The Leonard Lopate Show

as a kentucky boy living in brooklyn i love that you're doing this show. i can't wait to get back to this years derby.

Horse Racing is just old-fashioned animal abuse made into a business. Is anyone going to mention their bleeding lungs, tragic injuries and short life span? Shame on you Lenny!

Horse racing is a basically dishonest industry that relies on addicted, degenerate, self-destructive gamblers as its primary revenue source.

Horses may be beautiful, but there is nothing beautiful about horse racing. Is there really any point in doing a segment that makes acceptable this industry?

So, Caroline & Graham, I guess we won't be seeing you at the screening? or around the track?

Thanks for your insight on topic you clearly know SO much about... I'd give up playing the ponies but you see I'm an addicted, self-destructive degenerate.

"Horse racing is a basically dishonest industry that relies on addicted, degenerate, self-destructive gamblers as its primary revenue source."

As opposed to, oh, say, the stock market? And I wonder when you were last at a racetrack?

Racing is not a safe middle of the road endeavor, while the horses are treated well they are pushed hard to perform. The sport certainly has its seedy side. However racing is not alone in having a seedy side as does coffee, energy production, illegal restaurant dishwasher help and the illegal alien nighttime cleaners at wholefoods where you dispense your brie and chablis. However the other side of the coin is that the vast majority of the horses receive the best care in the domestic animal world. These horses lead of life of luxury, complete with daily sponge bathes and comprehensive medical care.

It is disappointing to read the words of completely ignorant people besmirching a game that is as complex, interesting and exciting as simple animal abuse. This is like writing off New York as a dirty, smelly, crime filled hole after making a cursory visit to the Port Authority bus terminal.

I'm going to the Village with my wife on Friday night to see FSIM. And I do hope the movie's a smash hit - reaching a non-race fan audience of at least five million.

(It's always amazed me that - with the exception of Let It Ride, filmed a generation ago - movies with racing themes have been real duds, bar none.)

But there's no getting around the fact that for every friendly face in this movie, there's another perspective, and it isn't a positive one.

I've attended races since 1985. And having traveled to Saratoga, Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, Belmont, and Del Mar, I've repeatedly witnessed jockeys, trainers, owners, and race track officials acting like complete jerks.

And this just might be THE reason why the sport, in the past thirty years, has practically become extinct.

So, when you see warm and smiling people in a film like this, remember just one thing.

The red light over the camera was on.

How then, Don, do you explain the popularity of sports like baseball, football, and basketball, whose participants regularly act like what you said both on and off camera? If bad behavior and idiocy precluded popularity, we'd have no sports at all.

BB: I'm only concerned with the context of the subject of this radio interview, horse racing.

Where the alienated racing fans went afterwards- or why fans in other sports have tolerated criminal behavior exhibited by morally bankrupt athletes who think that money buys everything - these are subjects for writers and observers far more talented than myself.

The main point is that hopefully, FSIM succeeds beyond the wildest dreams of the Hennegan Brothers, who have earned my admiration for putting their careers and their personal finances on the line, trying to revive interest in a sport that once enthralled millions of Americans.

Since nothing is impossible, they just might achieve that goal.

Regards,

DR