*EN/DE: The battle of the sexes / Kampf der Geschlechter / D. McKeon
Verfasst: Fr 22. Dez 2017, 11:58
FEMALE GREYHOUNDS VERSUS MALE GREYHOUNDS---THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES, IS IT FAIR OR UNFAIR?
I hope that grabbed you by your attention spans.
It should be of some interest to all of my readership, that while female Thoroughbred race horses (fillies and mares) usually perform in races where they are segregated from males (colts, horses, geldings and ridgelings), female greyhounds seldom do.
With the exception of the now defunct "Connecticut Oaks" in modern American greyhound racing, female greyhounds have always had to race head to head against their male counterparts.
"Oaks" races for females, still run occasionally in IRE and the UK, are traditional, females-only showcases, for the girlies who will likely produce many of the finest greyhounds of the next generation. They are infrequent special events, apart from the day to day races, where males and females, together, have at it, regardless of size, weight, or sex.
The reason there is no segregation by sex in greyhound racing, is because females are not inferior racers to males, due to their sex, nor for any other reason. As a matter of fact, females, as a group, are over-represented in longer distance races.
Female greyhounds have always been able to compete, stride for stride, nose to nose, eyeball to eyeball, against their often larger and heavier male counterparts, since day one.
Were this not the case, then greyhound races would have been segregated by sex, long ago, as a matter of necessity and fairness.
Why would an owner want to race a greyhound at all, who, at every step along the way, at each grade level, was disadvantaged by having to compete against males who were, by nature, her superiors? And why would any sane gambler want to wager on those females?
So in greyhound racing, there is no concession made to the sex of the greyhound, and races are open to males and females alike, because no concessions are required. Female greyhounds have proven, over millions of races, spanning nearly 100 years, that they are the equals of their male brethren.
Now, you may have noticed that there has been a great, big hulabaloo over the use of the sex hormone, "testosterone", legally and by state rule, given to females to prevent the onset of estrus (coming into heat) while they are actively training and racing.
Now, I shouldn't have to explain to anyone with even the slightest iota of dog sense, or even common, human sense, why it would be a very bad idea to have females randomly coming into season, where they share common kennel facilities, and turnout and exercise areas with males. Aside from the aspects of birth control, the stresses that such a situation would create, would be unbearable for the greyhounds, and unmanageable for their handlers.
The absence of estrus-prevention in racing kennels, would, furthermore, place greyhounds in considerable jeopardy, because serious fights among males, for "mating rights", would inevitably erupt.
Now, in Florida today, greyhound racing's detractors are, once again, interjecting themselves to matters about which they have no business or standing to opine. The propaganda, as usual, is putrid with overwrought sensationalism, and ivory-skulled ignorance.
It goes like this, for those who are unaware.
"Female greyhounds are given anabolic steroids (testosterone) to enhance their performance."
Florida State Representative, Carlos Guillermo Smith---who once, incredibly, claimed that female greyhounds were being trans-gendered into males, because of testosterone's use as an estrus-suppressant---had this to add: (according to CBS-12, West Palm Beach).
"Some animal activists say the trainers are now taking extreme measures to prevent further loss, including using anabolic steroids on racing dogs.....
Besides getting a better performance, they also help keep female greyhounds from going into heat and not race.....
Testosterone in Greyhound racing dogs can also serve as a performance enhancing drug. Since greyhound racing is gambling, there is a certain word for that and it is called cheating. That is why this bill has been brought forward so we can ban the use of harmful steroids and protect the integrity of the industry."
I wondered, where are the statistics that support his contention of "besides getting better performance" ? He didn't provide any. He just made an accusation, unsupported by anything akin to a fact. He also referred to the perfectly legal use of low-dose testosterone as an estrus suppressant, as "cheating".
Curious, isn't it ?
At any rate, tenacious researcher, Dick Ciampa, with an assist from Dr. Christopher Molnar---who does the US race-results inputs to Greyhound-data.com---decided to do his research for him.
Here are the results of their expansive and comprehensive research:
"This study is from January 1, 2017 to December 15, 2017 for all Florida greyhound tracks.
There were 320,400 individual runs, (remembering 8 dogs in a race, 7 in some and 6 in others), in the State of Florida from January 1, 2017 through December 15, 2017.
Of those 320,400 runs 171,614 were made by females and 148,786 were made by males. The percentages are as follows:
Females accounted for 53.56% of the runs
Males accounted for 46.43% of the runs.
Obviously, females had more opportunities to win than males did.
Females won 21,508 races for a percentage of 52.29%
Males won 19,619 races for a percentage of 47.70%
You or I can conclude, without a shadow of a doubt, that the legal low amount of testosterone given to female greyhounds in the State of Florida is NOT A PERFORMANCE ENHANCER."
So, as we can see, by looking at the FACTS--- female greyhounds are still the virtual equals of males. Just as they always have been---both before and after the use of legal amounts of testosterone were employed to prevent females from coming into "season". They won races in almost exact proportion to their opportunities---as they always have.
Another myth evaporates.
copyright, 2017
Dennis McKeon