Flatter: At Breeders’ Cup, no one is more powerful than the vets

An abundance of caution begat an illusion of safety. At Breeders’ Cup 2025, it turned into a veil of secrecy.

“White Abarrio is a late scratch from the Dirt Mile,” said Larry Collmus, punctuating the theme of the week at Del Mar.

NBC Sports reported it was because there was concern about lameness in the left front leg as White Abarrio was walking in the post parade. Not that that was allowed by event management to be announced out loud at the track.

Nysos leads Baffert exacta in Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

Forever Young provided the feel-good story for Japan, and there was wintertime steeplechaser Ethical Diamond slacking jaws, and Bob joined Aidan atop the training summit where surnames are optional.

But all the while there was collective breath holding again every time someone with a DVM degree holding a digital clipboard approached a horse.

Never mind whether racing needs an all-powerful commissioner or the pipe dream of cooperation between racetrack czars or that elixir of common sense that probably would violate a Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit medication rule.

What we need now is someone to crack the door ajar and shine a light into the dark recesses of regulatory veterinarians. Were there really 13 scratches on doctors’ orders from the Breeders’ Cup? I lost track, since some of those may have been pre-empted by trainers if only to avoid the purgatory of the vet’s list.

“I think there’s this perception that there’s heightened scrutiny for Breeders’ Cup or other big events,” California Horse Racing Board executive director Scott Chaney told FanDuel TV in the Del Mar paddock Saturday. “That’s simply not true.”

Really? Show me the last time there were 13 vet scratches on another big race card. Maybe it was at Breeders’ Cup 2024, the last time I got hot and bothered about this.

John Cherwa, who is the Los Angeles Times turf writer when he is not Felix to my Oscar on my podcast, joined me to corner some of the dais after the much-ballyhooed safety briefing during championship week last year at Del Mar.

I do not remember who of us asked why specific details of these vet scratches were not made public. Yes, public. As in the engine that drives this sport.

“It’s the same thing as doctor-patient confidentiality,” we were told. “We might be violating the legal privacy of the horse’s owner.”

It was one year ago Saturday when I wrote that the Breeders’ Cup should answer that by commanding that all owners sign a waiver that is baked into the paperwork whenever they nominate a sire or supplement a horse.

Of course that did not happen.

So we are left to take the word of owners and especially trainers. When they are caught off guard having a horse scratched, some of them thrust their arms skyward the same way a football coach does whenever there is a ticky-tack flag for roughing the passer.

Not that all these horsemen are wearing halos and angel’s wings. They could be pleading a case that they know would be unwinnable in a court of evidence.

But that is just the point. Where is the evidence? Why can’t we get the actual vet reports? Instead, we are left to take the word of all-too-anonymous doctors whose work is not showing up on a screen at any central replay center.

One person’s word against another. This clearly stokes the cynic in me who begs to know why should we take anyone’s word for it.

Chaney said it is because the veterinarians who zero in on the Breeders’ Cup host track each year are all-stars.

“The cool thing, at least with an event like the Breeders’ Cup, is we get to avail ourselves of regulatory vets from around the planet,” he said. “So literally, we have regulatory vets from other countries. What that allows us to do is, A, get better coverage. We have about 200 Breeders’ Cup horses here, some of which we have not a lot of history on. In California, generally the horses run over and over again, so we have a long veterinary history. Our veterinary team, including Breeders’ Cup team, starts looking at the horses probably three or four weeks out both in their home country and once they get here.”

This feels like an attempt to dazzle all of us with showmanship. Just because they are the best of the best does not mean they should be allowed to work in obscurity without any accountability to the public. We reserve those precious rights for Vatican cardinals, obfuscating government bureaucrats and auto mechanics.

A former ESPN host with whom I worked as a producer decades ago told me once he valued everyone’s input. To a point.

“It starts as a democracy, but it ends as a dictatorship,” he said.

Those words were ringing in my ears when I heard Chaney say the same thing in what seemed to be a kinder, gentler way Saturday. That the all-star veterinarians are merely consultants for the quorum of the two.

“Ultimately, the Breeders’ Cup scratches are sort of unremarkable for our vets,” he said. “I know that’s tough to hear, but it happens to be the truth. At the end of the day, in this case it’s made by two folks, two of the best regulatory veterinarians in the world. Dr. Jeff Blea, who’s our equine medical director, and our chief official veterinarian Dr. (Timothy) Grande. I put them up against any vet on the planet.”

That is akin to telling someone wrongfully convicted of a crime that even though he was not allowed to attend his own trial, it still turned out fair and just.

It is a simple request. Good doctors, please show your work and not your sheepskins. Don’t try to man-speak all of us, because you think we simpletons would not understand. I bet I can find my own veterinarian to tell me if what I am being fed is a bunch of horse ... sample.

And to owners and trainers, sign over permission to let the world know what these doctors are saying under hushed tones. This especially applies to those who protest that their horses are sound.

I would hope there is a groundswell for this change before the next Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland. I would think anyone who was alive to a two-day double to Sweet Azteca, Tamara or White Abarrio would lead the charge.

Ron Flatter is semi-retired from his role as managing editor at Horse Racing Nation. His byline and columns appear mostly around big races and occasionally the rest of the year. Comments below and at RonFlatterRacingPod@gmail.com are welcomed, encouraged and may be used in the feedback segment of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, which will continue to be posted every Friday.