Saturday 3 August 2019 The Guardian •World^31
The Santa Anita racetrack in
California, where a public vote on
horse racing could stop the sport
PHOTOGRAPH: HORSEPHOTOS/GETTYHorse racing
Sport under
threat in
California
after 30
animals die
Daniel Ross
Los AngelesI
t’s barely 9 .30am at the
Santa Anita racetrack in
Los Angeles, but Jennifer
Saavedra has been at work
for fi ve hours. Her husband,
Anthony, a trainer, is
travelling, and she is charged with
overseeing their fi ve-horse stable.
“I’ll probably get done around six
tonight,” she says.
Not that Saavedra minds – horses
are in her blood. “You couldn’t keep
me away from the track since I could
walk ,” she says. But with horse
racing in California under scrutiny
after 30 horses were fatally injured at
Santa Anita during its last six-month
run, Saavedra is worried the sport
could be brought to an abrupt end.
“Californians will end horse
racing at the ballot box,” promised
animal rights activist April
Montgomery at a California Horse
Racing Board meeting in May, raisingof Business’s equine industry
programme. Yet for many, economic
considerations are less important
than the ethical concerns that have
yet to be addressed by the industry:
too many horses die on racetracks,
too many are sent to slaughter and
too many drugs are used without
adequate regulatory oversight.
“Horse fatalities are the number
one threat to our future and we can
let nothing deter us from searching
out and eradicating every potential
risk to that occurring,” says Alex
Waldrop, president of the National
Thoroughbred Racing Association.
S ceptics say the industry has had
ample opportunity to change. Three
years ago, the Del Mar track north
of San Diego instituted reforms that
slashed the number of fatal injuries.
However, race authorities are split.
On permitted medication, for
example, some states support the
Horseracing Integrity Act, a federal
drug reform bill, while others back
the National Uniform Medication
Program. The latter appeared to
have the most backing, until the
California racing board pulled out in
June, saying its reforms were much
stricter.
The animal rights group Peta
back s California ’s approach. “I think
they’ve made the most signifi cant
change in racing in the last
generation,” says a spokesperson,
Kathy Guillermo.
But Peta’s role is contentious
given its opposition to racing and
promotion of welfare reform. Would
Peta support the industry if a ban
made it on to the state ballot? “I
think we’d have to fi gure that out at
the time,” Guillermo says.years at Keeneland and Churchill
Downs are under renewed scrutiny.
“I’m scared to death,” says Arthur
Hancock, the owner of Stone Farm
in Kentucky. He fears the threat is
being downplayed. “I think there’s
sort of a general apathy, and I don’t
know where it comes from,” he says.
Some, such as the Iowa -based
Maggi Moss, one of the US’s most
successful thoroughbred owners,
believe events in California need
not immediately concern other
states. “I look at what’s happening in
California as an island unto its own,”
Moss says.
The industry employ s, directlyor indirectly, nearly half a million
people in the US. Racing in California
alone supports 17,798 jobs and has
a near $2.5bn (£2.1bn) economic
impact, according to the American
Horse Council. Nationally, the
council puts the sector’s economic
impact at around $36.6bn.
A ban in California could have
a knock-on eff ect. If Californians
suddenly stopped buying horses
at the Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland
sales in Kentucky, the state
economy would lose between $87m
and $116m , according to Steven
Vickner, an associate professor at
the University of Louisville CollegeNew age author
takes Democratic
debate by storm
Miranda Bryant
New YorkWith her talk of harnessing love, her
Hollywood friends and background in
spiritual guidance , many people wrote
Marianne Williamson off as a joke can-
didate for the presidency.
But the controversial author proved
curiously magnetic to the American
public again during the brief moments
she was able to speak from her lectern,
which was on the far end of a line of
10 at the second televised Democratic
primary debates this week.
Twenty Democratic candidates
took to the stage in Detroit on Tuesday
and Wednesday to lay out their vision
for the country, in the latest stage of
the race to become the party’s nomi-
nee to take on Donald Trump in 2020.
Despite enjoying only eight minutes
and 52 seconds of airtime in Tuesday’sdebate – a fraction of the attention
on the likes of Elizabeth Warren and
Bernie Sanders , who were cent re stage- the author had an immediate impact.
The live audience cheered her
loudly and, for those watching
remotely, she ended up as the most
Googled candidate on that fi rst night
in the second round of debates.
Until recently, Williamson, who
was raised in Houston , has been called
the “high priestess of pop religion” ,
best known for 13 books, her links to
Hollywood and Oprah Winfrey and her
food charity. She has dabbled in poli-
tics. And she has made headlines with
controversial views on mental health ,
criticising what she says is the over- use
of anti-depressants in the US, in state-
ments that mental health advocates
say could increase stigma and stop
people seeking treatment. Contrary
to the facts , she has also expressed
doubts about vaccine safety.
At the fi rst round in Miami last
month, she referred to the prime min-
ister of New Zealand , Jacinda Ardern ,
as “girlfriend” and said she would be
the fi rst leader she would call if she
took the White House in the 2020 elec-
tion – another unorthodox move that
made viewers sit up and take notice.
This week, for long stretches of
time, the CNN moderators did not
include Williamson, 67, in the discus-
sion, and yet with her old Hollywood
way of speaking she still cut through.
The scandal in Flint, Michigan,
over the contamination of drinking
water with lead, she said, was “just
the tip of the iceberg” of governmentmishandling of major issues, espe-
cially for low-income areas.
“We have an administration that’s
gutted the Clean Water Act. We have
communities, particularly commu-
nities of colour and disadvantaged
communities all over this country,
who are suff ering from environmen-
tal injustice ... this is part of the dark
underbelly of American society,” she
said to a burst of applause.
On Tuesday she was forthright on
slavery reparations, saying America’s
economic racial disparity came from
“a great injustice that has never been
dealt with ... that continues to form a
toxicity underneath the surface ”.
As the leading candidates sparred
over policy details, she broke through
once again. “If you think any of this
wonkiness is going to deal with this
dark psychic force of the collectivised
hatred that this president is bringing
up in this country, then I’m afraid that
the Democrats are going to see some
very dark days,” she said.
Williamson told the Guardian that
she had been avoiding too much prep-
aration for th e debate, saying: “The
best thing I can do is be myself.”
A sense of authenticity certainly
seems to be a big part of her appeal- even if it sometimes verges on the
bizarre. The latter was on display after
the debate. A young child asked her
about her pet preferences. “I had a
cat,” she told the boy in a widely shared
clip , bluntly adding “and the cat died.”
17,798
The number of jobs in California
supported by horse racing, with a
near £2.1bn economic impactthe threat that the state’s system
of public votes, which in recent
years has legalised marijuana and
given more space to farm animals,
could stop the sport. “We’re going
to end it, and it’s going to start with
California,” Montgomery warned.
Criticism has reached other
states, such as Kentucky, where
the catastrophic injury rates in past‘[Slavery] has never
been dealt with and
... forms a toxicity
under the surface’Marianne Williamson
Democratic candidate▲ Marianne Williamson proved
magnetic during her eight-minute
address at the Democratic debate
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