2-year-old Lyrical Passage is dead after suffering what Jay Privman of the Daily Racing Form calls an “awful fracture” in the 5th yesterday at Del Mar. The equine child becomes the first racing kill of the Fall Meet, third (at least) overall.
In NY, Our Sweet Lilly, also just two, is dead after breaking down while training Friday at Aqueduct (Gaming Commission). She was being prepped for her first race.
This is horseracing.
I’m so sorry, babies – and BABIES, you were.
The PR just reported the injury and RETIREMENT of a TWO-year old colt. Trainer Dale Romans said it was a shame that fans will never get to see his “real potential”. Mr. Romans, I think it’s a SHAME you were racing a BABY and stole his once-sound limbs.
In addition to that Louisville is to start serving horse burgers at one of its restaurants with horses coming from a plant in New Mexico! Were sure glad we became vegetarians many years ago. Were also glad we don`t live there either! What horse person would ever breed to a two year old colt! Stupid! That horse won`t mature for another three years at least. We have seen some thoroughbreds that did`t fully mature until they were six.This business`s sole purpose is to make monies for the owners or to provide tax right offs to the rich with large outside incomes.All tax subsidies should be eliminated.Free foal registrations paid for by HUB taxes as is done in our state.Satellite wagered monies supporting tracks in states that can`t make it on local patronage as is done in our state. All required casino monies provided to race tracks as is done in other states.The monies providing subsidies should be used to rehabilitate tired race horses or for unannounced, out of competition testing for all participants, horses, grooms, riders, and yes owners /trainers too!
Are there any more details on Lyrical Passage? I saw it happen right in front of my eyes and I was so sad for him….Obviously no one wants a colt like this to snap his front leg like we saw happen – and jockey rolled on ground then quickly jumped up and went to help him and hold him ( horse was standing but front leg not bearing weight) .. Incident was so sad for everyone involved/there. But I want to understand better…Because you can’t point fingers easily : After all, the jockey, trainer, owner and race track all want healthy horses to compete and stay strong -/ they pour a lot of effort and emotions and money into it and often stake their careers and lives on this…so they want to see the horse do well more than anyone else, even me or any of us as I, or we, wouldn’t have the personal connection or investment in the horse. As much as everyone on the horse’s team. But iI just want to understand why this seems to be happening more in this era .. young horses have been running for decades & even centuries … so can’t just be youth …so I suspect breeding for speed in recent years has somehow decreased bone strength .in the gene pool for many Thoroughbreds …And I know you can’t point at the track …the track is fine, All the horsemen risking their own necks riding on top speed on it everyday say that and wouldn’t risk their own lives if they thought differently. And I know the horses get better care than most people … I’ve seen that too. For sure. What else could be causing more of these bone breaks more recently? Is there a specific drug that increasing speed or size but downside is bones don’t thicken or get brittle because of it? I don’t get it. Is there any data or probable specific cause out there?
Where do I start?
How do I begin to answer somebody who is defending this VILE, and DESPICABLE business?
Just excuse after excuse is all your providing when really this business should be SHUT DOWN for good.
Let’s start with this statement:
“Obviously no one wants a colt like this to snap his front leg like we saw happen.”
If you don’t want horses DYING in the dirt then DON’T have them become a racehorse.
Then DON’T support this business.
If you “care” so much for them then DON’T send them out there.
How about this statement:
“Because you can’t point fingers easily.”
Oh YES I CAN!
Every single participant and/or supporter of this business is to blame. Period. End of story.
Yes, I can point a finger at every one of you scum bags.
There are only 3 types of people directly or indirectly involved in this business.
1. Abusers. 2. Enablers of the abuse. 3. BOTH.
The very fact that you were present on the track makes you an automatic enabler of the abuse.
Ridiculous Statement #3:”T
“They pour a lot of effort and emotions and money into it and often stake their careers and lives on.”
Yes, but open your eyes – they are not the ones being whipped/beaten, doped, maimed, dumped, and/or KILLED. Again, they are the enablers of this abuse.
There is not one iota of effort, emotion, or money that can justify this pathetic excuse for gambling.
Do the horses a real favor and harness all of that effort, emotion and/or money into rescuing the thousands of racehorses DUMPED at kill auctions who subsequently DIE on the slaughterhouse floor.
Another thing, find another career that doesn’t use, and abuse sentiment beings.
This business uses the racehorses as profit slaves, and anybody who invests money wants to recoup their investment or stroke their ego as they lay DYING in the dirt.
There are thousands of other ways to invest your time, emotions, and money.
Moreover, they don’t involve the maiming, and killing of sentiment beings.
It’s so disturbing that you can recount the horrific catastrophic breakdown of a racehorse, but continue to defend this?
Are you kidding me?
It just shows how delusional you people are.
You take away their life, you take away their healthy limbs, you even take away their life!
Yet, you “care” about them?
Go spew this comment to people who are delusional because you would have to be in order to continue to support this despicable business.
Well said, Gina.
I wouldassume uou are against kill markets? I support yhem 100 percent. Please do some research and you will see how horrible they are treated whenevery tom dick and harry have horse cause there are over population pproblems and they simply acquired horse because they are free to good home!
Horseracing kills horses. That’s it.
Yet another racing apologist attempting to defend the indefensible.
Young horses have not been racing for centuries. Modern racing introduced the training of racehorses before they attain 2 years of age when their bones have not been developed along with their immature minds and bodies. And you have the gall to say that bone breaks are more frequent more recently and what in the hell is causing it. Just who are you trying to kid? The simple truth is that these inexcusable breakdowns are being exposed like never before in the history of horseracing.
And the San Diego Union Tribune tried to make this look like an anomaly. “For the first time in 2 1/2 seasons of the fall meeting, a horse was lost Sunday at Del Mar……Lyrical Passage was running third at the time of the fatal accident……..Lyrical Passage was the first fatality in 42 days of fall racing at Del Mar.”
Well first of all, this wasn’t an “accident” – the animal was deliberately put on that track and put at risk.
Secondly, if the fall season apparently results in fewer horse deaths, then why do they continue to race horses in the hottest weather of the summer?
Unbelievable spin to support a disgusting, cruel industry so that some fat cats can make more money.
Gina Powell, do you propose there are no more horses to be bred?
What do you propose to do with the horses are you volunteering to feed them?
Stacy…Well first of all, the racing industry hasn’t, isn’t, never will step up. A better question would be…what do YOU propose to make changes. Real changes that will make real differences for ALL the horses in the industry? And I am really interested in what you might say. I have been in racing deep for over twenty years, and people in racing that would be willing or have tried to step up…have not succeeded. Every horse needing rescue, horses in the kill pen with lip tattoo’s cut out, 2yr olds snapping legs off, slaps on the wrist for drug infractions, trainers walking with drug infractions piled on top of each other. Racing should only be directing questions to their own industry. Go to your HBPA tomorrow. Tell them…I (Stacy) want to make a difference. No more racehorses left behind. No more running 2yr olds, let those bones grow. No more drugging, no more Lasix. Lifetime bans for cheating trainers. No more racehorses standing in the kill pen with their lip tattoo’s cut out. Just to name a few things. I foresee you not accomplishing much…
Excellent,,20yr+. “Stacy” is the typical apologist…she asked nothing new, nothing unique. How incredibly asinine…
And aren’t there so many “good people” in racing? and their horses are “family members”? and the horses are the priority for those in racing? So why would GINA need to “volunteer to feed” the horses! – surely the caring, responsible racing industry members will not let their “beloved athletes” starve!
Yes, “Stacy”, your very words meant as a sarcastic attack on someone who is truly compassionate merely did one thing – they incriminated the industry you attempt to defend.
Our state HBPA would laugh you out of their trailer headquarters / office if you tried to make any suggestions for changes in after care. We have had horses race in our state that were found to be positive for EIA. The state after that debacle now requires all horses to have a negative Coggins test before coming on any race meet grounds.That requirement should have been in effect BEFORE the sick horses showed up in the track`s stalls. The situation was so serious that our local TV stations broadcast it on their newscasts. They hardly ever have anything to say about local racing or of the breakdowns, eases during the races.
Joan and Fred Booth :
My point, exactly. The only way to change the racing industry, is to fight the racing industry. And the necessary changes to help horses would only hasten the industry’s demise…that’s why these changes have not been made by the industry themselves.
My comments are not to defend anyone there are for sure very very terrible things going on that need to be addressed with people being held accountable. I myself am a horse lover and have saved horses before and will again. No racing at two is a great idea. Because racing will never stop I feel as though it is more beneficial to try to make it safer for the horses. One thought is in states that have live racing each track is required to give a certain percentage to a state sponsored aftercare and to make these places easily accessible to horse trainers and owners.
Stacy – horse racing, an unnecessary entertainment and gambling business – KILLS horses. CRIPPLES horses. SENDS them to slaughter. Have you ever looked at the KILL LISTS here on HRW? – seen the names of the CONFIRMED DEAD racehorses? How do you reconcile that? And all for sport?
So why ask Gina about FEEDING the [discarded] horses? – what does that say about an industry you are clearly defending? Please answer that.
Horse racing kills horses. Every day. Working towards its overdue demise is what any compassionate individual would choose to do.
Stacy,
Question #1
Gina Powell, do you propose there are no more horses to be bred?
Answer: YES
Question #2
What do you propose to do with the horses are you volunteering to feed them?
Answer: It’s incumbent upon those who BRED the horse, those who exploited the horse (owners, trainers, jockeys, racetracks, wagering companies) to be fiscally responsible for them – NOT non-supporters like myself.
That said, I rescued many racehorses over the years.
I’m still contacted constantly by rescue groups here in Ontario begging for just $100 to prevent a racehorse from walking onto the slaughterhouse truck.
With lots of inside experience with the unwanted racehorse issue there is only one way to stop it:
SHUT DOWN THIS BUSINESS ONE RACETRACK AT A TIME. PERIOD. END OF STORY.
This will end the need to fill races, and breeding will stop which it should.
Now you will probably ask me:
Gina, what are you going to do with all those unwanted racehorses when the tracks shut down?
Well, Stacy supporters like you, the breeders, the tracks, the wagering companies, and the racetracks need to figure that out.
In fact, they have figured out one thing:
Racehorses must be bred in order to fill races, increase wagering profits, and grease the gambling machine.
In other words, they are gambling pawns for this business.
They are exploited to the point of healthy limbs being taken away from them, and DYING in the dirt just to be a gambling bet.
It’s about time that the industry takes responsibility for the MESS that they create, and clean it up.
Quite frankly, I’m fed up with cleaning up their mess.
Just 2 months ago, a multiple graded stakes placed winner of Woodbine Racetrack was found standing at a kill auction at the ripe age of 4 years old.
Yet, there he was standing at the kill auction with a gaping hole in his shoulder, prolific amounts of green stinky discharge rolling down his leg, fever to boot.
Of course I knew it was an infection, but later on the vet confirmed that the infection was a direct result of multiple joint injections into the shoulder.
Moreover, this was a CHRONIC issue so the connections of this horse was running him on a painful shoulder joint just to squeeze another dime out of him.
When the vet bills exceeded his income? When the shoulder could no longer function to make money?
DUMPED without vet care to boot.
Yes indeed Stacy.
The business that you come on here to support injected this MSP winner into the shoulder so many times that it actually caused an infection, and dumped when could no longer performed.
Of course your business ensures that vet records are kept private so NOBODY knows exactly what’s going on.
Nobody knew that this horse was being regularly punctured into the shoulder joint to make a buck.
Nobody is looking out for these racehorses because they are turned into a PIN CUSHION in order to fill races, and make money.
I have pictures of this poor gelding if you don’t believe me right on my iphone, and it’s absolutely VILE.
The sad truth is there are so many more like him.
Just look at Anita’s Vacation that Mary Johnson saved.
Another victim of this vile business.
Another thing I learned about unwanted OTTB’s when they can no longer give one more drop of blood, sweat and/or tears to this despicable business is that giving the $100 to get them out of harms way is just the beginning.
After you get them out of harms way, then you need housing for them, a farm, a boarding stable, and ongoing amounts of money to pay the huge vet bills (usually a direct result of racetrack abuse), feed, bedding, and commitment to give them the life that this industry washed their hands of after they use them up.
Here’s where the industry you support fails yet again.
They give not ONE DIME to these situations, and there’s nobody who anybody can call to get the funds that are required to keep a racehorse that is dumped.
All your industry sponsored programs are no longer taking horses due to lack of funding.
The industry boasts about the money they give, but it’s a drop in the bucket.
It doesn’t even come close to saving, housing, and re-homing unwanted OTTB’s.
The statistics are astounding.
The industry breeds approximately 30,000+ racehorses every year to specifically fill races.
Only 10% (according to Jockey Club statistics) actually make money.
The other 90% approximately are destined to the unwanted category because they become physically maimed while running for a flake of hay in the claiming ranks.
So although an estimation, about 20,000 racehorses per year will end up in an unwanted situation.
Those, of course, that make it out alive.
Now, that’s just for 1 year only.
There are not enough homes to go around now. That’s the sad truth. Add into the mix the industries unwillingness to financially support their “disposable product” when no longer financially viable.
Despite the fact that this industry makes BILLIONS in profits they give little or nothing back. Period.
ALL government funding including taxpayers money, and casino money should immediately cease in order to force this irresponsible business to take care of these racehorses.
If the industry as a whole was made legally, and fiscally responsible for the unwanted racehorses then they wouldn’t be in business.
It doesn’t matter how good your intentions are this industry has for it’s very foundation the exploitation of racehorses, and people while they make BILLIONS in profit.
After they use, and abuse horses, and people – they DUMP them. That’s their business model.
Nobody has ever held them accountable more so than in recent years due to social media.
Their little secret is up.
The farm where I board rescued 2 racehorses from a kill auction about 6 months ago.
The people that rescued them bailed out of the situation, and left them on the farm.
Nobody was feeding them, but I stepped up to the plate.
I was so furious because these horses were dumped by the industry, and by the people who rescued them when they realized the financial commitment involved.
I bought extra bags of feed to ensure that they were fed.
I’m not trying to make myself out as a hero because I resented the fact that I was spending money I didn’t have or budgeted for in order to feed 2 racehorses that YOUR industry bred to exploit.
I’m dammed if I do and dammed if I don’t because non-supporters who rescue unwanted racehorses are really enabling this industry in the end.
I hate to say that, and I don’t mean to sound bad to those ANGELS who rescue, and take care of the discarded racetrack product, but it will NEVER end until this business is SHUT DOWN for good.
So the ANGELS who rescue, and home unwanted racehorses should also advocate for the SHUT DOWN of this business.
For the ANGELS who rescue, and home unwanted racehorses, but still support this business?
Well, they are usually the ones accepting funds from the industry who ensures that they uphold the image of mint juleps, fancy hats, and lots of fun while racehorses are being maimed, killed, and/or dumped.
So YES YES YES all breeding should stop so that this insanity can stop.
And to add to Gina’s comment – all of which is correct – those who rescue YET support the racing industry (even verbally) are in the end doing MORE HARM than good….they are fooling the general public that has no idea how rotten this industry is…they are MISLEADING the public. It is a betrayal to the horses to support the very industry that cripples them, kills them and sends them to slaughter.
Came across this article today.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#label/Off+Track+Thoroughbreds+site/1589156df1c14870
The following is an excerpt from the above link –
“Jimmy Bell, TAA and Godolphin America president says that all 64 charities serving Thoroughbreds across the country, including the 27 newly accredited and reaccredited, are performing horse keeping at the highest level.”
WOW! Accredited and re-accredited for the work they do for discarded racehorses “at the highest level”. Is that so? Well, why is it that most of the time when some of these organisations are contacted to take on a racehorse that’s been used, abused, damaged and finished with by the horseracing industry, that the horse nominated either doesn’t meet “a certain criteria” or they have no room, or they’ve run out of funds?
The following link provides the names of 64 aftercare organisations for racehorses –
thoroughbredaftercare.org/taa-accredited-organizations.
Let’s see if any of them step up the next time they are called upon to do what they claim their mission is…………
Carolyn I know why they don’t meet criteria or have no room… people are against slaughter in us. Do you think that will save a horse from torture? Hell no they end instead of simply being killed loaded on trucks in horid conditions headed to Mexico or Canada. Or even worse than slaughter house they end up starved by some a.. wipe that has no clue how to feed and care for a horse but there are so many all you have to do is look at papers or online there reads the add FREE TO GOOD HOME!
Robert, go spew your absolute BS on people who are not knowledgeable, educated, and/or experienced with this business.
Even people who don’t fall into the aforementioned categories just need to have one ounce of compassion which is virtually impossible to find in the horse racing people who exploited, then dumped them to begin with.
Oh, I know what your going to say now, “….but we love our horses,””we do have compassion.”
Merely saying things doesn’t translate into action as we, on this blog, are well aware of.
You can’t have any compassion for a horse, and subject them to beating/whipping, doping, maiming, dumping, and/or DYING in the dirt.
Of course I could go into details about each category, with factual examples, but this has been accomplished on previous posts many times as racehorses continue to DIE for this pathetic excuse for horse racing.
Carolyn I know why they don’t meet criteria or have no room… people are against slaughter in us. Do you think that will save a horse from torture? Hell no they end instead of simply being killed loaded on trucks in horid conditions headed to Mexico or Canada. Or even worse than slaughter house they end up starved by some a.. wipe that has no clue how to feed and care for a horse but there are so many all you have to do is look at papers or online there reads the add FREE TO GOOD HOME!
Have plenty of experience from racing standard breds to be a kill buyer to still own 8 head of horses that will die on this farm and be barried on this farm to help the issues that horses face you have too look at the whole spectrum I am totally against animal cruelty and think there needs to be responsible breeding