A pair of recent kills at Belmont (NYS Gaming Commission):
3-year-old Quaralia “pulled up lame” while training May 26. Multiple fractures. Euthanized. She had been raced three times, most recently April 20.
3-year-old Riding the Rails “sustained fractures” while training Saturday. Euthanized. He had been raced twice, most recently May 22.
Two more dead pubescents. This is horseracing.
Thank you Patrick. It is very hard to keep track of breakdowns during training. Most all of them will be swept under the rug and forgotten. But not this time.
Having worked in the industry, and continuing research for the welfare of the racehorse, I would come across yearlings that had been bought quite cheaply at the sales and would query this when the horse had very good breeding, e.g. a top sire. Answer usually was “oh, you should’ve seen the x-rays!!!”.
These two babies that Patrick has listed could’ve broken down for a raft of reasons, but always in the back of my mind when they’re very young and have done little racing, is the question “were you one of those yearlings that x-rays revealed that your bones/musculoskeletal system was a serious concern?” However, the racing industry doesn’t give a damn about whether a horse is suitable for racing and that the stress and rigors of racing will be a death sentence for them. It has been purposely bred for racing and it must be sold. I need to emphasise that this is not necessarily the case for QUARALIA and RIDING THE RAILS but it is a possibility.