Columnist Dean Juipe: Chuckwagon races ought to be banned

Dean Juipe

Monday, Sept. 23, 2002 | 9:50 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

It's stupid, demeaning, inhumane and even worse than what I had expected.

It's chuckwagon racing, and it concluded a four-day stay in Las Vegas with an afternoon performance Sunday that was warm for the spectators and brutal on the four-legged participants.

I knew I wasn't going to like this and said so a month ago in a column, but I felt I actually needed to go to a session and approach it with an open mind. So I got there early, talked casually to a few people and tried to buy into the faux festive atmosphere.

I roamed the paddock area and tolerated the country band that had the stage.

"It can be fun," said a man from Wyoming, who travels with his wife to a number of chuckwagon races in Canada.

Yet after seeing the first heat, I realized his version of fun and mine were entirely different. Yeah, it can be fun, alright -- if you're a sadist.

I don't know what I'm more disappointed in: the fact that such an event made its way to Las Vegas and was bankrolled by Las Vegas Events, or the fact that the local chapter of PETA wasn't out in force to protest the inherent cruelty of the races.

But if PETA gave the races the cold shoulder, it was no different than anyone else in Las Vegas. Attendance was said to be poor Thursday night, good Friday after a big walk up, so-so Saturday and countable on just a few hands Sunday, making it the equivalent of an American Basketball Association game where you can tally up the spectators during a break in play.

On the plus side there was plenty of security, more than enough portable toilets and an attractive backdrop with downtown Las Vegas silhouetted just a couple of blocks away.

But then the racing began and all bets were off.

The track was rock hard, long and dusty and more than one horse had a limp in his gait within moments of setting foot on the impenetrable clay. One had to be replaced after merely parading by the grandstand.

But the force with which they race, the speed and power generated by four horses bound together and pulling an iron wagon was all but frightening. When the racing began the horses went hard -- but too hard for my tastes, given their ages and the workload.

These are horses that are groomed for racing but are aging and they've already put in a full tour in Canada, where the chuckwagon season ended last month. Factor in the travel and the heat, and the level of their exhaustion had to be off the board.

There isn't any doubt they'd rather have been out to pasture.

Some people like spills and chills, so they go to auto races and the like. But to see horses bridled in packs and in competition and pulling heavy wagons that beg for a collision was almost sickening.

If it was just one wagon at a time, going against the clock, maybe that would be tolerable. But to see them racing (three wagons at a time) and in situations that only invite horrific injury was like something from the Dark Ages.

I can't imagine taking a child to one of these things, given the chance of seeing a wagon and its team of horses upended. It's what nightmares are all about.

Chuckwagon racing not only isn't a sport, I for one feel it should be banned.

Let's start by banning it here, once and for all.