5-year-old Gingerbred Girl’s last place finish in a $5,000 claiming race Saturday at Suffolk Downs was described thus:
“Gingerbred Girl trailed, lost contact with the field before the half-mile pole and was put to strong right-handed whipping to the final furlong while steadily getting further behind.”
To repeat, she trailed and lost contact with the field before receiving a “strong right-handed whipping,” a whipping, by the way, that bore no fruit – Gingerbred finished 44 1/4 lengths back. 5th place in this race, the best jockey Rigo Sarmiento could hope for, was worth $270. Mr. Sarmiento should be arrested for animal abuse.
Gingerbred Girl has only been raced five other times. Follows are four of those:
7/28/12, last of 11 – trainer/owner David Wallace
6/16/13, 13th of 14 – trainer/owner Charles Bell
6/27/13 (11 days after 13th-place finish), 6th of 7, 30 3/4 lengths back – Bell
7/14/14, last of 8 – Bell
Charles Bell and Rigo Sarmiento – a pair of idiots –
It’s appalling – thank you for exposing this.
What are the stewards doing ? However, there are little to no rules concerning the whipping of horses, which is outrageous. There are plenty of abusive sadistic jockeys around and no protection for the unfortunate horses.
I have a friend who watches races and often tells me about the unmerciful whipping that goes on day after day.
I have lost any tolerance I had for the individuals that abuse animals. Perhaps jockey Rigo Sarmiento should receive a “strong right-handed whipping,” there is absolutely no excuse for this abuse!
Gingerbread Girl has had very lengthy breaks between her races. And it certainly hasn’t made a difference. No matter, they kept racing her anyway and while they were at it, they beat the hell out of her. Unbelievable.
You are absolutely correct, Jean Hattie…there IS no excuse for this abuse. No excuse but this is the way it is done in horseracing – horses enduring extreme whipping for a measly $270.