad
DO SOMETHING: Regarding Monday's story (May 22) about “doing something” to make thoroughbred racing safer for the horses: The powers that be (and NBC should have enough clout to demand it) could easily schedule a three-week break between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, just as there is between the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. An extra week break for traveling young legs surely couldn't hurt. By 2008, Pimlico and Belmont could adjust their schedules by one week. With the all the prep races these still-maturing horses run, it's a wonder more bones (and hearts) aren't shattered.
JIM LINDGREN, San Diego
