TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1066556
draws out life's tensions in a way alcohol never really did. "Sometimes if I play early in the morning it's kind of like a meditation," Hancock ex- plains. "Afterwards you just feel so much better. Whenever you're uptight or any- thing, you sit down and play some, sing by yourself, and you relax. It's something in- nate, that you either have or you don't. It's in your soul; you're driven to play." If Hancock deals with Thoroughbreds on much the same wavelength, it is hardly surprising that he is so infuriated by the industry's pharmaceutical addictions or that he is such a beacon for the Water Hay Oats Alliance. "Ours is the only sport in the world that allows the doping of its athletes," he com- plains. "If Lasix weren't performance-en- hancing, why would the European trainers use it when they come over? Why do we put 'L' next to past performances? A lot of owners have stepped up—but a whole lot of them haven't. And we do have this bill up in Washington, a chance to put every- body on a level playing field. "When I was a boy, horses averaged 45 lifetime starts. Now it's down to nine or ten. I know Darwin said you can't change genetics for hundreds, thousands of years. But perception is reality and I do think it's a big problem for the future of this game. My children will tell you, their friends say, 'You all are in the horse business? Well, they drug those horses.' Why tarnish such a great sport like that? It's like driving when you've had two or three drinks: you're fine as long as you don't have a wreck. But you have some major accident on the track, which is inevitable probably, that's when they'll smell alcohol on your breath." It is, of course, an analogy he would un- derstand better than most. New Year's Eve, 1988, is the last time Hancock took a drink. The day Sunday Silence turned three. People ask him why, and he jokes,