From Santa Anita’s most recent Stewards Minutes:
October 18 – “4th Race #10 SURFCUP – pulled up, dropped rider post race, euthanized on horse ambulance.”
October 23 – “Jockey ALONSO QUINONEZ is fined FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS for violation of California Horse Racing Board rule #1688(B)(3) (Use of Whips – causing welts or breaks in the skin) (two offenses), while riding WARREN’S WESLEY in the fourth race at Los Alamitos Race Track on September 20, 2015, and DRAGON FLOWER in the eighth race at Santa Anita Park on October 1, 2015.”
October 25 – “Jockey MIGUEL PEREZ came to the office of his own volition to review the third race yesterday. He believed that the assistant starter prevented his horse from getting a fair break. He believed that the assistant kicked his horse in order to help it break but that it had the opposite effect. There was no evidence of that behavior on the video but we explained that we would speak to the starter and warn him that kicking horses is not permitted.”
October 25 – “8th Race #10 VENTURE CAPITALIST – pulled up stretch (euthanized).”
This is horseracing.
Never heard of a racehorse being euthanased on a horse ambulance before? Most of the time when a horse is euthanased there is unpredictable movement in the horse with it not having control over his body and then they drop. Now if this happened in a horse ambulance, there would be the risk of vehicle becoming unstable, the vet would be confined with no room to get out of the way and then when they pull up out the back, well ….. what a job it would be getting the horse out of the ambulance?
Oh SURFCUP – just what did they do with you?