According to Equibase, 5-year-old Soul House finished an unremarkable 7th of 10 in the 6th at Belmont yesterday. Nothing further of note. And if not for NY’s only-one-in-the-nation database, that would be the end of this (non)story. Turns out, though, this horse is dead – “collapsed and died after [his] saddle was removed.” Should be outrage within NY Racing. But as this – adolescent horses just keeling over – is such a regular occurrence (just happened to another 5-year-old at Finger Lakes), none is forthcoming. Curiously, this was Soul House’s first time back under the whip since June of last year. Trainer then and now (in fact for all but one of SH’s 10 races), George Weaver. This is horseracing.
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Soul House’s race record of only 10 lifetime starts by age 5 and a year off between his last two races are evidence enough he should not have been racing. But of course, because his death is insignificant to the industry members – not to mention wanting to keep the deaths of their young “athletes” as quiet as possible – there will be no necropsy, no investigation, no follow-up. Soul House never had a caring human looking out for his best interests…not once in his tragic, short life. Again, I am enraged. HOW do those who claim to love the horse support and even promote this industry?…HOW? Is there a magic number of racehorse deaths that will finally nudge you – racing apologists – to STOP betraying them? What does it take?
Soul House…I realize it’s ridiculous to even “speak” to you here…you’re dead…your body has been dragged to the pit where lifeless, broken dead racehorses are dumped…there is nothing left of you or of the miserable life you were forced to live. But I still must. WE care. WE mourn. WE are trying. I’m just so sorry we never came for you.
I despise this industry.
Joy, I couldn’t agree with you more. My vet came to my barn on Friday to give my horses their vaccines and I asked her if she could think of ANY reason why a horse should be given cobalt. Of course, as we all should know by now, the racing industry allows cobalt to be administered to its horses. After giving my question some thought, she replied that she couldn’t think of ANY reason why a horse would need cobalt. However, we must not forget the motto of the racing industry….drug them and run them….with the hope of “hitting the board”. Cobalt is a performance enhancer and cheating is rampant in racing. Again, for those that don’t seem to grasp the enormity of the abuses in racing, you can’t mix money and animals because the animals always end up losing.
Oh, and then we have the babblers who will say that horses “collapse and die” all the time. Really? My vet says that is just a bunch of nonsense. Horses “collapse and die” due to problems, mainly with the heart, that are initiated through the rampant administration of drugs, both legal and illegal. End of story….
I wonder why all those who support this game and those who profess to “love” the horses do not push for necropsies on horses that just drop dead for no apparent reason. One would think they would be anxious to know what caused the sudden death and maybe keep others from the same fate. Perhaps they already know in some cases but, mostly, they don’t care.
In truth, I don’t wonder at all because the game is brutal for the horse and there is no attempt to make it any better. I would like to know what the apologists and supporters think about these young horses dropping dead and no attempt to find out why.
I couldn’t agree more with these caring comments. The abused and exploited horses are treated like trash or some unimportant collateral damage in this ego and greed-driven industry.