Seven Nation Army, says the NYS Gaming Commission, “sustained a catastrophic injury and fell” while training at Belmont Monday, and is dead. This poor boy was nine years old and had been under the whip 49 times. But his morally-challenged exploiters – Charlton Baker, et al. – wanted more. Horseracing is evil. Horseracing must end.
They keep saying horseracing must end its still going on
Even pro racing folks are starting to acknowledge the end is coming. Handles are down, field sizes are down, trainers are leaving daily, new owners aren’t really jumping in, and the foal crop keeps dropping. That doesn’t mean they aren’t going to do down without clawing, kicking, and fighting, but as Fred/Joan said, if it weren’t for the racinos, those tracks would have shuttered years ago. As it is, at least in my state, I know the casinos are trying to fight the coupling. They know it’s a complete money loser, and in general, a big pain in the ass for them.
Saturday is no different then a regular racing day except horses are worth more money more breakdowns on elite horses
Barb,
As long as horse racing exists, there will be reports of horses being crippled, maimed and killed. Many people want to see an end to this egregious cruelty to horses. We keep saying horse racing must end because racing is inherently cruel and deadly to horses.
Aqu has been having breakdowns horses collapsing after racing training and stall accidents
Racing is only still going on because of all the the subsidies mandated by law provided by casino $$ being spent on propping up this ” crooked , crummy, gamboling game” Subsidies also provided by hard working taxpayers in the way of state financing of track & grandstand construction as well as breeders & purse supplements derived by HUB tax monies levied by the state as is the case here in Oregon. People are wising up slowly but surely to the fact a better wager & experience is to be had by gamboling at casinos & lotteries rather than on abused horses run so many times to their deaths. We have seen that repeatedly many times when a horse had earned MANY thousands of $$ only to be raced 1 more time ending up with broken bodies & having no retirement ever.
NY has been extra suck ass the past three years…I mean that stupid saratoga meet last summer was a HORROR freak show of DEATH and destruction. I will never forgive NY for all the KILLS they have done.
Aqu has been seeing more fatalities in the last week racing training and in gate
While next Saturday will be, arguably, the biggest day of the year in the horse racing calendar, make no mistake about it – horse racing is dying. All the pomp and pageantry will be on full display for the Kentucky Derby, and the industry will, as is their wont, do their level best to hide the real story of flagrant animal abuse, death, and cheating.
Education, truthfulness and the ability to convince those horse racing fans that they are a) being duped and cheated; and b) are unwittingly participating in a sh*t-show that routinely – read: daily – kills and horribly mistreats horses, is, in this writer’s humble opinion, the best way accelerate the demise of this so-called ‘sport.’ While the upcoming Derby, the Triple Crown, and the Saratoga meet are the highlights of the horse racing year, each year finds more and more tracks shutting down with few- if any- replacing them.
Yes, they’ll all go kicking, clawing and screaming to the bitter end, but, as a former bettor and former horse racing fan, you won’t catch me placing any bets – at any odds- to see horse racing thrive over the next few coming years. I loved and lived for this game – now I hate it – and I will be most happy to see it go.
-Joe
Al that`s needed for this industry to disappear faster is for people to actively & physically participate with the handling of the horses as we have done. The cleaning of the stalls & seeing the sad living conditions of many of the horses. The use of lip chains,severe bits, rough handling experienced on an almost daily basis would be enough for most people who like horses to quit. We participated actively for > 25 years at tracks, private farms. Our family started way back with harness racing in the 1930`s with our family matron in New Jersey & later after moving west became involved with flat racing.
Thank you Joe!
Believe me, it was not easy for me to accept the fact that my chosen pastime was so fraught with horror, deceit, cheating, abuse and contemptuous, vile, behavior from all those in the industry. It took some time for me to come to grips with the fact that this nonsense was not a mere aberration – but the way of life for those involved in horse racing!
Having spent most of my time with fellow bettors at the track, most were not aware of the dark underbelly of racing, while, yes, it’s true, some chose to ignore it. But the depth of depravity that occurs on a daily basis in horse racing had become, for me, too obvious to ignore. As a handicapper, one must use math and logic to ascertain the potential winner of a race. Well, it’s completely “illogical” – with apologies to Star Trek’s Mr. Spock – to ignore these facts – another reason why I quit.
But I do contend that once enough bettors stop supporting the races, the game will go, for good. Politicians will no longer be able to justify the huge money grants if no one’s interested, or worse, [for them] they might [gasp!] lose votes.
-Joe
Joe, the Basketball playoffs have been total fun to watch! Real sports 🏈 🏀⚾️ Rock. We don’t need a faux “sport”…that KILLS.
I don’t know how long you witnessed the “depth of depravity” in horse racing on a daily basis before you got to the point that you could not ignore it anymore, but I am glad that you finally did make your mind up to stop participating as a bettor.
As I’m sure you know, this industry would like people to think “this RARELY happens” when a horse is FATALLY injured and dies or is killed.
It’s extremely important to keep in mind that PETA says 3 (three) horses are killed every day in horse racing while HORSERACING WRONGS says that 6 (six) horses are killed every day in horse racing.
So it’s absolutely fair to say that FATAL INJURIES to racehorses RARELY HAPPENS LESS THAN SIX TIMES A DAY!
All I can say is that the horse racing industry did an amazing job -and still does – of hiding the “shortcomings’ of their sport. Like most of my fellow bettors I did not see a plethora of daily breakdowns, particularly since we would concentrate on only one or two circuits -usually New York and California.. And when we did see horses fall, none of us automatically assumed that they would ALL soon be considered dead.
Many of my fellow bettors had no idea that a horse who breaks a leg has just received a death sentence. So yeah, it takes some time, and a lot of education, as well as serious and truthful reporting to realize exactly what the industry is hiding.
Keep in mind that the figure of SIX horses killed daily in racing, and I have no reason to doubt these facts, encompasses ALL tracks, all circuits, including thoroughbred, quarter horses, standard bred and steeplechase races. So it took some time, as well as the behavior of the cheating trainers brought to the forefront of the news that got me to investigate further.
Professional handicapping takes a lot of prep time before the races to study, analyze the races, determine which races to bet, which races to pass, and do the updated speed figures on each horse. So like most, I was not so much concerned with a vet’s job of studying a horse’s physiology, as much as what condition the horse would be in today, and how fit he/she was in his/her to attempt to win the race. Then one must consider the odds and what your payoff will be to determine if it’s even worth placing a bet. Many ‘iffy’ entrants often go off as the favorite at low odds, so in these instances, passing the race is often the best strategy.
Now, if I decided to pass, let’s say the last few races on a card, my former colleagues and I would often leave the track early, counting our winnings or commiserating our losses. Obviously, if a breakdown occurs then, we’d miss it. So yeah, coupled with the racing industry’s nefarious ‘deceit, deceive, and deflect’ strategy, it was easy to assume these breakdowns were just aberrations, sad and unfortunate accidents.
But to quote Sophocles: “A lie never lives to be old”
-Joe
That’s right, Joe. Not only are the kills of horses spread out over the different breeds of horses and all the different race tracks in all the different states that have regulated racing (which doesn’t count unregulated racing, or bush tracks), but you and your fellow gambling friends and associates would not be informed of any STALL deaths or TRAINING deaths as long as the racetrack had any incentive to keep that information hidden; and you know they DO HAVE AN INCENTIVE to keep any and all deaths of horses hidden as much as possible.
After so many years of the industry allowing certain people to get away with what we now can see as obvious (and blatant) cheating, especially at the top level of horseracing, and it finally coming to a head that it made a definite case for a RICO lawsuit.
I don’t support horse racing but I do support the fact that CDI refuses to let any horse with Bob Baffert as the trainer be allowed to run at Churchill Downs. He shows no remorse and neither does Zedan. I think of those two people as “the Al Capones” of horse racing.
They are rotten to the core, and involved in a game that encourages cheating, maiming, mistreatment and animal abuse. Baffert was made the poster boy for cheating. and no longer allowed to race at Churchill Downs- only because they HAD to do something as his ‘sins’ were pretty vile.
Because all the insiders know the end is coming, they stick together like glue in the hopes of prolonging the inevitable demise of racing for as long as they can, which, of course, will be followed by the demise of their $$$ money tree. Every facet of the industry – the vets, the trainers, the jockeys, the horse owners, the track owners and more – all stand to lose everything when the final bell tolls for racing.
Too bad. My heart bleeds for you.
I am still in touch with some of my former gambling colleagues, all of whom are lamenting about the current state of affairs with horse racing. Short fields, infirm horses being entered in races is creating a general ineffectiveness of using the PPs as an indicator of today’s performance, rendering their handicapping less and less effective (something I found out years ago). And while they’re not talking about leaving the game (yet) – most now only attend on weekends and the big days – as the daily cards are not offering any great betting opportunities. Hours of handicapping a race, only to find out that the only horse you like in a 5-horse field is going off as the 2-5 favorite makes you wonder about even going to the races that day.
It’s a step in the right direction, as sooner or later, even these hard-core gamblers will take their business elsewhere – hopefully to the casinos where no sentient being his hurt, killed or maimed in the gambling process.
-Joe