As the racing world mourns another dashed Triple Crown dream, we remind that the lives of at least six Thoroughbreds were snuffed out on American tracks this Belmont weekend:
4-year-old Sweet Teri K, Saturday, Belterra, race 4
5-year-old Lemon Sundae, Saturday, Finger Lakes, race 1
4-year-old Tebows Big Play, Saturday, Golden Gate, race 9
5-year-old Stormdefrere, Saturday, Penn, race 3
8-year-old Lobo Del Norte, Sunday, Parx, race 5
5-year-old X Country Girl, Sunday, Parx, race 7
Five of the six had yet to blossom into full maturity; the sixth, an 8-year-old, was barely a quarter through his natural life span. (Not that that phrase matters – there is nothing natural about the life of a racehorse.) But the wreckage doesn’t end there:
Ferrari One, Friday, Calder, race 5, vanned off
Terrific Treasure, Friday, Churchill, race 6, vanned off
Interest Please, Friday, Evangeline, race 4, vanned off
Nava Nataly, Friday, Golden Gate, race 6, vanned off
Power Boots, Friday, Indiana, race 7, “stumbled badly,” DNF
Karla With a K, Saturday, Arlington, race 8, vanned off
Shakin It Up, Saturday, Belmont, race 9, vanned off
Stormin City, Saturday, Charles Town, race 7, vanned off
Tiger Mike, Saturday, Fairmount, race 3, vanned off
Adriatic Son, Saturday, Golden Gate, race 9, fell, DNF
Storm Haboob, Saturday, Gulfstream, race 5, vanned off
Swilcan Burn, Saturday, Indiana, race 3, bled
Tricky Ricardo, Saturday, Indiana, race 5, vanned off
Really a Hero, Saturday, Eastern Oregon, race 2, vanned off
Devil’s Mistress, Saturday, Penn, race 4, bled, DNF
Between Dreams, Saturday, Presque Isle, race 7, fell, DNF
Here It Tiz, Saturday, Ruidoso, race 2, vanned off
A First Class, Saturday, Ruidoso, race 6, collapsed after wire, vanned off
Tomorrows Wildcat, Saturday, Suffolk, race 5, heat stroke, vanned off
Old World Order, Sunday, Belterra, race 8, vanned off
Fiaker, Sunday, Louisiana, race 6, “took a bad step,” hit the rail, DNF
All, for $2 bets.
To those who wager on horseracing, we implore you to reconsider. And ultimately, you hold all the cards: no more bets, no more races; no more races, no more kills. And – no more separating foals and moms, no more abusing unformed bodies, no more confining, no more whipping, no more drugging, no more doping, no more buying and selling and trading and dumping. No more auctions, no more kill-buyers, no more transport trucks, no more abattoirs. No more pain, no more suffering. No more.
In a landscape that abounds with other gambling options – real sports involving autonomous human beings, casinos, lotteries – hasn’t the time at long last arrived to let the racing horse be? You, the bettor, have within the capacity for mercy. We ask only that you exercise it. Please. For the horses.
Change the rules of no more 2 yo racing, let them mature and bones finish, etc finish growing at least.
Good trainers….will care for their valued horses, but yes the others are the owners decision of getting rid of.
MAKE A PERCENTAGE OF ALL BETTING AND RACING FEES TO BE PUT IN AN ACCOUNT TO PAY FOR THE RETIREMENT OF THESE RACE HORSES THAT ARE INJURED OR TOO OLD TO MAKE ANY MORE MONEY! THAT IS THE LEAST THE RACING SOCIETY CAN DO FOR THE ANIMALS THAT MAKE THEM SOOOO MUCH MONEY!
What about the dog tracks?
Yes, Patrick, those who bet hold ALL the cards because, without the betters, racing wouldn’t exist. Therefore, if you are tired of seeing the breakdowns, tired of the drugs, tired of young horses being maimed, tired of an industry that refuses to do the right thing for ALL the horses that put their lives on the line everyday, please be part of the solution….tell family and friends to STOP betting on the horses!
You all need to get a life!!!! Horses are bred to race and they love it!! Accidents happen!!! END OF STORY
Most of these horses are run into the ground by unscrupulous trainers and owners who drug them, block sore limbs and start them with as little as 3 days and less between races as well as up to as many as 24 starts in 12 months….
You and your kind are the ones who need to get a life and quit placing your $2 bets in support of a corrupt business where horses are abused and killed daily.
Race horses are bred to race. They love it and most of the people involved with the sport love it. All athletes, human and animal, are prone to injury. We should aim our efforts at minimizing injury and death at the racetrack through research and better training methods. The goal should be to fix the sport not end it.
Racing is not a “sport”. It is a gambling business, period.
Well, to all of the horses on this list…living, breathing, sentient creatures with names and stories and quirks and talents and likes and dislikes…according to ROSS WILSON, you just LOVED having to be vanned off, or bleeding, or falling, or hitting the rail, or collapsing, or suffering a heat stroke…or snapping a leg. End of story….
Ross, are dogs bred to fight? If so, perhaps you should reach out to Mr. Vick and offer him some words of encouragement. Are horses bred to be injected with drugs, including Lasix? Are they bred so that they, oftentimes, can enter the slaughter pipeline? What about the horses that are racing bone on bone because their joints have been destroyed? Are they bred to run crippled in order that the bastards that own them can make a buck? Perhaps you, Ross, should get a life! End of story!
Ross, I fear the point here is that they are avoidable “accidents”. If some owners/trainers placed more value on their horses and did not gamble with their lives live a bet, many of these “accidents” would not occur.
Many are bred as a disposable commodity. Breeding is seem by some as a numbers game and the fall out is the vast majority, who then befall a pretty awful fate most of the time.
Look at the dreadful case of Monzante (almost a year ago) public spirited people across USA raised some funds but nothing of any significance from the betting world who lets face it feed of these horses racing. Not enough that they place high prize mony – this simply fuels the fire..
After meeting the majority of people in the racing industry from trainers that charge owners for vet work done on the trainer’s own horses, to vets that will do anything until they get caught at the track, to breeders that breed horses with flaws for a buck, to the Jockey Club that encourages overbreeding, to owners that think of the Horse as a piece of machinery, to carriers that put plates on horses that are lame……my interest in racing is done. Racing horseman are the lowest of those in equine sport. My opinion….bash away….could care less.