From the most recent Del Mar Stewards Minutes:
“RACE DELAY As the field for the fourth race [Nov 12] was entering the track, a pony accompanying one of the entrants, stumbled and fell under the inside rail. In an effort to get up, the pony hit its head and died. There was a delay of approximately 8 minutes before the race started.”
An unidentified horse – who he/she was is of no consequence – stumbles, falls, tries to get up, hits “its” (a mere thing) head and dies. Eight minute delay. Show goes on.
Later, the stewards disclose five “deceased” (again, unidentified) for the week Nov 2-Nov 8 – that’s five horses who either died on Del Mar grounds or while being trained off-site for upcoming Del Mar races. Still “cool as ever”?
This is disgraceful to say the least. Why isn’t the media all over this? How did the stewards disclose the five “deceased”?
Lucy, the California Horse Racing Board has a website with the stewards minutes…the public can go there and read them. You’ll see reports such as a jockey’s ride that caused his horse to move over into other horses and in doing so, causing injury to one or more of the horses. Also, they will report medication overages. And then it is there that they report DEAD racehorses. And simply that – example of the veterinarian report for the week 11-2 to 11-8:
Horses on vet list – 28
Horses off vet list – 3
Shock wave therapy – 18
Deceased – 5
Wouldn’t it be GREAT if the media would report the maiming and death of racehorses at every track across this nation? I would dare to bet that if they did, this gambling industry would be closer to its grave.
Here is the link…
http://www.chrb.ca.gov/stewards_minutes_dm.html