M B and Tee Whipped to Her Death at Saratoga

From Saratoga’s 7th this afternoon: “[3-year-old] M B and Tee…held on safely [for the first place share of an $83,000 purse], then fell heavily after crossing the wire and was euthanized.” On the track. Here are this pathetic creature’s last two minutes on this planet (hit “Race Replays,” Thursday, Race 7). Please note: the kill is captured at around 2:20; the announcer utters not a word on the matter. Not a word.

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One last thought: Though comfortably out front in the stretch, jockey Junior Alvarado felt it appropriate to continue whipping his mount – right to her death. M B and Tee was trained by Dominick Schettino, owned by MeB Racing, and bred by EH Beau Lane.

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.

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46 Comments

  1. I am so appalled at this – wasn’t this jockey the same one that rode Amira’s Prince on Sunday in the Alydar???? Doesn’t matter, all I can say is damn them all in horseracing!!!!!!

    • He hit the horse 5 times. He out the whip away the last furlong. Watch the race before all you ignorant people respond. Alvorado would die of exhaustion himself before whipping a horse to death.

  2. I am SO SO ANGRY I COULD SPIT AND SCREAM AND MORE believe me…. WHEN are some of these egotistical idiots going to really care for these beauty’s when all they do is work as hard as they can to do what ??? Make money for the ignorant assh-les… THEN they die or are shipped to slaughter when used up by THEM ALL…. Come on people wake UP>> Their still BABY’S for god sake… So senseless.. innocent living animal DEAD ….

  4. What a bunch of aholes, none of you know your ass from your elbow, the horse was whipped to death, really.? You have a copy of the necropsy? Cause without it what your stating and publicizing is “slander”

    • Concerned, welcome to HRW where implications are enough. To say she was whipped to death is “SHOCKING” to the layman. Shock value is what they seek…

      • AC2…HW doesn’t create the shocking statistics, it is only reported here. And I would hope the tragic death of this filly was shocking to more than just the “layman”. But I doubt it. I can only try once again to understand how a death like this is acceptable to you.

      • Anyone who watches the horse as it lay dying can get enough “shock value” and not have to read or listen to any comments, AC, and you know it.

        So now instead of “heart attacks” (which horses do not suffer from) it is now the horse “passed from cardiovascular collapse” brought about by ????

        Pushed to the limit… unmercifully whipped… crossed the wire and collapsed…. horse dead. These are the facts, period !

      • In my laziness I have been commenting on this one with out reading or watching the video. Until now..

        Patrick your flamboyance is really showing through on this one. The need for “Shock value” has you looking awful desperate. “Whipped to her death” not hardly. I counted 4 time he used the stick and it was put away before the 1/16 pole. He showed it to her more then anything. The announcer even called her in a hand ride at one time.Then she goes an 1/8 of a mile after the wire before going down. Was he sticking her after the wire or while the vet was euthanizing her?? Is this what it is coming to?? Making the video available was not your best move.

        Joy, Respectfully to your question of my acceptance. I could tell you I don’t know the horse or the connections but I believe you are talking about the big picture. Not this one horse. So I can honestly tell you that I do not at this time have a good answer for you. Please feel free to pester me until I figure it out….

      • Yes Patrick she was hit a total of 4 times in the entire race. All of which where more than a 1/16 of a mile before the wire. She galloped out approximately and 1/8 of a mile or 1 furlong. You know those striped poles that line the track are there for a reason. She was on her feet for a total of 3/16 of a mile after the jockey used the whip. That may not seem like a long distance but go out and walk it and you will see. By your post after that the horse was euthanized. In the best case would take the vet 5 minutes to take care of. So how does that constitute “Whipping her right to her death”??

        Never mind I am sure I will not get an answer to my last question…

        Use of stick in race 7.
        By my count– M B and Tee 4 times– Dragonberry 9 times– Smart Ashley 3 times–Guilty Verdict 7 times– Por Que Te Sueno 8 times– Illapa– 3 times.

    • So we are “aholes”, “Concerned”?…and we’re not the ones killing horses every single day!…I can’t help but wonder what you call those folks! But since you don’t use your real name, you’re likely one of them. So what are you so concerned about, “Concerned”?…maybe the continual exposure of the maiming and killing of the horses enslaved in this gambling industry?…or the continual decline of horse racing’s fan base?…or the negative perception of racing by the public that multiple racing entities are scrambling to address? Those must be it…because it’s certainly not because you have concern for the racehorses’ welfare.

      Lastly, “Cause without it what your (sic) stating and publicizing is ‘slander'”…that would be libel…and bring it on.

  5. Only three years old. It appears this was only her second race. In her first race she hit the gate coming out.

    Then she is mercilessly whipped and drops dead.

    I hope anyone who was at the track, and witnessed this depravity, never spends another dime on horse racing. It is this kind of behavior, along with those who defend it, and those who do nothing about it, are those who are destroying the industry.

  9. The horse passed away from cardiovascular collapse, which if you knew anything could happen to any animal at any time. I’m sure there’s more of a a productive way for you to curb what your calling animal abuse then falsely reporting untrue facts. Your time could be better spent then siting on the computer stating illegitimate facts!

    • Dear Concerned,
      If you love horses and enjoy the track, then you have a responsibility to look at the CHRB records on sudden cardiac deaths in very young horses trained for racing. Why is this happening? Do you know? The necropsies which are legally required in California show in many the presence of rodent poison in the horses’ systems. Does this concern you? Do you have an interest in the facts? We know that some young human athletes die of sudden cardiac arrest, but the percentage is minuscule. Do you know what the rate is among thoroughbred race horses 5 years and under and the percentages by starts? Is this an acceptable risk rate for those who love horses? I’m eager to hear your point of view.

      I understand the passion/emotion of those who name call, but I hate it because it gets in the way of honest inquiry. Please give me the courtesy of a respectful reply, Concerned. We are individuals who post here. We are not in a club or organization and we don’t speak as one voice.

      • Ms.Grincelis, thank you for informing us of the fact that rat poison could be the cause of these deaths. Obviously the exterminators need to be more careful of where they spread their poisons. Everyone has been assuming illegal drugs have been the cause. I am sure people in here will want to apologize to the trainers they wrongfully accused.

        I too would like to know the stats for which you are asking. I would think that number is minuscule as well. The numbers of horses racing everyday and the one or two monthly cardiac deaths. The percentage has to be barely recordable…

  10. Patrick,

    Heartfelt gratitude that you are revealing the horrors within the racing industry and the massive indifference to the sufferings of thoroughbreds. You don’t have a face book link on your e-mails and I would like to post your daily tallys. Could I have your permission, please, to cut and paste and use on my face book page your analysis and statistics…naturally, I would reference you as source.

    Patrick, again sincere and deep thanks for being the voice of justice for these most beautiful animals.

    Regards,

    Sharon J. Kennedy

    On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 9:12 PM, Horseracing Wrongs wrote:

    > Patrick J Battuello posted: “From Saratoga’s 7th this afternoon: > “[3-year-old] M B and Tee…held on safely [for the first place share of an > $83,000 purse], then fell heavily after crossing the wire and was > euthanized.” On the track. Here are this pathetic creature’s last two > minutes”

  11. Reply to Another Country:
    I have read the necropsy reports for the last several years from the California Horse Racing Board which is a public website I mentioned above re: sudden cardiac death. They produce an annual report on cause of death for all thoroughbred race horses who died in CA. Bear in mind that there are few remaining race tracks in California. There are also few races for the meet seasons per track — for example there could be 8 races with say an average of 8 horses per race per day over two 4 day weeks. That would compute to.512 starts. If you assume no horse races more than one time per meet that equals 512 horses. At Del Mar, 13 died in the latest meet which would be the equivalent of 2.5% of the horses died. This does not account for the sick and injured who did not die. Would we find it acceptable if 2.5% of an elementary school of 512 students died every two weeks? 13 drop dead every two weeks? Actually we would find it unthinkable. [I am not equating humans with horses, just drawing the comparison to illustrate how shocking it is.] There is plenty of drama in horse racing facts.

    It is a mistake to conclude that rodent poison causes sudden cardiac death, and I did not write that. For example, the CHRB reports on the Bob Baffert stables sudden cardiac deaths at Hollywood Park show rat poison in many of the horses. But the CHRB reports only offer the “cause of death” and the latest toxicology findings. No causal connection between the elements found in the blood and body parts and the origin of the death is made by the vets. There is only the observation that the foreign substance is in the horse’s body. Either science has not evolved enough to be conclusive or the CHRB vets don’t find it necessary to posit the reasonably medical probable cause of the death.

    Patrick is doing an amazing job presenting the actual deaths and the horrific numbers. It makes anyone who loves animals sad. Short of ending professional horse racing are there any other solutions which protect the horses? Answers seem to be in short supply from those in a position — jockeys, trainers, owners — to take responsibility. The sport is in its death knell and they don’t seem to get it. I for one do believe that terrible things are being done to these horses in the name of medicine. PETA’s video of the Asmanian stables MAY show the worst of it, but I doubt it. Greed makes people do horrible stuff.

    • First of all PETA video is bogus. It is edited to death. Yes he called the horses rats and Mother F****** but as I have stated before MF can be used as a term of endearment on the track. So please lets not even get into that. Please don’t bring up the no pulse in the foot. I hope you have enough knowledge to know that is a good thing…

      Now is that 13 cardiac cases or 13 horses total of 512?? Because the topic discussed with Concerned was cardiac arrest and the minuscule numbers. Not total deaths.
      Is it just me or would a measurable amount of rat poison in a number of horses is cause for alarm. I have recently had a discussion with a track exterminator and their answer was of course, “won’t bother the horses and is not a secondary killer of cats”. What else would he say???

      • The use of drugs in racing is out of control and that is a fact. Now we are being fed this line of feed contamination as an excuse. Baffert had several young horses drop dead in his barn for some “unknown” reason. These horses are given drugs all the time that are intended to treat conditions/illnesses although the animals do not have any “need” for such drugs. The “need” for the drugs is on the part of the trainer’s “need” to win.

        PS It is very tiresome to hear all these different excuses and denials that spew from this industry and it’s supporters. Further, saying cardiac arrest is the cause of death is ridiculous, if not insulting. Something caused the arrest and that is the true cause of the death.

      • Rose, my answer to your reply is agree, agree, agree. I am a realist. I do not deny there are cheaters using designer drugs. I never have. I don’t believe the stepping in a hole excuse either. I don’t know what Baffert uses but nothing would surprise me…

  12. Love racing and would not change it for tge world accident happen all the time show jumping barrel racing and every other sporting event. How many of you eat meat look into you food supply before you bitch about someone else’s passion. And I won on this race I will be b ack tomorrow as well

  14. Whipped to her death is an insane headline. The BEST thing about this site IMO is that it is fair – has a goal but usually is fair. To use a headline like that makes you lose credibility. The horse won after a hand ride and had a heart attack while galloping. Disappointing.

    • Dan, please check the mechanism of a “heart attack” and the cause. Horses do not get coronary artery disease and do not have “heart attacks”.

    • First, 3-year-old horses should not be dropping dead of “cardiac events.” Second, M B and Tee was whipped in the stretch, so it wasn’t a clean “hand ride.” And third, I hold that each and every horse who breaks down or fatally collapses in a race is whipped to his/her death. Facts, as John Adams once famously said, are stubborn things.

      • Your quote should have been more like”If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequent enough, it will be believed…Adolf Hitler

  15. I POSTED THIS ON MY FB PAGE ALONG WITH THIS PAGE. THANK YOU TO THE PEOPLE WHO WROTE THIS PAGE!!!Please click on this post and read, nothing graphic: I looked all over the web for a mention of this poor innocent little girl only 3 years old . She was just a baby. On the news tonight her name was not even mentioned, they just said a horse was euthanized on the track and went right to the end race which was a photo finish. She had her whole life ahead of her if it wasn’t for this evil racing. She was brutally whipped, then fell heavily then was euthanized right on the track. We animal rights activists cannot keep up with the torture, abuse, mutilation and vicious killing of all of God’s animals. If an evil person/company can make money off any animal that animal is doomed. I find no animal in this dark world today can escape this horror. This is an atrocity against God. If I ever met the owner of this horse and he was lying dying in the street I would walk right over him and not look back. The same for all owners/shareholders in the meat,leather,fur,testing labs,circuses,zoos,rodeo’s etc you get the picture. I KNOW THIS LITTLE GIRL IS IN HEAVEN BUT OUT OF RESPECT FOR HER SHORT BRUTAL LIFE HERE ON THIS EVIL EARTH PLEASE SAY A PRAYER FOR HER. LET HER KNOW YOU CARE ,SHE DESERVES IT! I’m heartbroken, please if you must gamble, gamble when NO animal is involved in the stakes.

  16. That’s ridiculous and is the same propoganda that you accuse the tracks and owners of using. Whipping a horse to death is the act of whipping the horse to the point of death, not a horse suffering a cardiac event while galloping.

    You are going to lose people if you turn the site into one that fights liars by lying.

    • Regardless of the number of strikes M B and Tee suffered, the point is she was urged to run harder, even after fatigue had set in. The very purpose of the whip is to urge the horse to run harder or run faster than she would under natural conditions…if it didn’t do that, what would be the purpose of it? Oh sure, those in favor of using whips will tell you it’s used for “control”, or to keep the horse “focused”. And yes, use of the whip can cue the horse to change leads or to move over. But those objectives can be accomplished with just a slight tap or even a subtle seat adjustment. Whipping – even showing the whip – is for telling the horse to keep running and to try harder. Horses in the wild or in our pastures run only in short “sprints”…not so in horseracing. And even though the jockey is supposed to put the whip away if his horse is clearly out of the race or has reached her best placing, that doesn’t happen. And no one will convince me that whips don’t hurt the horse. I’ve seen the welts and the indentations the whip leaves, and on an animal that can feel a fly land, you can be damn sure they feel the sting of the whip.

      I’m not speaking for Patrick and how his post on M B and Tee was to be understood, but my understanding of the 3-year-old filly being “whipped to her death” was not a literal interpretation. Of course the whipping itself didn’t inflict wounds severe enough to kill her! I didn’t visualize “whipped to death” in the same way I would picture “stoned to death” or “beat to death”. Rather, I realized that the filly was being urged to continue to run beyond what SHE would have done of her own accord BECAUSE OF THE WHIP, THE URGING…either by being struck with it or in being shown it…they know that whip means run. And I do believe she died of a cardiac arrest, an uncommon event in horses, and a 3-year-old at that (it’s the cause of the arrest that should be suspect, because they are unusual in equines). The most common cause of sudden cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm, and there is no doubt M B and Tee was experiencing anxiety, fatigue, discomfort, and then pain…yet she was being told to run harder, faster, longer…whipped to death.

      • Thank you for going a bit deeper, Joy, although it shouldn’t have been necessary. Anyone who has read more than one of my posts should understand what I meant. Deflect, distract, deceive – it’s all they have.

      • Joy so you are claiming fatigue, exhaustion for cardiac distress?? I thought it was illegal drugs.Why not just make it fit what ever Patrick writes. Cover for his pretentious characterization of things. Joy to the rescue again…

      • Joy,
        I understood the presentation of her death by Patrick the same as you. Not literally a whip beating to sudden cardiac death…..but the whip contributes to the pressure to race beyond heart and lung capacity. Thanks.

  17. More to Another Country 2,
    You write, “You are claiming fatigue, exhaustion for cardiac distress. I thought it was illegal drugs.” You are positing a false bright line of either or. How about all the above could cause the death and add — the horse was started too young, was raised in a confined space causing internal stresses which we humans cannot measure yet, and more. The horse could have had a congenital heart defect. Yesterday I read a horse necropsy report which showed atherosclerosis. How does that happen if the horse is a herbivore?

    When I read that there was rat poison found in the bodies of the Baffert sudden cardiac deaths, I puzzled and puzzled over how and why that could happen. Could it be nefarious? Rat poison is an anti-coagulent and deadly to pets and humans. Could it be a stupid greedy person like the trainer who used cobra venom thought it would make the horse run faster some way? Well, after further reading I discovered that rat poison toxicity symptoms can be the same as overdosing with super vitamins, causing renal failure..

    The deaths of those horses is not listed as suspected murder or voluntary or involuntary horse-slaughter. .

  18. No AC2, I am not claiming fatigue and exhaustion for “cardiac distress” (when you say FOR cardiac distress, I understand that to mean the fatigue and exhaustion were the precipitating factors of the cardiac event…no, I’m not saying that). I’ll word it this way…I believe the filly suffered a cardiac “episode” (this episode, no doubt, an arrhythmia) which led to the arrest. And during this time, she experienced symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, discomfort, and finally pain…those are the symptoms (and pretty much they advance in that order) when an arrhythmia leads to inadequate contraction of the heart muscle and therefore inadequate circulation (throughout the body), inadequate perfusion (of all organs, including the heart muscle itself), and inadequate oxygenation (again, to all body systems). Her fatigue and exhaustion certainly didn’t help matters, but they didn’t produce the event (cardiac arrests occurring during times of exertion are more likely to be fatal – the oxygen demand is greater but the heart cannot deliver it).

    Now when you say “I thought it was illegal drugs”, you said that…not I. That being said, I actually believe that drugs played a part – a significant part. And not even “illegal drugs”. We could start with Lasix and its harmful side effects – potassium depletion and dehydration. Low serum potassium can trigger cardiac arrhythmias. Dehydration inhibits adequate life-sustaining oxygenation by the circulatory system. Considering just those two side effects, the heart is going to be taxed…and then force the “owner” of that heart to run at full speed for a distance they would never travel naturally. Young, healthy hearts are set up for fatal cardiac events.

    I didn’t have to make anything “fit” Patrick’s post on M B and Tee…these are just my own thoughts.

  19. I know all too well of what can happen and it sickens me as much as it does you, I want changes to happen, but I don’t want this sport to fade into the background. The “good” people in racing are few and far between and I believe, in order for this sport to improve upon itself, alot of changes need to be made, not including getting rid of the sport altogether.

    What I have been exposed to in horse racing has been nothing but positive, my friend and his partner own a small stable of 3-4 racehorses and they usually have one horse entered at a time per month. None of them are over raced, none of them are given illegal drugs to enhance their performance, when they aren’t fit to run they don’t run. They don’t stay at the track full time, when they aren’t racing or working out, they stay on a friends nearby farm where they can be turned out into pasture to just be a horse. What I see whenever I visit them, are happy, healthy, content racehorses…they loved to be scratched, groomed and fed peppermints. Their eyes are bright, they are sound and they are happy. When they are finished with their racing careers the time is taken to find them a good life in a permanent home to spend the rest of their lives in. If that home doesn’t work out, my friend will take them back and keep them until another permanent home is found. If all racehorses had this kind of life, your view of the sport may be a little different.

    As with my statement above, I am totally against dog fighting, as much as you guys are against horse racing. The dogs are forcibly bred to produce litters of puppies, then these dogs are trained to tear each other up in a ring for profit…wagers are being taken on which dog will emerge victorious from the fight. Alot of dogs are killed for the pure enjoyment of gambling…if one dog doesn’t live up to its expectations it is killed in a violent manner. And as most of you all know, dog fighting has been exposed many, many times through the media, the word has gotten out. Yet, this continues and the punishments are no where near in line with the consequences. It infuriates me that this continues to happen. But this goes to show, that even with exposure, it won’t necessarily put a halt to the cruelty.

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