Mine That Bird's Hollywood Connection: Co-Owner Blach Hopes for Another Storybook Ending in Preakness

by Fran Jurga | 15 May 2009 | The Jurga Report

Leonard Blach, DVM: the name sounds like a veterinarian. When you look him up, he checks out. He's a Colorado State graduate, from a ranching family, owns a New Mexico clinic.

But the softspoken co-owner of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird is actually a veterinarian and race horse owner with Hollywood ties and a movie set past that make the Mine That Bird's story one level more surreal and storybook than they may already appear. This veterinarian has his union card and is ready for his close-up.

And he is fully versed in the world of storybook endings, so bring on the Preakness.

Before I interviewed Dr. Blach, I thought I should do my homework, so I sat down to watch the 1978 horse-racing family classic, Casey's Shadow. And as I watched, I wondered about the fairy tale story that was unfolding before me.

If you can believe this: Walter Matthau plays a washed up Cajun running horse trainer and grumpy single dad who ruins every chance he has to prove to his sons how much he loves them. For some reason, they stick together. Salvation comes along in the form of a lightning-fast colt, so the family heads to Ruidoso, New Mexico to run against the best in the country for the big bucks and maybe a pickup truck that starts.

Except the colt is iffy in the soundness department. And there's drama. Drama that reaches its zenith late one night when the vet's truck pulls up to the barn and Leonard Blach--yes! Mine That Bird's Dr. Leonard Blach!--gets out and feels the heat in the colt's foreleg.

Blach's warning to Matthau not to risk the colt's life in the American International falls on deaf ears. Matthau has waited all his life for a colt that fast. And he's doing it for his kids. They need the money. It's a gamble.

It's very interesting to note that this movie must have been written right after the Ruffian tragedy and I wonder how much that influenced the storyline. You know what's going to happen, and yet this is a family movie so there's a twist at the end, even if there isn't a new pickup.

The Cajun parts of the movie reminded me of the Calvin Borel interview on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno the other night; Leno showed a photo of Borel's childhood home and asked if they had electricity. That may be a good parallel for how much many people in mainstream racing understand about what goes on outside the spotlight of ESPN-level racing.

Blach was happy to reminisce with me about the fun days of filming Casey's Shadow, when Hollywood came to Ruidoso and Santa Fe. Apparently, there's work for veterinarians on movie sets, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. We were both surprised that the press hasn't drawn more parallels between the film and the real life story that unfolded right before us on May 2, 2009.

Horse racing is Dr. Blach's world, and racing in New Mexico is unique. The purses seem huge for a sprint, the atmosphere seems casual and the technology amassed to reproduce and refine the Quarter horse running machine in utero would amaze anyone who has been parked in the Thoroughbred world's breeding sheds for a while.

Case in point: Consider the recent application of technology to extend Storm Cat's career by retiring him from Thoroughbreds to reinventing him for artificial breeding for Quarter horses; a droplet of Storm Cat's sperm can be bioengineered or "extended" to insure his fertility in the Quarter horse world for a long time to come.

And if you live in that world where talk is not so much of foals but of embryos, you would know the name of Dr. Leonard Blach and his Buena Suerte Clinic. The equine hospital in Roswell has stood some of the leading money-winners in Quarter horse racing, including the greats Go Man Go and Easy Jet.

Dr. Blach thought that if there was something that could come of his group's colorful trek to Louisville and Mine That Bird's inspired romp under Calvin Borel's guidance, it would be to introduce America to The Other Racing. There is another way to race horses. There is another way to breed and raise horses. There is another way to dress and talk and look at the world.

If you rent Casey's Shadow, it looks hopelessly dated and hokey at first but there is still something authentic about it, no matter how bad Matthau's attempt at a Cajun accent. It's a good horse racing movie, filmed on location. They didn't try to make Santa Anita look like Ruidoso Downs: they went there, instead, and actors and cameramen alike ate the dust of those horses.

Right now, Dr. Blach and his group from New Mexico have our attention and have put New Mexico on the racing map for many people. But guess what? It was there all along. And thriving.

On Saturday afternoon, Americans will gather in front of television sets to watch the Preakness. My guess is more than a few will be wearing cowboy hats in support of the boys from New Mexico and their little horse.

I'll be hoping for another happy ending for Dr. Leonard Blach as the credits roll.

AAEP Vets Inspect Mexican Horse Slaughter Plants, Give Thumbs Up for Horse Welfare Conditions

by Fran Jurga | 19 February 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

A report in the March 1 edition of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) chronicles the work of a group of representatives of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP). The group inspected two Mexican horse slaughter plants and judged the welfare conditions experienced by American horses shipped there to be processed into meat.

The article, which is now available online, documents the process of the horses' arrival from the border in sealed trailers, through the captive bolt slaughter process, and describes the plant, the staff, and how the horses were treated during the inspection.

A key quote from Dr. Tom Lenz: "If you look at it from the hard perspective of the meat industry, they're in the business to produce meat. They don't want an injured or down or stressed horse any more than they have to, because it affects the meat quality."

Click here to read an article about the report.

As stated in the article, both the AVMA and AAEP are working actively in Washington to derail or defeat passage of HR 503, the Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on January 14, 2009. HR 503 would prohibit the transport of horses to slaughter. Slaughter itself has been effectively banned within the United States, so horse must be trucked to Canada or Mexico for slaughter. The meat is largely consumed in Japan and Europe.

If it sounds counter-intuitive for the two main veterinary groups in the country to be opposing a bill with the words "prevention of equine cruelty" in it, it is because so many words in our world have twisted meanings when it comes to politics. "Humane", for instance, has become a very subjective word and is highly charged with potential votes and influence when used in the political context.

But for some people, the word "humane" has become another word for "animal rights", and it's all wrapped up in a perception of PETA's plot to take over the world. And, they believe, if PETA succeeds with horse slaughter, cattle and hogs and chickens will be next.

For others, humane means reforming the conditions that horses endure during shipment to slaughter, or not allowing any slaughter at all, under any circumstances.

The US vets did not travel in the trucks with the horses, but did mention that the severely injured horses were humanely euthanized when the trucks were opened in central Mexico, and they were there to witness that.

This battle is far from over.