Before the 7th race at Aqueduct Saturday, the following happened to Ribbons and Medals. The video speaks for itself. Thus far, silence from the Gaming Commission on the 7-year-old’s status, but hard to imagine he survived…
11 Comments
Comments are closed.
The announcer, in what I call a rather NONCHALANT voice, says “We’re going to have a delay here…” while a racehorse is thrashing around after rearing up and falling backwards into the gate after a false start.
The horse cannot get up on his own. There is no room for the horse to roll over to get on his feet and it looked as though the jockey was probably pinned down underneath the horse.
The back of the starting is either open or closed. I can only speculate that when the front of the gate opens in a false start that the back is still closed. So when the horse reared up and fell over backwards on top of the jockey, they both could have hit their heads on the back door of the starting gate. They definitely hit the ground.
I remember reading about the invention of starting gates being “the greatest invention” for the racing industry. Of course, if money is the only thing you’re thinking about, then, like yeah, it’s really great that somebody else can make a bundle of money off of manufacturing and selling starting gates.
Why did the ambulance show up first…were they already planning this to happen ahead of time?
Horse racing is the only sport that has an ambulance following them all the time. Goes to show how dangerous racing is – both to humans and the horses. Most tracks will stop the racing if the ambulance is broken down (which happened at mountaineer recently), or if the ambulance is off the grounds.
Everyone knows that horse racing is inherently risky and puts horses and riders at extremely high-risk of injuries.
They have to take some measures to be prepared for emergencies. But I wonder why there are gate malfunctions at all. Even without the gate malfunction, this horse “could have” reared up anyway while all of the rest of the horses in the race were already running down the track. IF that had happened, there would have been NO delay and the announcer would be calling the race.
This horse, RIBBONS AND MEDALS, would not be the center of attention. Instead, he would be an afterthought if anything. It’s possible that the announcer might not have even mentioned his name, you know, because they “love” horses so much. 🤮
Also, the junior rodeos, the high school rodeos and gymkhanas have some type of “stretcher” (an old mattress) with people standing by in case a rider gets hurt badly enough to require medical attention. Even if it is running the barrel pattern or the pole bending pattern or the key-hole race in the arena, an accident or medical emergency could happen.
Some years ago this certain person said that “horses are an accident waiting to happen” and I didn’t like that description of horses. But, it’s true. You have to learn safety rules from the very beginning. It’s one of the most important things you can learn about being around horses starting from the ground. One of the pamphlets I had in the 1960s was about putting “”SAFETY FIRST” and it had twenty safety rules.
The ambulance is always by the starting gate when race goes off then follows horses around the track to finish
And speaking of Aqueduct….
This, directly from the pages of the Daily Racing Form:
“All-sources handle at the Aqueduct spring meet was $105,702,625, a decrease of 28.1 percent from the $147,032,499 handled during the 2023 spring meet, according to statistics released by the New York Racing Association.
“There were 16 days of racing and 136 races conducted at this year’s spring meet, compared to 19 days and 162 races held in 2023. Average daily handle was $6,606,414, a 14.6 percent decline from the $7,738,553 averaged a year ago.
“All-sources handle on the 11-race Wood Memorial card on April 6 was $15,318,421, down 23.3 percent from last year’s figure of $19,984,716.
“In an attempt to conserve the turf course because racing will be held at Aqueduct for six of the final eight months of the year, NYRA delayed the start of turf racing by two weeks. Thus, there were only 17 turf races conducted this spring compared to 40 last spring.”
.
Most interesting:
a DECREASE of 28.1% in handle – that’s huge.
a DECREASE of 23.3% on wood Memorial Day – ore of the biggest days of the racing calendar
a DECREASE in average field size to: 6.88 horses per race. Take it from a former handicapper: we HATE small fields and rarely place big bets on them!
All in all, this certainly sounds, to me, like an industry that’s in very deep trouble.
-Joe
Did Ribbons and Metals survive the incident?
The jockey’s name listed as the rider of RIBBONS AND MEDALS on “Horse Racing Nation” in Race 7 at Aqueduct, April 27th, is Eliseo Ruiz.
Under Entries for Eliseo Ruiz on Equibase, he is scheduled to ride six different horses at PARX today, May 1st.
So I am guessing he survived the incident on Saturday with RIBBONS AND MEDALS…? Unless they can pull a switcheroo and have a different jockey to replace him at PARX today.
Silence on the outcome of the horse is an indication of death to the horse in my mind.
OMG, it looked as though he hit his head/neck when he reared up as he was falling backwards, if the back door was shut and he hit himself again, it would have been even worse, although the first hit was bad enough. Recently a horse in Dubai Eldarov something, had an episode that could have been similar, and sustained a ventrally displaced Fx of his C2 vertebrae. ( His owner thought enough of him to fly in equine surgeons from U.S. and U.K. and they were able to operate, but have not heard any updates.)
This Sat thing was probably shown on FOX TV on their Day at the Races Program, for all the world to see. I stopped watching horse racing last year. After the horrible breakdowns of New York Thunder, Maple Leaf Mel, Havnenameltdown, etc. etc. just couldn’t take it any more.
Horse racing needs to stop.
Jill, I’m sorry but if these guys really cared enough about their horses, they would not be subjecting them to this deadly cruelty in the first place. Prolonging the horse’s misery is not what I call “caring” exactly. The horse with the fractured vertebrae may or may not survive but horses naturally move their necks a lot more than humans. I would be surprised if the horse survives for very long after the surgery. That’s if they go ahead and use the horse like a guinea pig to see what, if anything, they can “learn” from the experience of doing the surgery. It may appear as though they care until you stop to think that this routine mistreatment of horses is just that; routine and it’s mistreatment.