From the Los Alamitos Stewards Minutes, January 23:
“Jockey Efrain Hernandez was in to review the third race on Saturday evening where he struck his horse [Sibernation] four times right handed approaching the far turn. Mr. Hernandez explained that he just lost track of the crop strokes, and thought his horse was lazy and needed some encouragement.”
“…thought his horse was lazy and needed some encouragement” – fine: $100
“Jockey Jesus Rios Ayala was in to review his ride on Uno Corona Mas in the third trial for the Winter Derby on Saturday evening. During the heated battle for the win, Mr. Ayala got a little carried away and struck his mount approximately eight or nine times in the shadow of the wire. He admitted to his over zealous actions, but was too excited about getting the victory.”
“…got a little carried away…but was too excited about getting the victory” – fine: $100
It’s beyond belief! The appalling attitude of these two jockeys EFRAIN HERNANDEZ and JESUS RIOS AYALA is disgusting and unacceptable. Wonder how they’d feel if they were mercilessly beaten with a whip when they were running as fast as they possibly could and close to dropping from exhaustion!
They’ve done a good job of displaying total disregard for the well-being of the horse and bringing the racing industry into further disrepute for its cruel mistreatment of its “much loved” horses!
Blatant animal cruelty. I despise this industry so much, and I look forward to the next racetrack shutting down.
They filed a ridiculous lawsuit in Texas at the 11th hour to prevent the Governor from shutting dog and horse racing down. The lawsuit was brought forward from no other than the Greyhound Racing Association because they want to continue to exploit dogs just like racehorses. The racetracks are a beneficiary of this lawsuit until about February 20th.
Don’t know what’s going to happen, but the last time I was at Retama Park (2008?) the stands were empty. I think I counted about a total of 1000 people including stable staff.
They argue that people gamble via wagering outlets. Maybe so, but nobody can dispute the fact that this business missed the train a long long time ago.
Throw into the mix the blatant animal abuse, cruelty, drugs, corruption, deaths. Any normal person with even one iota of compassion could come to no other conclusion other than the fact that this industry has got to go.
The government needs to stop spoon feeding this industry with taxpayers money and/or casino money. There are billions of businesses in the U.S that don’t get one dime from either of these sources, employ more people, and are responsible business models.
There’s no excuse to cut-off their financial handouts, and shut them down.
Moreover, the huge sums of cash that casinos hand over to racetrack purse money could be cash used towards such much needed things like infrastructure, education, and/or healthcare.
Taxpayers are suffering because of inadequate funding for these things, they don’t support this business, and yet they continue to hand over the money.
The government needs to be responsible, do the right thing, cut-off the financial ATM, and shut these abuse coliseums down.
In the days of Man O War and following into the years of Kelso horsemen protected their horses from
abusive riders by referring to the caliber of their talent which was and will always be for riders that beat up horses with the whip “mucksacks.”