Thursday, during Santa Anita’s 3rd race, Facoltoso “was pulled up into the second turn and vanned off.” Later in the day, Betcee Cash, running in a $5,000 maiden claiming race at Lone Star, “went wrong [and was] vanned off.” The bones in both horses are (were) still growing.
Once again, without NY-like injury/death databases, the horses’ conditions, or lack thereof, shall remain a mystery. To those who still insist on calling horseracing sport, the burden falls to cite another professional sport whose athletes simply disappear. This is horseracing.
I think we know where the vast majority of the horse that “disappear” wind up. There is a huge need for a national tracking system. It should not be up to the individual states. Horses travel from state to state to compete.
The horse racing industry is not going to take responsibility for the welfare of the horse, let alone stats that shed light on how the animals are used, abused and then discarded.