Author: admin

Thoroughbred racehorses are natural, and exceptional, athletes, but nonetheless require a meticulous regimen with regard to diet, water intake and exercise if they are to fulfil their potential.

Nutritionally, the diet of a racehorse is much lower in forage – that is, grass or hay – than that of, say, leisure or competition horses, but forage remains an important source of energy, fibre, minerals, protein and vitamins. When exercising or racing, racehorses use glycogen, a form of glucose stored in the liver and the muscles, as their main source of energy. Their bodies need soluble carbohydrates from the food they eat to replenish their glycogen stores, so a diet high in carbohydrate-rich grains, such as barley, corn and oats, is a prerequisite for maintaining performance levels and avoid premature fatigue.

Fat, from vegetable oils, soybeans or flax seeds, supplies a large number of calories in a concentrated form, is easily digestible can be fed to increase the energy density of the diet. Indeed, some manufactured, commercial feed products use alternative energy sources, such as fat and fermentable fibre, to reduce the reliance on calories supplied by starch and thereby encourage levelheadedness in racehorses.

Approximately two-thirds of the body of a horse is made up of water and, on average, a horse can drink between five and 15 gallons of water a day, although this vary significantly depending on factors such as size, workload and weather. In warmer conditions and/or during exercise, horses regulate their body temperature by sweating and, in so doing, lose water and electrolytes. Thus, on racedays, a racehorse may increase its water intake up to 20 gallons a day to compensate for lost fluids and stay adequately hydrated. It probably goes without saying that racehorses should always have access to clean, fresh water that is not too cold.

The late Anthony Ciulla, who died, as Anthony Capra, in Revere, Massachusetts, on June 6, 2003, having spent the last 25 years of his life in the United States Federal Witness Protection Program, was arguably the most notorious race-fixer of all time. Standing 6’3″ tall and weighing in at a conservative 350lb, hence his nicknames ‘Big Tony’ and ‘Fat Tony’, employed bribery and, if that failed, physical intimidation to fix, by his own admission, several hundred races, mainly at smaller tracks on the East Coast, between 1972 and 1975. Indeed, he once boasted that he had fixed races in every state except California. This was all well prior to todays online gambling days of no deposit casino bonuses casinous and the like.

On July 4, 1975, jockey Peter Fantini attracted the attention of the stewards by making a meal of restraining his mount in the ninth and final race at Atlantic City and subsequently revealed that Ciulla, and others, had paid him to do so. Fantini and his agent, Louis Menna, who was under investigation for check fraud, did a deal with police and Fantini wore a wire to a meeting with Ciulla at the Flamingo Motel in Atlantic City two weeks later, which led to Ciulla being indicted.

With Ciulla facing conspiracy charges in New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, the FBI made him an offer that he really could not refuse. Reflecting on his time behind bars, Cuilla to ‘Sports Illustrated’, ‘I knew before I got out of jail I’d be as dead as Man o’War [who died in 1947].’ In return for his grand jury testimony against jockeys and trainers who had fixed races on his behalf, in six different states – which resulted in the conviction of 40 people – Ciulla served only minimal jail time, received immunity from further prosecution and, on his release, was granted entry to the Federal Witness Protection Program.