4-year-old Conquest Two Step (pictured below) is dead from a training injury suffered Saturday at Santa Anita (euthanized Monday). We know this because this was a top-tier colt being prepped for a top-tier race. Thus, it was widely reported. And of course with that, comes the garbage…
Trainer Mark Casse (Blood-Horse):
“It’s tough on everybody. Dory and Ernie have a lot of horses, but this horse was very special to them. Dory’s screen saver was a picture of him and Ernie. These horses — unless you’re involved in it — it would be tough to understand. They’re family members.”
Co-owner Ernie Semersky (Facebook):
“With heartfelt sorrow, Dory and I numbly announce the loss of our treasured pal, Conquest Two Step. Everyone who met him was captivated by his beauty and charisma. More than his world-class athlete status, he was a playful, charming lad who loved to run. Dory and I always felt he looked as if he was playing when he was out on the racetrack with the other horses, yet his talent level was so high he usually became the leader! In fact, out of his nine races, he won three, placed in three and showed in two.
In the summer of 2013, Two Step fractured his leg, and with surgery, best care and rest, he came back to race again. He achieved his highest honor just a few months ago by winning the Palos Verdes-G2 Stakes. Unfortunately he broke his hind leg while exercising last Saturday, and our vet had to make the difficult call to put him out of his pain last night. We know that we join in with many others who won’t ever forget this magnificent colt.
In sorrow,
Ernie, Dory and Team Conquest”
In a word, revolting. They enslave and exploit (to the tune of $300,000+ in just 11 starts) a helpless animal and then cry when he is killed as a direct result of their ignoble actions. “Family member,” “treasured pal,” “the leader!” – “playing when he was out on the racetrack”? These people make me sick.
And they make him race again after he broke his leg the first time . Truly right, disgusting, it’s like explaining the gospel to these people. They just don’t get their cruelty, don’t see it
I read about this poor colt yesterday on the PR and had the same reaction, Patrick…it made me SICK. These disgusting people risked his life time and time again…even after he broke his leg the first time they didn’t let him stop. Now they killed him. And they’re numb and filled with sorrow. So sorrowful that they’ll not risk any more horses’ lives?
The amusing side is the “if you aren’t in it you don’t know” culture that these vile, disgusting people promote. The problem is anyone with a brain and a conscience knows…in it or not…that it is an immoral sport run by the most despicable people who either allow and condone the inhumane treatment of these majestic creatures, or look away and therefore condone just the same.
Exactly, raysaputelli. I don’t need to be employed by circuses to realize the suffering of the animals enslaved in them….or with SeaWorld to acknowledge killer whales don’t belong in a swimming pool…nor in the horseracing industry to clearly see the non-consenting horses are being crippled and killed every single day. And to add insult to injury, it is an unnecessary industry…NOTHING about this industry benefits the horses. It’s solely for human entertainment and for measly jobs. Leave sentient creatures out of your betting “fun” and find your thrill kicks with inanimate objects. And if it’s your job, get one that risks your own life!
Someone posted here that horses need jobs, need a purpose. That’s the biggest pile of BS that racing apologists always like to claim. PEOPLE need jobs…animals do not. If that’s an argument you’d like to defend, at what point can the animal “retire”?…at what age does the racehorse begin his miserable life of retirement? And what about all those unemployed horses living at Old Friends and the TRF facilities and in sanctuaries and on personal farms, etc?…all miserable without jobs?…without purpose? That is a ridiculous claim but with racehorses dying every day doing their “jobs”, one would think you – racing supporters – would come up with a more believable excuse.
Their hearts are broken. All I can do is shake my head and wonder about these people and their synapses.
The horse already broke a leg and endured so much and now they finished him off and they are so upset.
Do they not see what they did to their horse ?
It’s all about money. It’s easy to see how money is the root of all evil.
Isn’t it ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’….and these people prove it over and over again, at the expense of these beautiful, remarkable animals.
ERNIE SEMERSKY and MARK CASSE you guys are really having yourselves on big time.
You think that the crap that you wrote about Conquest Two Step is going to be believed by the public. Well I’ve got news for you – the public are not stupid and quickly see through such crap. What you have both stated publicly will be regarded as one of the most hypocritical statements ever made by a racehorse owner and trainer.
You had the audacity to declare how much you “loved” this horse! You “loved” this horse so much that when he fractured his leg you had him operated on for the sole reason of keeping him racing in order to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars. To hell with his welfare – the racehorse vets and surgeons who carry out these “fix it” operations are also accountable knowing that there is a real risk of the horse breaking down when it resumes racing. Eleven starts for $300,000, yeah that sure is “something” for the likes of you to push him beyond his limits with his suspect leg because this 4 year old colt could possibly do very well and if so, end up as a serving stallion. I hope Kathleen can find out if it was the same leg which broke which led to his death but if it wasn’t, it is highly likely Conquest was compensating for his “fixed up patched up” leg and put too much pressure and stress on the one that broke which caused his death. This is a common scenario in horseracing.
“Unless you’re involved in it – it would be tough to understand” oh please, do you really think that one has to be a racehorse trainer or owner to know what goes on with these horses. “..he looked as if he was playing when he was out on the racetrack..”. I can assure you that no horse “plays” when he is on the racetrack. “He achieved his highest honor just a few months ago by winning the Palos Verdes-G2 Stakes”. His highest honor – did Conquest relate this to you? It was highly likely that whilst being whipped to win this race he suffered another stress fracture and could not relate to you that that race flattened him and caused him pain and injury. Did you bother to have an MRI, scintigraphy and radiography tests done on him? Obviously not – you preferred to play Russian Roulette with this voiceless, defenceless, noble young horse. “Unfortunately he broke his hind leg while exercising” – you guys need to retract that statement and replace it with THE TRUTH “he broke his hind leg whilst being placed under unreasonable, unnecessary and unjustified stress and pressure on his already damaged body in intense training for a top-tier race ahead of him”. You might think you’re fooling the public but you are not, you are fooling only yourselves. You can now live with what you did to this colt, CONQUEST TWO STEP.