Uncle Smokey, NY’s First 2014 Victim

Aqueduct (and NY) didn’t waste any time in recording its first victim of the new year when 5-year-old Uncle Smokey “broke down approaching the end of the backstretch and got euthanized” after yesterday’s 7th race (the replay shows him pulling up around 1:15). “Got euthanized.” How charming. Uncle Smokey was ridden by David Cohen, and trained and owned by David Jacobson, the same Davids who lost Coronate at Aqueduct a week prior. And so begins the 2014 Casualty Watch. This is horseracing.

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9 Comments

  1. You neglected to mention that this poor horse, Uncle Smokey had only 5 days between his last two races! What kind of officials would allow this? What class of track? How low can you go?

  3. The same Jacobson that Belmont saw fit to install cameras in his barns there, and has now broken the record for number of wins at Aqueduct !!!

  5. Uncle Smokey was claimed in Oct. 2013 by Jacobson and starting in Nov. he started 6 times for that trainer with 14 days between races, the longest break, and 5 days between his last 2 starts.
    This situation of abuse cries out for rules concerning time between races in order to prevent such abuse, especially in the claiming game where much of this goes “unnoticed. This horse was, literally, run into the ground. The NYRA needs to set rules to prevent such carnage.
    The Task Force that reviewed the record number of fatalities in 2012 at the Aqueduct, the racetrack where Uncle Smokey died, did a lot of good, right !

  6. I hear on the grapevine that Jacobson is single-handedly keeping Aquaduct running, so it’s understandable why NYRA is letting him get away with murder.

    • Seth, I have heard repeatedly over the years that the racing cards need to “fill”. Not surprising that Aqueduct allows Jacobson to run his horses there.

    • Shame on the NYRA ! That is a sorry excuse for allowing such abuse. It will do no good in the end.

  7. What I would really like to say isn’t appropriate to put into writing on this blog…but I am thinking it! But here’s to hoping what goes around comes around…

    RIP Uncle Smokey…your abuse is over.

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