Unraced 3-year-old Major Battle “fell and died while breezing” at Belmont yesterday. According to the Gaming Commission, the cause is unknown at this time, but fear not – the “case continues.” The colt was being trained by Kathleen Feron (yes, that Kathleen Feron). Major Battle is the 26th equine athlete to die at Belmont Park this year.
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Kudos to Pat Battuello for compiling this data, it’s a horrible problem everyone want’s to deny and poor DEAD HORSES TELL NO TRUTHS!
Yes, Patrick, thank you for compiling this data. The pro-racing folks will babble that there are “only” 24 TB’s a week dying on America’s tracks but those are the ones we know about. The racing industry wants to keep the deaths of these athletes behind closed doors so there are many more than 24 a week. It is difficult, and time consuming, to get the racing industry to give up the names of the dead because they want to keep their dirty secrets out of the public domain and who can blame them? Anyone who understands marketing knows that negative publicity can hurt the bottom line and we all know that racing is a gambling industry where money is king.
There are laws sitting in Congress that would help to begin to stop the drugging of horses at the race track and to stop the transport and Brutal slaughter of horses while they are still alive in Canada and Mexico. We must get these bills passed as a first step.
Kathleen – agreed.
Racing will not come to an end any time soon, however, in the meantime
steps should be taken to ban the whip, the drugging, 2 year old racing and slaughter. Any Government that does not do the right thing by these animals is condoning and sanctioning animal cruelty in the horse-racing industry which is a public industry and the more exposure and pressure placed on a Government the more chance there is of something being done for these long suffering horses. The public sustains this industry and i totally agree with Patrick’s stance on requesting the public to stop betting.
For those that continually say that two year olds shouldn’t be raced, I agree with you! However, I have repeated this at least a hundred times, if not more, that racing is a gambling industry, yes, a gambling industry, where money is king. In general, those immersed in this industry are NOT going to allow a two year to graze in a pasture while they develop and mature because that costs money. The purpose of racing is to generate money for the owners and trainers, not COST the owners and trainers money. As long as racing exists, horses will race at the age of two. In fact, they are being broken and go into training at 12 to 18 months of age. The quicker the horse gets to the track, the quicker a buck can be made by the horse’s connections. End of story!
I think it was a guy called Alex Brown who was instrumental in getting a ban on the horses being slaughtered in America. It’s a big problem with Canada and Mexico. Perhaps the answer is legislation being passed by the USA Government banning any horses being transported over those borders for the purpose of slaughter. Rehoming is wonderful but unfortunately there are far too many racehorses being disposed of by the industry for homes to be found for them. In the meantime euthanasia would be kinder.
Carolyn, there is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Alex Brown is anti-slaughter. However, Brown wasn’t the reason that the slaughterhouses were shut down in this country. There was a group of people, led, I believe, by Chris Heyde, who were instrumental in eliminating the funding for the slaughter plant inspections. Slaughter wasn’t eliminated due to the fact that it is inhumane and barbaric. It was eliminated due to lack of money, so to speak.
Also, at one time, Brown was an exercise rider for Steve ASSmussen. ASSmussen had more drug violations to his credit then any other trainer in the country going back a few years. ASSmussen also has defended Scott Blasi and also seems to struggle with the fact that Lasix is a drug. I find him to be reprehensible and one of the poster boys for what is wrong with racing in this country. Again, Brown worked for him and it is safe to assume that he supported ASSmussen, at least while he was employed by him.
Brown and I also got into a heated conversation a couple of years ago because I said that horses were slaughtered in Canada and Mexico. According to Brown, you must always say “allegedly” slaughtered because, unless you flip the lips of the severed heads and read the tattoos, there is no way to know for sure. Actually, he is right about that. We must say that Ferdinand was “allegedly” slaughtered. We, according to Brown, can not simply say he was slaughtered.
Brown was/is part of a sinister and corrupt industry – a gambling industry called horseracing. He did start a blog called ABR and I’m sure horses have been helped, mainly by others, due to his blog. However, it simply isn’t true that he was responsible for shutting down slaughter in this country.
Thanks so much Mary for providing me with this information.
It appears it was a facade.