Two horses were killed in the same Aqueduct race (8th) yesterday afternoon:
7-year-old Quick Money, being raced for the 54th time, “clipped heels and fell heavily to the track and was immediately struck by two foes behind…tragically succumbed to neck trauma.” Dead in the dirt. For trainer Rudy Rodriguez, this makes 12 NY dead in the past three years.
5-year-old Half Nelson “struck the fallen foes [Laila’s Jazz also went down] directly in front falling heavily to the ground then was subsequently vanned off.” Euthanized in the necropsy area. This is trainer Thomas Albertrani’s third fallen athlete since May (Handstand, Zo Sophisticated).
Once again (Princes On Thelake, Wednesday), NYRA has whitewashed the replay from its website. This is horseracing.
Reblogged this on Song of the Horse.
These trainers are just criminally motivated, violators of animal cruelty laws and evidently protected by persons who have taken oaths to protect health, social good and well being. Those would be the vets, regulators and law enforcement. We have a huge failure revealing their hidden fraud by the deaths of these beings who have allowed humans to rule them.
Patrick,
Is there a video on this race or did they make that disappear as they have done others ???
Just read the Paulick Report about this accident. I wonder if Laila’s Jazz is really okay after that fall.
Ray Paulick writes with such coldness about these horses that are dying. His heart is shut down to the pain they endure as they are forced to race and as they die as money appears to be his God as it is for so many of these trainers and owners and for so many who place their bets on these magnificent horses.
#stophorseracing
#stophorseabuse
#stopthekillingofhorses
http://www.paulickreport.com/news/thoroughbred-racing/spill-at-aqueduct-leaves-two-horses-dead-rider-injured/
Kathleen, there was video, but as with Wednesday’s death (Princes On Thelake), they struck it from the website. Racing doesn’t like dead horses. As for Paulick, he’s nothing but an industry apologist who seems to think that occasionally outing a dirty trainer makes him an equine advocate. He’s as much of a fraud as the “sport” he covers.
Patrick,
Have you seen this on HBO ??
‘Real Sports’ Segment a Disturbing Look at Racing’s Drug Culture
“Welcome to ‘Real Sports,’ where we begin tonight with an equine twist on a familiar topic of performance enhancing drugs,” said host Bryant Gumbel. “In sports like baseball, football and cycling, PEDs may be an annoyance to fans and officials, but in the world of horse racing they are causing widespread death. All across America these days in numbers that are far higher than the rest of the world, racehorses are dropping dead on the track. Behind that alarming trend, experts say, is a rampant drug culture, one governed by greed.”
The horse racing segment on the 26-time Sports Emmy-winning cable program debuted on Tuesday and will be replayed multiple times throughout the next month. It focused, in part, on the PETA video charging the Steve Asmussen stable with animal cruelty, but also highlighted problems going back to the winter of 2012, when a spike in fatal breakdowns at Aqueduct led New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to appoint a special task force that would make preventative recommendations, along with the California Horse Racing Board’s investigation of the seven sudden deaths in trainer Bob Baffert’s stable.
It was ugly, and not just because of the series of videos and photos (22 by my count during the 20-minute segment) showing serious breakdowns, multi-horse spills, flapping fetlocks, dead horses, and even a horse being euthanized.
Bernard Goldberg, who did the reporting and interviews, talked briefly about the pageantry of events like the Kentucky Derby that get so much attention this time of year.
“But there’s another picture of horse racing in America,” said Goldberg, “a darker picture, one of a widespread drug culture that puts both horses and jockeys in danger.
“Just about everyone knows about the drug scandals in big time sports,” Goldberg added, “but they’re nothing like what’s happening in the so-called sport of kings, where trainers routinely drug healthy horses to make them run faster and injured horses so they can run through the pain. And the result is often disaster.”
Penn National racetrack veterinarian Dr. Kate Papp was introduced by Goldberg as being from the “part of an industry that often hides what’s going on from the public, refusing to release accident rates and autopsy reports. And when a horse goes down, they cover it up…literally.”
Patrick,
I agree that Paulick is a fraud. He pretends to care for horses. No one can truly care for horses and writes the kind of reports that he does that glamorizes horse racing and that panders to owners and trainers alike. He shows Absolutely no compassion for the horses that are being drugged and dying in record numbers and for the horses that are forced into slave labor in these claiming races.
His comment at the beginning of the post states his position.
“Whether you thought it was an agenda-driven “hit piece” or a sensationalized reflection of a troubled industry, the “HBO Real Sports” investigation of drugs and equine fatalities in Thoroughbred racing was painful to watch.”
It was not sensationalized. It was Truth.
Hit Piece ?? I think not. These horses are dying in huge numbers and he knows it. HBO story was no hit piece but a fraction of the story that goes on daily in the racing world that he does not want to write about. He is embarrassed that this truth is coming out.
He said it was painful to watch. Why ? Because he knows that he lies about what is really going on daily and hourly and minute by minute and he covers up the real truth about the terrible abuse in the industry that he is making money from.
If he told the truth about what he knew was going on, he would be out of a job.
Painful to watch ??? What about the pain that these horses go through every day of their lives.
He is like Judas that betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. They all are. the trainers, owners, jockeys and gamblers.
They are all creating seriously Bad karma and I for one, hopes it comes around quickly and shuts horse racing down completely.
http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/real-sports-segment-a-disturbing-look-at-racings-drug-culture/
Real Sports’ Segment a Disturbing Look at Racing’s Drug Culture continued excerpts fro article on HBO
http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/real-sports-segment-a-disturbing-look-at-racings-drug-culture/
Penn National racetrack veterinarian Dr. Kate Papp was introduced by Goldberg as being from the “part of an industry that often hides what’s going on from the public, refusing to release accident rates and autopsy reports. And when a horse goes down, they cover it up…literally.”
Papp, who testified before a U.S. House Committee in 2012 about medication abuse in racing, talked about a horse named Prima Zip that she treated at Penn National last year. “X-rays showed a stress fracture of one hind leg,” she said. “I was sure Prima Zip needed rest.” When the City Zip colt’s connections opted to run him in a $5,000 claiming race in November, Prima Zip was pulled up with a catastrophic injury and later euthanized.”
Goldberg then turned to the Aqueduct carnage, interviewing Kentucky Horse Racing Commission Equine Medical Director Dr. Mary Scollay, who was a member of the Cuomo task force. Scollay called the high death rate in the winter of 2012 “very disturbing” and cited the lucrative purse levels Aqueduct was offering. “When the purse is worth more than the horse, the horse becomes a commodity,” she said.
Goldberg picked up the story from there.
“The dead horses included one called Coronado Heights, which, it turns out, received 17 injections in the week before he died. The horse’s trainer wasn’t some low-level rookie. He was the leading money winner in all of America, Todd Pletcher.
And Pletcher is not the only top trainer who’s had medicated horses die. In 2013, Kentucky Derby winning trainer Bob Baffert was investigated after seven of his horses suddenly dropped dead in California, most from heart attacks. The racing board found that Baffert didn’t break any rules or act improperly, but each of his horses had been on this: Thyroxine, a drug that increases heart rate. Baffert says he stopped using it.”
“Then,” Goldberg went on, “there’s Steve Asmussen, who’s among the sport’s all-time leaders in career wins with over 6,000, but also has 28 drug violations. Asmussen says the reason he has so many drug positives is because each state has its own set of rules, which he says makes it easy to make a mistake.”
That led the segment into the PETA video, compiled by an operative of the radical animal rights group who gained employment in Asmussen’s stable last year. Goldberg briefly interviewed Scott Blasi, Asmussen’s longtime former assistant who is seen in much of the PETA video using profane language, discussing horse injuries, the illegal use by jockeys of electrical devices on horses and treatments such as pin- firing and shock-wave machines.
“You’re calling these horses rats and (expletive) and then you say you really care about them,” Goldberg said to Blasi. “Who are you kidding?”
Blasi, in his first on-camera interview since Asmussen reportedly fired him days after the PETA video surfaced, stammered: “When you look at it, you’re taken back, but I think if anybody could understand everything that we put into this, and how much care these animals get…”
Goldberg brought up a filly named Finesse, who died of an apparent heart attack at Oaklawn Park after finishing second in a March 21 race.
“Was that horse on drugs?” Goldberg asked.
“Lasix. That’s it,” Blasi told him.
Goldberg said Arkansas authorities kept Finesse’s autopsy secret but that a track veterinarian told “Real Sports” the filly was “on a cocktail of drugs: Lasix, clenbuterol and Thyroxine – the same drug found in the seven horses that died under trainer Bob Baffert.”
Goldberg asked Asmussen what drugs were given to Finesse.
“She did race on Lasix,” the trainer said.
“Just Lasix?” asked Goldberg.
“She was treated with, as you mentioned, legal limits of therapeutic medications. Clenbuterol. It’s a bronchodilator. We do feed Thyroxine.”
to be continued in next post
On June 4, another investigative program, Showtime’s “60 Minutes Sports,” will focus its attention on the subject of drugs and horseracing. It doesn’t figure to be any prettier.
‘Real Sports’ Segment a Disturbing Look at Racing’s Drug Culture
part three
5/22/2014
http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/real-sports-segment-a-disturbing-look-at-racings-drug-culture/
Goldberg pointed out that Thyroxine “speeds up metabolism and heart rate” and tried to connect the thyroid drug to Finesse’s heart attack.
“Feeding Thyro L (a brand of Thyroxine) is not to increase the heart rate,” said Asmussen.
“But it does,” Goldberg interjected.
“One of the side effects of it,” said Asmussen.
Goldberg then said of Asmussen. “He says he’s done nothing wrong, that PETA’s allegations are untrue and that the drugs given to Finesse were not only safe but legal in the industry and widely used.
But others say that is precisely the problem: evidence of a pervasive drug culture that is dangerous to both horses and jockeys.”
Goldberg then visited South Florida jockey/exercise rider James Rivera, who was paralyzed and suffered brain damage one morning when Bill White-trained Flyfly Fly Delilah broke down while training in November 2008.
“Real Sports” got ahold of the 2-year-old filly’s veterinary records and showed them to Dr. Papp, who said the combination of medications Flyfly Fly Delilah had received suggested some kind of “underlying painful or disease condition because this horse was being given anti-inflammatories and pain maskers…and then that combined with anabolic steroids, which is meant to bulk up a horse, can be quite deadly, and obviously it was in this case.”
James Rivera’s wife, June, a former jockey, was distraught when she saw the vet records. “We have three kids,” she said. “It changed their lives.”
“But it’s what hasn’t changed in the last six years that angers June Rivera and other critics of the sport,” said Goldberg. “Across the industry, rules and enforcement against drug use, they say, remain as lax as ever.”
Goldberg spoke with Dr. Scollay again, asking her how many states outside of New York have adopted the recommendations of Gov. Cuomo’s task force – recommendations, incidentally, that were widely credited for causing a significant reduction in horse deaths at Aqueduct.
She struggled to name a state.
“The answer is none, right?” said Goldberg.
“Perhaps other racetracks in other jurisdictions looked and said, ‘Well, that’s not our problem and so we don’t need to respond to it,’” Scollay said. “There’s no excuse for us not doing better than we are doing.”
That wrapped up the segment, with Gumbel and Goldberg back in the studio to discuss it.
“Bernie, I hope I get these names right,” Gumbel said. “Pletcher, Baffert, Asmussen –trainers like them. Why aren’t these guys being punished?”
“Because they’re not breaking the rules, for the most part,” said Goldberg. “They all have drug violations, but they’re not breaking the rules, and here’s why: The drugs that they are administering are legal. Let me give you one example. Baffert had seven horses drop dead, most from heart attacks. Investigation in California and he’s cleared. Why? Because the drugs are legal. But he was giving all of his horses drugs for a thyroid condition and he never tested to see if they had a thyroid problem, and he’s cleared.”
“So who’s responsible for speaking for the horses, for protecting the horses?” asked Gumbel.
“The trainers and the owners and vets would say, ‘We care about the horses,’” said Goldberg. “You heard somebody in this story say it – Blasi said, ‘I care about the horses.’
“They all say they care about the horses, but they are administering drugs to horses that don’t need drugs for any therapeutic reason, only to get them to run faster or to mask an injury that may cause a breakdown and the horse’s demise.”
To which Gumbel replied: “Very disturbing.”
That won’t be the last word. On June 4, another investigative program, Showtime’s “60 Minutes Sports,” will focus its attention on the subject of drugs and horseracing. It doesn’t figure to be any prettier.
Is HRW in cahoots with the Paulick Report now??? Kathleen you need to get a hobby or a boyfriend, something. You have WAY too much time on your hands. If people want to read PR they would go to his blog. Not to mention it is all old news…
Sorry i know i am an outsider looking in but this has to aggravate you guys as well…
No I’m not aggravated. Au contraire, I appreciate Kathleen’s input and her dedication to raising awareness about what this business does to the horse.
Slowly but surely, the curtain of secrecy is being lifted to expose the deceit and lawlessness that this business of horseracing is.
Cleaning up Horse Racing – 60 Minutes Sports
U.S. ANTI DOPING AGENCY’S TRAVIS TYGART RATES THOROUGHBRED HORSERACING’S DRUG PROBLEM A 10 OUT OF 10 – “60 MINUTES SPORTS” PREMIERES WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, ONLY ON SHOWTIME®
Says He’s Ready to Step in if the Bill Passes in Congress to Put USADA in Charge
http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-news/releases/print?id=39090
NEW YORK (June 3, 2014)—The man who tackled Lance Armstrong and the drug problem in professional cycling says the use of performance enhancing drugs in American horse racing has reached a critical point. Travis Tygart, who heads the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, has been approached by Congress and the racing industry to clean up the sport. On the eve of the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of thoroughbred racing’s famed Triple Crown, he speaks to Armen Keteyian for a story about drugs in horseracing on the next edition of 60 MINUTES SPORTS, premiering Wednesday, June 4 at 9:00 PM, ET/PT on SHOWTIME.
Tygart says he has spoken to many people in thoroughbred racing who believe the proliferation of drugs has put the sport in serious jeopardy. “I think it’s down to the wire,” says Tygart. If the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, now in Congress, becomes law, his agency will be ready to regulate and enforce drug use in racing, he says. USADA did the same for the U.S. Olympic Team 14 years ago, says Tygart, so it can do it again. Back then, “We said ‘We’re going to set a plan…develop the rules… and then we’re going to build the capacity to robustly enforce those rules to insure that the rights of the clean competitors are upheld and the integrity of the competition is restored,”’ he tells Keteyian.
“I think you listen to the industry, [the drug problem] has got to be a 10 [on a scale of 10],” says Tygart. Many worry it’s undermining the sport’s image, harming the breeding process and putting riders and horses at risk. There is tremendous pressure to use drugs to win in a multi-billion-dollar business in which there is no national uniform code to control drug use nor a governing body or commissioner to rein it in, says Tygart. “The temptations are through the roof in this sport.”
The Water, Hay, Oats Alliance would welcome oversight from USADA. WHOA was formed by people like Arthur Hancock III, whose family has bred thoroughbreds since the Civil War era and whose farm produced three Kentucky Derby winners. The drugs commonly given to race horses to enhance performance is killing his sport, Hancock tells Keteyian. “We love the horses. It’s bad for the breed, it’s bad for the fans,” he says.
Hancock and his wife, Staci, say drugs can make mediocre horses winners, whose records are then the basis for breeding them and creating a bloodline maybe more based on the drug than natural ability. The drugs lead to shorter careers, too. Hancock says horses that are ailing shouldn’t be put on a drug and made to run a mile as fast as they can go. “In the old days, the farm was the therapy…and then they’d go back [to racing].”
The use of drugs has helped to end many a horse’s career prematurely says Hancock. “When I was a boy in 1950…you had an expectation that your horse was going to run 45 times in his lifetime…now, you know what it is? Thirteen.”
Keteyian also speaks with Phillip Hanrahan who heads the 29,000-member National Horseman’s Benevolent and Protective Association. He says there isn’t a drug problem in his industry, pointing to 368,980 drug tests taken between 2009 and 2012 that 99.2 percent of the horses passed. He says the industry does a good job of policing itself. “Could it be improved? Sure. But it’s not the Wild, Wild West picture that some would have you believe.”
Albertrani, Rudy Rodriguez ! Why am I not surprised. I know Rodriguez has had drug positives and had trouble getting a Kentucky license because he had sanctions pending. However, a long Island developer he trains for and claims for , Michael Dubb along with trainer Dale Romans went to bat for him and all was “forgiven” as per usual in this horse abusing business.
It is an eye opener to review the records of these horses. For instance, Quick Money started out with Linda Rice, was claimed by Rodriguez for $7,500 and several starts later reclaimed by Rice as the owner for $7,500. Quick Money made money for both these trainers. Quick Money was also claimed by Jacobson for his Drawing Away Stable and,again,the horse made money for him and his outfit.
My point is, these trainers have very good winning stats. None of them give a damn about the horse and racing loves their “winning ways” !!! They are emblematic of this corrupt, horse abusing business.
How on earth does anyone think this business can be “cleaned up” when it’s very core is horse abuse. People who care about their horses, do not drug or inject their joints, and do not want them claimed can’t be in this business, period.
“People who care about their horses, do not drug or inject their joints, and do not want them claimed can’t be in this business, period.”
YOU SAID IT PERFECTLY, ROSE!! One CANNOT care about their horses AND do ANY of what the racing industry PERMITS and even ENCOURAGES!…it is an impossibility! Just be honest, racing apologists!…you are in it for your own needs or wants!…and the welfare of your horses be damned!
The Goal of this blog is to see Horseracing end. The only way to make that happen is to get more people aware of the problem of the abuse that is taking place on the racetrack.
The people on this list that have horses and that have raced horses and rescued horses and written books about horses know far more than I do on this subject. My goal is not to enlighten them as they already know the problem. My goal is to Bring Far more people to this list.
According to Google guidelines (101), the way to get a website ranking higher in the search engines is to Post More content on subjects that you want to get ranked for.
My Goal is to see horse racing end. That is the goal of most people I have heard from on this list including Patrick.
In order to have horse racing end, more people need to be educated. My objective in posting content on this subject is to have More People reading and subscribing to this Blog and getting involved in educating others..
It is not old news that horses every day are being abused and killed at the racetrack. It is current news.
The Only way to get more people aware of this issue and this blog is to have more good content on this blog
with good key words. That is a fact.
By adding content on the subject of horse racing, horse drugging, etc that have good key words on the subject is to help this site get more ranking for those key words horse abuse, horse racing and drugs, horse racetracks,
drugs and horse racing, etc. etc. etc .
There may be people on this list that have not seen those specials and if they take the time to watch them and then contact HBO and Showtime and tell them to have more shows on this subject that could encourage Showtime and HBO to have more shows on this subject.
HBO and Showtime had specials on “drugs and horse racing” and millions of people watched. These article have the key words HBO and drugs and horse racing, etc.
I go on the Paulick report and make comments on his articles and tell people to come and read what is on the http://www.horseracingwrongs.com website.
I am not interested in just reading the list of horses as they are posted on this blog that have dropped dead on the track. I am interested in trying to help stop this horrific abuse y adding content that will help more people find this blog.
The only way to stop it is to enlighten more people as to the reality of what is going on. The only way to do that on this blog is to post content that is on this subject.
There are currently 218 people on this list.
I want to see 2 Million plus people on this list.
2 million people plus getting the word out about the abuse of horse racing.
The Only way that will happen is if more people are enlightened as to the horrific abuse that is taking place at the race track.
I know people who work for non profits that follow this list and follow what Patrick posts. These non profits have millions of people that send in money to stop dog and cat abuse.
There are small non profit groups that are trying to stop horse slaughter and horse abuse. There are no non profit groups that are large that are willing to take on race horse abuse. Not yet. HSUS is doing a lot of work for dogs and cats but are not working to stop horse abuse the same way they try to stop dog and cat abuse. They rarely post anything on their website. Nor is ASPCA or PETA taking their millions and trying to stop this abuse.
I would like to see a large non profit group with millions of people and millions of dollars actively trying to stop race horse abuse.
That is my goal in posting to this website and telling people about this website and telling people about this abuse that takes place every hour of every day anywhere there are race tracks and race horses and horse abuse.
Thank you, Kathleen…you are passionate about this issue – the abuse the horses endure while enslaved in the industry, and then the horrors of slaughter they suffer after being thrown away – and you are not sitting idlely by. Thank you for doing all you can to raise awareness at many levels. You are a true and compassionate friend to the horses.
Thank you Joy. You are also a true and compassionate friend to the horses.
We need 2 million more like you that truly love horses to be enlightened and to come forward and help us stop the insanity of racing horses and all of the other forms of horse abuse -horse soring, horse slaughter, abuse at rodeos, etc.
What Patrick does in finding out all this information that is going on takes a lot of time and effort and it is very important that more people find this blog and find it in their hearts to help us stop this cruel vicious “sport” that is so barbaric and heartless.