On Belmont Stakes Day, I Give You 319 Dead Racehorses at Belmont Park

51 Comments

1. May they all S.I.P. OG, what is man doing??? A very emotional day for me Patrick. I hope you understand

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   • I can only imagine, Ms. Ortiz.

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   • Am thinking of you, nohorseslaughter ortiz.

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2. I scroll through the names of the dead and the name of one horse strikes me particularly: “Back From The Dead”.
   These horses aren’t coming back but I hope that these horse users and abusers are haunted by the images of all the suffering and dying horses they have caused and witnessed.

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3. The resounding slap of leather against quivering flesh matched the rhythm of his pounding run. Rivulets of frothing sweat coursed down his body and his bleeding lungs screamed for oxygen as the growling command of, “C’mon! C’mon!” burned in his ears.

   He crossed the finish line. First.

   The cacophony of cheers from beneath the pompous brims of satin and lace turned into a keening yowl as his body pitched forward and he stumbled to his knees. And then his heart stopped beating…setting him free. The hats turned away, disturbed by the garish sight, as officials logged the photo-finish time.

   There was too much money at stake to risk an error.

   By Melanie Sue Bowles of Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary.

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4. Patrick, just recently, a racing supporter, who is also on the board of a TAA accredited rescue, suggested that those of us who post here on the HR blog need to be “muzzled.” According to her sick way of thinking, you shouldn’t report the deaths of our beloved horses. Perhaps you should just turn and look the other way or, better yet, begin to babble about the proverbial “bad steps” or the fact that “accidents happen” as two, three and four year olds snap their legs off and die in the dirt. Well, I would like to inform this supporter of animal exploitation that I will NEVER be muzzled….NEVER! I am not a hypocrite, I don’t play both sides of the fence, and I don’t betray the horses. I hope I have made myself clear

   Keep speaking the truth, Patrick, and let those opposed to the truth squirm!

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   • There’s no chance of any person/entity muzzling any of us here… eh Mary! lol

     And this woman is on the board of a TAA accredited rescue…… mmm….. ?

     Recently I was shown a video of a very heated meeting between senior racing authority officials and representatives of the breeders. The animosity between these two parties was palpable, the breeders’ arrogance was a disgrace. One senior racing authority official declared “if we don’t do something about it now, we’re just not going to be here in 10 years time, we’ll be gone” not verbatim – “it” being animal welfare.

     Oh yes, Mary, they’re squirming alright and realizing that they have an animal welfare crisis on their hands.

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     • Carolyn, and what I find even more troubling is to know the truth and then choose to ignore that same truth. That is the worst form of human ignorance.

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   • Yes Mary & Carolyn, they would like to muzzle those that speak the truth here on Horseracing Wrongs. Some of us have stories to tell, others are heartbroken because of the cruelty. And Patrick fights this battle, armed with cold hard facts. Patrick has brought all of us here together, so many of us, each of us, on the same path, armed with our voices and the power of social media, we are too strong now to be muzzled.

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     • We most surely are, 20yr+industry insider! Patrick’s meticulous research leaves no room for questioning the authenticity of the facts that he discloses. Needless to say, the public has a right to know as well as the governments who have a partnership with the horseracing industry and if any industry has serious problems the government obviously needs to investigate.

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5. “New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on Friday publicly released an audit of the New York Racing Association criticizing the organization for failing to develop a strategy to make its traditional racing operations profitable…….

   The audit also criticized certain expenses, including a $250,000 performance bonus for NYRA CEO Chris Kay and $89,000 in horse transportation costs.”

   http://www.paulickreport.com/news/the-biz/politics-usual-new-york-comptroller-releases-nyra-audit-eve-belmont/

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6. No one should have to die so a person can play a game gor fun and entertainment and making money of there deaths. It’s sick. It needs to illegal. Profiting off the lives of horses is sick. It’s wrong and needs to be illegal.

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7. Yes and who here is vegan? You do not get to shame on the racing industry when millions of cows, chickens, pigs, turkeys, fish and sheep are tortured and killed daily so you can have bacon or a chicken sandwich.

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   • So by your moniker, are we to assume that you are vegan or vegetarian? And if so, please explain “do not get to shame on the racing industry.”

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     • When was the last time you made money on racing a cow a pig a goat or sheep or any other creature? You can excuse yourself all you want you make money of the death of the hirse that made you that money then you kill it. You gave no heart or a life when you think you have the right to do this. A sport is suppose to be a fun event not a death event for the animal used for that event. Whst fo you think you are teaching the young ones when you tell and show them your example of its okay to make money off an aninal then kill them. What do you think that does to the minds of the little ones who love animals. Fine example you think you are. You bring death not happiness kindness or effecting. You bring cold hard cash cold hard death. You and people like you need to criminalized for bringing an animsl to death to fill your pockets with my eyes. You have no concious. Sleep well.

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8. How can we turn a blind-eye to what is going on in the racing industry. Sticking our heads in the sand so we can say we didn’t know this was going on. So many die needlessly. from ignorance etc…
   It should be our job as human beings, to let them hear our voices.
   Is the all mighty dollar that important that we let needless deaths of these beautiful horses happen? Thus breaks my heart as a true horse lover. The heads of horse racing should be ashamed of them selves.

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   • I agree. Making money to bring an animsl to its death needs to be criminalized.

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9. I like how this ‘Headline’ makes it ‘APPEAR’ as if 319 race horses died ON THE DAY…
   All sports have injuries and/or deaths!
   Even football players in high schools! Do you want us to protest all sports to end life?

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   • Educate yourself: https://horseracingwrongs.com/2016/05/16/the-lies-they-spew/

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10. So pro-horse racing supporters, and participants on another TAA blog wants us all muzzled.
    Just think about that statement for a moment.
    It reveals the mentality of a person that has probably muzzled their racehorses at one time or another.
    For those of you who have never witnessed the ongoing horrors of this industry, in the stable area, racehorses are muzzled at times.
    They are muzzled for various reasons, and most go absolutely nuts when they are muzzled while being intensely confined.
    Some of the reasons they are muzzled is to ensure that they don’t eat. They don’t want their profit slaves to eat prior to a race because they think it will slow them down.
    Sometimes they are muzzled to not rip or chew off the bandages that can possibly contain corrosive substances underneath somewhat similar to the cruelty of Tennessee Walking Horses. In this case, the substances bake into the sore legs which purportedly “cure” the soreness. That can be followed up with drug cocktails.
    Many 2 year olds are subjected to muzzling as they try everything they can to rip off the bandages and lick-off the substances underneath them.
    Since most 2 year olds acquire racing-related injuries they are frequently in bandages to “cure” their ongoing issues.
    In some instances, these young horses are muzzled so that they don’t cause visible bite marks as they try to bite-off flies or mosquitoes. They are immobile in the stall, and are often targets of various bugs. In one instance, when I was stabled in Florida, I saw a bat sucking blood from the neck of a racehorse. The filly tried frantically to get the bat off, but was muzzled.
    They can muzzle their racehorses as they choose with no interference whatsoever.
    They are used to being the slave masters so it doesn’t surprise me when they transfer this mentality to people as well.
    Only people like myself, and others on this blog can’t be forcibly muzzled, and won’t be.
    Then there’s the muzzling of certain pro-horse racing sites, journalists, and others who are paid mouthpieces for the ongoing despicable acts against racehorses including dying.
    They try to muzzle people who expose the truth about the dirty world of horse racing.
    Just as their pro-horse racing paid mouthpieces have every right to voice their comments so do people who will not be muzzled.
    This blog exposes the facts – the racehorses who are dying in the dirt for $2 bets.
    This blog contains comments from ex-insiders of this industry who have decided to tell their side of the story.
    Some of these comments come from ex-jockeys, ex-exercise riders, ex-trainers, ex-owners etc.
    Some comments come from those who are compassionate and who refuse to support this animal exploitation.
    It’s no secret that the ongoing cruelty, abuse, whipping/beating, doping, dying, and dumping are all part of this business model.
    It doesn’t matter if a racehorse comes from a multimillion dollar facility, is owned by a multimillionaire, or comes from the lower ranks running for their lives for $4000.
    Not one racehorse is immune to the ongoing facets of this industry – not one.
    I will continue to be a voice for the racehorses. I will not be muzzled.
    You can muzzle your voiceless slaves, but you can’t muzzle people who speak out about these atrocities, and there is no bigger atrocity than a racehorse dying in the dirt for $2 bets.

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    • Gina, it goes without saying that none of us will tolerate being “muzzled” by the pro-racing supporters. Being “muzzled” (in this case) is a euphemism for telling us to “shut the f…k up”, if you know what I mean. However, I have NEVER seen a horse muzzled to keep the horse from eating in its stall. I would just remove the grain or hay. Hay is taken away prior to a race and, of course, the horse, being a creature of habit, starts to become agitated as it anticipates the upcoming race. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen horses standing with bandages on, going back to the 1960’s, and I have never seen a horse tear a bandage off. That is just my experience.

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      • Yes Mary – a euphemism no doubt.
        However, I’ve seen racehorses muzzled in their stalls for short periods of time.
        It’s commonly used pre-race, but it’s more often used in race stables where they don’t feed hay.
        Both at Woodbine, and Ft. Erie, Ontario as recent as 2008 I saw this practice.
        I often complained to the racing commission about Trainers who were not feeding hay.
        It wasn’t just select horses in their stable that wasn’t eating hay (indicating health reasons), but the entire barn wasn’t eating hay!
        These poor horses were going crazy. I will never forget the idiot Trainer stabled next to me with 30 horses that were never fed hay. When they used to hot walk them down my shed row these horses would fight to snatch a piece of hay out of my racehorses hay nets. Heartbreaking!
        Any Trainer who instituted this cruel, and inhumane treatment of withholding hay had tons of colic cases. The vet was constantly at their barn.
        Nothing was done about it citing that Trainers have a right to implement their own feed policies.
        Top Trainer, Reade Baker, at Woodbine racetrack refuses to feed his horses hay. The last time I personally witnessed the horror in his race stable was back in 2008, but I’m told he still implements this policy.
        I watched one of his horses finish last on a turf race. The only thing the horse wanted to do was eat the grass on the turf and the jockey literally had to beat him to get his head up and walk back to be unsaddled. It was heartbreaking!
        I’ve seen racehorses attempt to tear bandages off frequently especially younger ones.
        They would usually rub hot sauce on the bandage or they would muzzle them.
        I bring this up because these inhumane practices, in their totality, all contribute to the demise of a racehorse both physically and/or mentally.
        As Billy stated, their lives are human dominated to run in circles, sometimes dying in the dirt, for $2 bets. Prior to possibly dying, they live horrific lives for this despicable industry.

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11. It seems disingenuous to include here, as you do, horses who died from colic or in barn accidents. Those happen everywhere horses exist and are not exclusive to the racetrack. Why do you feel the need to inflate your numbers?

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    • All 319 were still active at time of deaths. They died in the service of the Racing industry.

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    • The horses that died from colic and barn “accidents” were as a result of the unnatural environment that the racehorses have been forced to endure e.g. confined for about 23 hours a day with no room to move as they should for their health and well-being, this and other abhorrent aspects of their miserable lives, brings on colic. Having been born into a family that has been racing horses since the early 1800s and after being informed that some of our horses were being mistreated, I then took it upon myself to work at the coalface in the industry to find out what really goes on with these horses and what I witnessed and experienced was horrific. It is a fact that the number of colic and accident lethal cases are UNACCEPTABLY abnormally far higher than a pleasure/equestrian horse whose life as an equine is incomparable to that of the racehorse.

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      • Carolyn. I receive mailings from SmartPak on a regular basis since I have purchased products from them in the past. Recently I received a brochure that talked about the Health Risks and Unnatural Stress In Every Barn. It applies to every single horse but especially the TB racehorse.

        1) Large, infrequent meals and limited grazing – can contribute to ulcers and colic – may lead to behavioral vices
        2) Exercise and training – can cause excess acid to slosh around in an empty stomach, splashing the sensitive
        upper lining and leading to ulcers – also contributes to wear and tear on joints and soft tissues.
        3) Changing herds – can cause stress as the “pecking order” is re-established.
        4) Trailering and travel – Increase risk of ulcers – stress on the immune system.
        5) Increased stall time – may raise risk of ulcers and colic – can contribute to joint stiffness.
        6) Sudden changes in hay or grain (type or amount) – Shown to increase a horse’s colic risk by 5 – 10 times.
        7) High grain diets – increase risk of ulcers and colic – can lead to excess energy and excitability.

        Four out of the seven items mentioned contribute to colic. Five mention ulcers. Yikes! As anyone with minimum intelligence should know by now, horses are herd animals and need to be in a herd/pasture environment as much as possible. Horses at the track are kept stalled 23 hours a day yet when a racing person posts a picture of a horse acting out in his stall like the energizer bunny, that person gets hundreds of “likes” on her FB page. I have to believe that the people “liking” the post are ignorant when it comes to really knowing anything about horses but perhaps they are just true “ass kissers.” and are star struck by someone who they perceive to be at the top of their game even though the horse pays the price.

        Another page in the SmartPak brochure talks about a horse’s natural state. We often hear the racing apologists babble about how horses are bred to run and love to run yet, according to SmartPak, horses evolved to lead consistent, uncomplicated lives, including:

        – Roaming freely in a herd
        – Grazing most of the day
        – Rarely exerting themselves

        In regards to rarely exerting themselves, it says that “left to their own devices, horses spend most of their time slowly walking as they graze, only occasionally running from predators or for play.” That is EXACTLY what I have observed over the years.

        Of course, we, who have been around horses for years and years, have known these facts. I guess the racing folks have been focused on continuing to spread lies with the intention of deceiving the public or perhaps even themselves.

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        • Thank you, Mary.

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      • Carolyn, Jill’s Reflection was scratched. She was entered in a $4,500 claiming race at Charles Town , start time 10:15 tonight. No reason given for the scratch but with 62 starts and 13 starts in less than 6 months as a 2 yr. old it is not hard to imagine she has problems.

        That poor mare is now running for her life at that awful track, often referred to as the “bull ring”, and at night too. Night racing, racing up north in the winter and in hot, hot humid Florida in the summer. There are no limits to the abuse of these unfortunates.

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      • Thank you, Carolyn and Mary, for pointing out the obvious – again. Racehorses’ lives are anything but natural and in addition, they’re are conducive to the development of adverse gastric conditions. Horses are, by nature, relatively inactive creatures that prefer, as you said, to mosey around and nearly constantly graze. They don’t love to run…or live alone, confined to a stall…or stand restricted by stall walls 23 hours/day…or be limited to 2 or 3 high-energy grain rations per day. All 7 of the stressors Mary listed are endured by racehorses – is it any wonder that 90% or greater suffer with gastric ulcers?…or that we read of racehorse deaths due to colic?

        Rose, thank you for bringing up Jill’s Reflection. Will her torment ever come to an end?

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    • Why does the industry not include training and any other on site death, why only report the fatalities on track???

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      • Billy, the industry does everything they can to downplay the deaths.
        It’s only because of the dedication of Patrick that we are now learning just how extensive the killed in action list is.
        That said, they should have to report all deaths on the grounds including training deaths.
        They should have to report any deaths within the gates of a racetrack – I totally agree with you.
        There are no legal grounds for them to deny this information whatsoever.
        After all, the racetrack is a public non-profit domain that should have to legally provide this information.

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    • HFS: the cruel, and inhumane practices implemented in most racing stables contribute, in their totality, to the ongoing deaths in the stable areas.
      Practices such as ongoing doping cocktails to cover-up ongoing chronic issues, training on sore limbs, feed regimes that are not conducive to comfort, intense confinement, lack of natural grass and grazing habits, total isolation form social activity, uncomfortable tack, lack of time/caring for racehorses who are not submitting to their regime resulting in rough housing, inhumane bits, sore backs, sore muscles, boredom, lack of stimulation, invasive vet procedures for either physical issues or to gain a competitive edge, constant scoping to name a few.

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12. Think about this. All the stall vices these horse’s pick up due to stress from training or racing. Some will stall walk, leaving a donut shaped-trail in their stall. Others will weave back and forth. Day in and out. These horses are tied up by the halter in their stall to keep them from doing this. Some horses get a goat for company, and then the poor goat gets a life of misery tied to that horses stall.

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13. Rose, you brought up such an important issue – HEAT!
    For example, Miami, FL is into the 90-100 F weather right now.
    It’s only going to get worse – hotter and more humid as the summer goes on.
    All over the news they are warning pet owners to not keep them in cars even with the windows down, provide shade in the backyard, and to not walk them for long so that they don’t exert themselves.
    These are instructions for domestic dogs.
    Then there is horse racing.
    The racehorses are over exerting themselves, placing extreme stress on both the respiratory, and skeleton system. The heat, and humidity exacerbates their already fragile condition.
    Nobody cares about that. There are no warnings for this.
    The wagering revenues must be made. The horses must pay the price.
    Heatstroke is not reported. It doesn’t have to be in horse racing.
    Yet, it happens on a frequent basis. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
    Last year in August at Woodbine Racetrack the temperatures hit 100 F plus!
    Again, the warnings for domestic pets were all over the news.
    They were telling people to leave them indoors in the air conditioning, and let them out only for pottie.
    I put a call into the Ontario Racing Commission, including Twitter to demand that they stop the races for the day; that it was a grave health risk for racehorses.
    I was told 5 horses that day got heatstroke – some allegedly died.
    It was not reported because it was a heatstroke related issue.
    The same at Gulfstream in Miami,, FL. I’m told there are racehorses getting heatstroke there on a regular basis during the summer. Evidently, some have died from it.
    So the killed in action list is conservative at best. There are so many more unnecessary deaths happening, and not being reported.
    Time, and time again this industry shows their true colors – the wagering profit is paramount, the racehorses are disposable profit slaves.
    On another somber note the poor racehorse called IMMORTAL WINK is running for his life at Camarero in Puerto Rico. This poor 10 year old gelding has 141 starts! He is in the 1% club. I call it this club for the older racehorses who are being continuously abused for this despicable cruelty circus, and death camp. He has earned his flake of hay the hard way – hard labor. He has been running in the claiming ranks for years, another number, another wager.
    How can people be so cruel? How can people be so inhumane? How do these people get away with blatant animal cruelty?
    You would have to be masochistic to train, and race this poor wagering slave.
    The reruns are equally disturbing as he gets repeatedly beaten and whipped when in no contention whatsoever.
    I can assure you Immortal Wink is living a life of pure hell, and misery.
    I submitted a comment on this blog a few months ago that many Trainers (especially from Florida) are now selling their older geldings, with some back class, to the Puerto Rico Jockey Club.
    They think they are doing the horse a favor since the next stop could be the slaughterhouse.
    These people make me sick. Shame on the connections of Immortal Wink, and shame on this despicable industry.
    There’s only one thing about Immortal Wink. He’s one race away from not being immortal.
    This is horse racing.

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    • Gina, the life Immortal Wink is enduring just sickens me – that poor gelding! So who is responsible for him when he ends up standing in line to be slaughtered? How far removed does a former connection need to be in order to be exempt from bearing some responsibility for him? How much time needs to pass, from when any of them sold him to when he’s handed over to the kill buyer, to no longer be held responsible for his very life?…5 years?…5 months?…5 weeks or just 5 days?…or maybe, 5 hours? As we see time and time again, it seems NO ONE in racing is EVER responsible. They are all blameless when the horse they used for their own profit or entertainment stands alone, days or maybe just hours from being butchered. Their “family member”. They are fools to even utter that ridiculous claim.

      Immortal Wink, what is going to happen to him…

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14. Thank you so very much for this, Mary. The racing people cannot argue against these facts. “In regards to rarely exerting themselves, it says that ‘left to their own devices, horses spend most of their time slowly walking as they graze, only occasionally running from predators or for play.’ That is EXACTLY what I have observed over the years.” Couldn’t agree with you more! The time I spent with a herd told me so much about their natural behaviour, all successful ex-racehorses 15 of them who during their “careers” had been trained not unlike the English way on a private track on a large property with free choice stables and a huge area of land to graze on – their owner and trainer was/is an excellent horsewoman and her strike rate beat high profile trainers, the only time they saw a racetrack was on raceday but they didn’t stay in racing for long and were all retired.

    When I worked in the industry, I was appalled by the grain only diet for them in many adjoining stables (the trainer I was with gave hay and grain). I went into a stable to help out a young kid who’d asked for assistance as he’d been left on his own and was new to the game. There were about 18 horses and at feed time (mainly grain with some hay) I queried why one horse was not given any hay? Owner instructed trainer that his horse was not to be given any hay whatsoever because he read that horses go faster on grain only! I was brought to tears when I had to walk past this horse with hay and he was SCREAMING out for it, just imagine him smelling it and watching his “herd” eating it. I had to take him out of his box for a walk outside and nearly lost my life, he was more than fractious he was rearing something terrible, going out of his mind and had to call out to a worker to help me get him back in again. When no-one was looking I put hay in his box!

    As for the ulcers, my understanding is that just about all racehorses suffer ulcers, it must be so terrible for them. Wealthy trainers and owners have the money for their horses to be given special equine ulcer medicine which is a band-aid job, in my view, but many trainers I came across said it was too expensive and one was giving his horses human medication for ulcers!

    They can spread their lies and deceive the public until the cows come home, but there’s no escaping the facts and the truth.

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15. Rose, thanks – I’m still monitoring JILL’S REFLECTION and saw that scratching (she was also scratched March 25 at Charles Town) and again no reason given. She must be having problems, no doubt about that, given her history. This poor mare is being raced into the ground, I call it aggravated cruelty.

    The abuse and lack of duty of care for her well-being, continues on for her …….

    http://www.equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=Horse&refno=9103712&registry=T

    PS:
    Shamrock Road raced again recently, second last and performed poorly. Will look into it and put up a comment on his original post that Patrick put up when SEXTON had him as most of his history is there.

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    • And as we know, Carolyn, Jill’s Reflection and Shamrock Road are just two of many racehorses waiting silently for help.

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      • Absolutely, Joy. Examples of a mare and a gelding in the horseracing industry representing the average typical racehorse.

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      • Joy, they are the poster horses for how well these people care for and “love” these “family members”….64 starts in 2.5 years…

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      • Joy, they are the poster horses for how well these people care for and “love” these “family members”….64 starts in 2.5 years…

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16. This is just awful and sad. Too many lives lost. RIP they may and the fight will continue to end this sport.

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    • I don’t consider it a sport.
      It doesn’t qualify for a sport.
      It does, however, qualify for a cruelty circus, and a death camp.
      Let’s not forget the essential operating elements: whipping/beating, doping, dumping, and dying.
      Every racehorse experiences one or all of these horrific elements whether they come from a million dollar farm or a small farm – they all are abused at some point.
      Many lie dying in the dirt for $2 bets.
      This antiquated business model has no place in the 21st century.

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17. I worked on the tracks from 1981 til 1986. I don’t know of any horses on the tracks that I worked at being euthanized.

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    • Some questions: Who are you? What tracks did you work at? What was your job? My guess is it couldn’t have been anywhere near the horses because I can assure you that over a five-year period at any track(s) in this country plenty of horses died.

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18. Gina Powell…your posting outlines trainers stabled next to your horses at one time so it would appear you benefited from horse racing at one time. So in a way you.May be likened to a smoker that quits and then everyone should. Just saying.

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    • Your comment, Terry Sheerin, is typical of horseracing apologists who cannot stomach former racing industry participants exposing the cruelty inflicted upon the racehorses. There’s no better source of credible information than that of a person who has worked at the coalface, hands on, especially when that person is equine educated and a very decent fellow human being who tells it as it is with a clear conscience. Nothing beats peace of mind, which I have no doubt Gina Powell enjoys when she speaks the truth substantiated with facts.

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      • Excellent, Carolyn…thank you. I actually find it laughable when apologists attempt to “discredit” racehorse supporters who work to expose the industry. We either don’t know what we’re talking about because we’ve not worked in the industry…OR, they attack those who HAVE been racing insiders with accusations that make absolutely no sense – ie, they’ve “failed”, whatever that means. And what’s really ridiculous? – those particular individuals are bottom dwellers themselves, just scraping by, exclaiming they eat PB&J and drive a broken-down truck just so they can feed their horses. God forbid their “well-fed” horses suffer an injury or illness that will require expensive veterinary treatment. We’ve seen how that goes….

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    • John Robbins, heir to the vast successful dairy company called Baskin-Robbins, was disturbed at what he saw, and started questioning the fundamental basis of his families empire.
      He wrote about it in a book called “Diet For A New America.”
      So what does this have to do with horse racing – lots.
      He realized that the fundamental business model is based on the exploitation of an animal, and horse racing is no different.
      The hallmarks of this industry: whipping/beating, doping, dying and/or dumping are necessary in order to grease the wagering machine, and these are the similar hallmarks found in any industry based on the exploitation of the animal.
      All racehorses experience one, some or all of these horrific consequences of being bred for profit.
      In the majority of these animal-exploited industries the actual animals themselves, that generate the profit, rarely share in those profits, and their lives are rarely enriched.
      Take for example, Seaworld, they are making billions in profit off a orca called Tilikum, but they have done little or nothing to improve his imprisoned cement walls with little or no enrichment.
      Just as he swims around with a flopped over dorsal fin, the racehorses run around in circles with a multitude of physical ailments.
      This is all kept secret away from the public knowledge because if the public every knew what really went on they wouldn’t support it.
      Just like Seaworld is tanking so is this despicable cruelty circus, and death camp commonly referred to as horse racing. It’s just a matter of time.
      People have choices in life.
      When you smoke a cigarette you are ruining your own health.
      When you are a supporter and/or participate in horse racing you are directly or indirectly ruining countless racehorse lives whether it’s the over breeding, daily doping, injections, whipping, and/or dumping every Owner/Trainer will authorize this at some point in their “career.”
      All racing stables are nothing more than abusive turnstiles that supports this abhorrent business model.
      Like Patrick says: you can love racehorses, you can love horse racing, but you can’t love both.
      That pretty much sums it up.
      So I lived a delusion while I was in the industry, while I participated in it, while I watched as racehorses were pulled up lame or died on the many racetracks that I trained on from the B tracks to the most prestigious such as Keeneland it’s all the same.
      Performing animals in businesses that exploit them for profit pay with their lives – every day.
      That’s the sad truth, and I want no part of it.

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19. You are spot on Joy! A person who goes to the races for the first time and witnesses a horse suffering a sickening death in a race most often is of the view that it’s blatant animal cruelty and utterly unacceptable. People saw the merciless whipping of American Pharaoh in the 2015 Kentucky Derby and there was an outcry. The violence inflicted upon these horses on raceday is indisputable. Horses being beaten with whips in an INHUMANE and cruel attempt to make them go faster which is a significant contributing factor to injuries and death and bleeding as well. And it’s a no brainer that one doesn’t have to be a participant in the industry to speak out about it e.g. Patrick’s constant exposure of the horses’ deaths, horses being vanned off due to suffering an injury (many of which are killed out the back in an attempt to hide these inexcusable deaths) and horses unable to finish the race. Another indisputable example is that of you, Joy and Mary’s extraordinary work with first hand experience in dealing with numerous damaged horses discarded by trainers, owners and the whole industry and some of those horses you had to euthanase because irreparable damage had been done – heartbreaking.

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20. Apologies – meant to say “a person who goes to the races and for the first time witnesses a horse suffering a sickening death………. “

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