Edwin J. Brown of Seattle, president of the National Association of State Racing Commissioners, heads a growing movement to prolong the careers of thoroughbred horses.
With the growth in recent years of winter racing in Florida, California and at New Orleans, horses are being run earlier and earlier, before they mature fully, Brown said, and the result is that 50 percent. of the promising juveniles are burned out.
"For every race we gain by early racing of two-year-olds, we lose two races uring the latter end of what might otherwise have been a useful racing Career," he said.
In the main, Brown said, "We make q number of $1,000 horses out of what otherwise would have developed into $3,000 and $4,000 animals. Physical "infirmities accomplish just that. There are notable exceptions but they do not disprove this assertion,"
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