3-year-old Miss Macarena is dead after breaking a leg in Thursday’s 1st at Aqueduct. But for NY’s singular database, the filly’s death likely would have passed unnoticed – Equibase chart: “MISS MACARENA…took bad steps soon after departing the backstretch, was pulled up and subsequently vanned off.” Yes, “vanned off” to oblivion. This was her first race under trainer Jeremiah Englehart and owner Christopher Dunn. She is the 18th horse killed at Aqueduct since Halloween.
5-year-old Summer Sunset, Oct 31, race 2 (fractured leg)
4-year-old Jesses Giant Dunk, Oct 31, race 3 (ruptured ligament)
4-year-old Knockher Off, Nov 12, race 5 (neck trauma)
9-year-old Cherokee Artist, Nov 28, race 6 (fractured leg)
4-year-old Princes On Thelake, Dec 3, race 5 (fractured cannon)
3-year-old Warrior’s Hero, Dec 4, race 3 (fractured carpus)
5-year-old Half Nelson, Dec 5, race 8 (fractured shoulder)
7-year-old Quick Money, Dec 5, race 8 (neck trauma)
5-year-old Sage Valley, Dec 10, race 8 (apparent cardiac arrest)
5-year-old Ludo Bagman, Dec 11, race 1 (fractured sesamoids)
4-year-old Celebrate We Will, Dec 26, race 1 (fractured leg)
5-year-old Wicked Irish, Dec 27, race 2 (undisclosed leg trauma)
2-year-old Golden Bay, Jan 2, race 6 (fractured leg)
5-year-old Shewreckstheplace, Jan 4, race 5 (fractured sesamoids)
2-year-old Channel of Love, Jan 9, training (fractured leg)
4-year-old Apex, Jan 9, race 2 (fractured leg or ankle)
4-year-old You Take the Cake, Jan 15, race 2 (fractured neck)
3-year-old Miss Macarena, Jan 22, race 1 (fractured leg)
In the wake of Miss Macarena’s death, a meeting was held with some of the NY horsemen (I included a quote from the Paulick Report regarding this meeting – below). To Mr. Bonomo who stated: “We dealt with this before [horse breakdowns and deaths] and were successful”, just WHAT were you “successful” doing???…it certainly wasn’t preventing more breakdowns and deaths, now was it!
Mr. Bonomo, you and the other “horsemen” are full of BS…you can have your meetings until hell freezes over and nothing changes.
Success…success with what?…acting like you’re trying to make racehorse welfare a priority? You make me sick. And we’ve got your number…
QUOTE FROM PR:
“Bonomo, who is chairman of the NYRA Reorganization Board’s Equine Safety Committee, said it was ‘a general communications meeting.’
‘We are doing whatever we think is possible to help stop the breakdowns,’ Bonomo told the DRF. ‘I think we’ll be successful like we’ve been in the past. We dealt with this before and we were successful.'”
Business as usual, Joy.
Joy, the breakdowns will NEVER stop until racing stops.
Good on you Joy!
“The NYTHA and NYRA will meet again in two weeks, or sooner if necessary, Violette said.”
They will meet again….. but how many deaths and career ending injuries are we going to see in the meantime? And what will be the outcome of the next meeting…. more propaganda?
Miss Macarena “took bad steps”. Such a tired old excuse essentially saying that it was the horse’s fault.
And it’s never the fault of the trainer, jockey, owner, stable vet, racing authority vets (still yet to remove their blinkers) racing administrators, abusive riding, drugs injected into the horse, abhorrent whipping, horse being overraced, etc. No, the silly horse “took bad steps” folks!