Friday, Aug. 16, 2002 | 9:51 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
Initially, it was simply laughable.
Chuckwagon races? In downtown Las Vegas? Yeah, that could be fun.
But a new and entirely different perspective has emerged, one brought on not only by the knowledge of internal wrangling but of the sometimes-tragic consequences of the races. Now the whole idea seems pretty distasteful.
It's not too late for Las Vegas to bail out on its commitment to chuckwagon racing and the Las Vegas Stampede, scheduled for Sept. 19-22 on a vacant 61-acre parcel near the Spaghetti Bowl. But within the week construction of a temporary facility will begin on the site, and once they start moving dirt and building the 10,000-seat grandstands the deadline for withdrawing seemingly will have passed.
It was one thing when there were stories in the Business section detailing the rift between rival wagon racing associations. In fact it was amusing to hear one executive refer to the racers who will be in Las Vegas as "hillbillies."
But that's secondary in light of the revelation that no fewer than seven horses have been killed in chuckwagon races this year, and that the people who make a few bucks off these events come across as indifferent toward the carnage.
I've gotten to where I don't even like rodeos because of the animal-abuse issues, so I've swung to the same side on these chuckwagon derbies. They appear to be something we -- and the world -- could do without.
Aside from this foray into Las Vegas, chuckwagon racing is a Canadian thing. They even have dueling racing associations, each with its own set of drivers that vie for attention at carnivals and fairs.
The one that Las Vegas Events contracted with, the Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association, is routinely belittled by its rival, the World Professional Chuckwagon Association, as a "minor league" on the equivalent of double-A baseball. Additionally, it grates on the WPCA that the CPCA allowed Las Vegas Events to take an inordinate cut of the proceeds.
By contract, 18 four-horse racing teams will compete for $110,000 in Las Vegas and tickets will be priced at $35. But unlike the races in Canada where the drivers share in any revenues gained from advertising on the wagons, Las Vegas Events will keep those monies for itself.
Maybe that's no big deal, but it's enough to keep many if not most of the better drivers from appearing here -- not that anyone in Las Vegas would be able to distinguish a good wagon driver from a reckless or shoddy one. So we'll just call that little item a triviality.
But it's not a triviality when five horses are injured and die during races, when another suffers a heart attack during a race and dies, and when another has to be euthanized following a race, all of which has already occurred on the Canadian circuit this summer.
"Freak accidents," a racing official reportedly said, oblivious to the reality that the deaths occur with some regularity and that as many as 11 horses have been killed in a single year.
The horses in question are all 5-year-old thoroughbreds.
I've got the feeling they'd rather be put out to pasture, which is what Las Vegas should do with this ridiculous chuckwagon idea.
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