Yesterday…
The 6th race at Laurel, as described by Equibase:
“TUFFY’S WAY…fell when sustaining a catastrophic injury soon past the quarter pole then was euthanized on the track. KIMBERLY B….sustained a catastrophic injury after striking a rival inside the quarter pole and was euthanized on the track.”
The recap also included other horses “jumping” or “falling” over their downed “rivals,” or simply swerving to “avoid the spill.”
“The spill.”
The horror that this scene must have been was, of course, edited-out on the official MarylandRacing YouTube channel…
But – even with horses sprawled (and dying) in the dirt, the Winner’s Circle went on…
In the 1st at Santa Anita, Derby Treasure “took a bad step when seriously injured, fell,” and, according to multiple sources, is dead. BloodHorse’s Jeremy Balan said this on Twitter: “Also not great that right before the incident [jockey Edgar] Payeras was still getting after the filly, while she pretty obviously was done and going to finish last.”
“…still getting after the filly” – was being whipped to the very end. This, by the way, was DT’s eighth race – all at the “maiden claiming” level, meaning she had never “won” and was “For Sale” each time out. (In fact, she had never finished higher than 4th.)
And finally, the Paulick Report relays a double kill during morning training at Fair Grounds Monday. Evidently, one horse dumped his rider, ran the wrong way and, well, here’s Paulick: “The ensuing head-on collision resulted in the death of both horses – it was unclear whether the horses were killed instantly or had to be euthanized.” The dead horses were left unidentified, apparently to protect the owners’ “privacy.”
How is this even remotely defensible in 21st Century America?
And to hear frank miramadi simply say derby treasure has unseated her rider, a BLATENT lie in direct view how pathetic, another horse that is absolutely fatigued to the max falls and dies because the jock the relentless bit pressure and whip force to continue running so sorry for all you horses every last one of you. Calling this sport and athletics is a slap in the face to true form.
This vile and cruel treatment of racehorses has to stop NOW! This is the furthest thing from being a sport! It is abusive, exploitive and causes suffering and death! If the cruelty isn’t stopped, we will push for a permanent end
to this business that causes so much pain and loss of life for horses! It is obvious it is a business based on greed! Win, Win regardless of the pathetic treatment of these innocent animals! So disgusting!!
Dave and Rita, so true – there is nothing about horse racing that aligns with what a sport is. I was thinking about the training incident/collision that killed both horses…one horse couldn’t be identified by name because he had not been named yet! And the other dead horse was not identified because of a “privacy” issue?!? In what other sport does an athlete get killed yet its media outlet refuses to identify the athlete? (not to mention, the public can know the horse’s name when he’s alive and available to bet on…but not when he dies?)
YES Joy!! I thought the same!
I aggree! Horses have been mistreated and abused for centuries. This must stop. Horses like every other living creature deserve our care and respect. Please, let’s stop abuse and mistreatment.
Thank you!
When will they stop this horror – this unbearable, inconceivable, horrific cruelty?
Cornelia, when more of the public knows the truth and chooses to no longer accept its existence – think grassroots activism and circuses, SeaWorld, dog racing…just keep educating. At a recent horse racing symposium, this concern was raised by racing industry members (paraphrasing) – “look at what happened to Florida dog racing [it was banned]…are we next?”
Oh my God , why isnt this industry being monitored, regulated & held to decent humane standards?!?!.. ..its way out of control ! Its criminal for anyone who condones this filthy horrific abuse ! Ive lost my faith [ due to the corruption ] in the justice system !! We , society as a whole, are the epitime of the ‘fall of Rome’ mentality [& practices] ..How anyone who condones this insideous activity is of a sociopathic existence , on a serial killer level ! May the hand of God & his Angel army reach in & ‘reign’ down to save these horses from this barbaric industry!
It is reprehensible that you post such graphic videos and images on your site.
That is reality, Raymond. This is what’s happening every day on the tracks around the world.
As a casual observer with no stake in the fight, I will say that at least the tracks have the decency to not show the injury. This site has photos of dead horses plastered all over it. Not a good look, IMO. I get it, you feel the need to expose things for your cause. I detect a degree of spin and sensationalism on this particular site. Should police departments start showing pictures and videos of the contents of cars after fatal traffic accidents because we are losing lives under such circumstances? There’s a fine line between informing the public and just being ugly.
Raymond, in reference to your car analogy – the horses don’t want to be a vehicle for death and destruction.
A car isn’t doped up, maimed, and then beaten to get from Point A to Point B.
I think you get my point, but you seem rather smart so why would you even present an argument in defense of such a horrid business?
If you don’t like the truth depicted in pictures then don’t look at them, but children are exposed to this horror when parents take them to the track.
If you think pictures are bad imagine a child watching a racehorse snap its leg-off and go down in the dirt?
Hardly “family fun” like the industry portrays their race days because it certainly isn’t entertainment unless your a sadomasochistic person who enjoys watching cruelty.
You think the videos and images are horrific, Raymond?…the horses lived – and died – those horrors.
I would love to see an end to the graphic images and videos of bone fragments flying out of dying horses etc etc, but that can only be accomplished when this vile industry stops killing racehorses and the only way that this will stop is when they are shut down.
It’s reprehensible for any compassionate person to support such carnage.
In the same sense, using the example that I described above, we can only prevent traffic fatalities by not driving cars at all. That doesn’t make it a good idea, as much as I would love to stay off of the road these days. The opinion of horse racing will always be split, that’s just a fact of life. As someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy horse racing because of the things that inevitably happen, I will say that the “end horse racing” point of view is still not convincing to me. It’s an extreme point of view…why knock down the building safely with a wrecking ball when you can just throw a bunch of C4 at it, right? It’s just a matter of being realistic instead of overzealous.
Raymond, your comparison of fatalities when driving cars with fatalities in horse racing is apples to oranges. I need to drive my car (unfortunately) – I don’t need to race any horse. You’re wanting to compare a necessity with something totally unnecessary…an unnecessary industry that cripples and kills countless sentient beings.
Race car driving could be better compared to horse racing – both unnecessary but at least the driver made the choice to take part in a dangerous activity and his “ride” doesn’t breathe and feel and want to live.
Car accidents are “accidents” — unintentional bad events — in Horse-Racing, it’s all INTENTIONAL — the humans administer drugs, they drive the horse into the ground, they whip the horse, they isolate the horse for training purposes — I could go on & on.. — the horse does NOT want this discipline inflicted on him/her — the horse is miserable & suffers day in day out — the humans, with serious INTENT, DO all this damage to the horse in order to earn a living — the difference between car accidents and horse-racing is HUGE.
What is “reprehensible” is what is done to intelligent, sensitive beings in the name of “sport,” gambling. Thousands – yes, thousands – of racehorses are killed on track or brutally and violently slaughtered in “retirement” every single year. That you would take issue with the “graphic images” that help tell this story is naive at best, apologetic (for the industry) at worst. My philosophy, my approach, can best be summed by William Lloyd Garrison’s opening salvo against slavery in his newspaper The Liberator:
“I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as un-compromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; – but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest- I will not equivocate- I will not excuse- I will not retreat a single inch- AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
Raymond —- WHAT point are you trying to make? — the cruel, sadistic, unconscionable treatment of HORSES must be STOPPED // the horse-racing industry must be SHUT DOWN — without HORSES, there is NO industry — humans are abusing, exploiting horses for their own entertainment — this is beyond depravedly sadistic, cruel & unconscionable — if one has an addiction to be entertained by inflicting brutal cruelty on other living beings, such person belongs in a PSCYHO ward — LEAVE THE HORSES ALONE — they want to live happy, healthy lives — the betting industry is huge : let’s keep it! — BUT, keep our horses out of it — keep ALL our animals out of it.
IT IS TIME TO STOP USING AND ABUSING ANIMALS FOR HUMAN PROFIT OR PLEASURE IF IT ANY WAY COMPROMISES THE HORSE- AND RACING DOES. IT IS ABUSE OF THE WORST KIND. HUMANS USING AN ANIMAL IN A WAY THAT COMPROMISES THEIR HEALTH AND WELFARE. IT IS TIME HUMANS STOP THIS PRACTICE. PERIOD!
The morning training sessions at most American tracks is the perfect storm for collisions such as the one at the fairgrounds. And every year, we hear numerous stories of horses getting killed because of these collisions, and riders being seriously injured.
On most mornings, tracks can have hundreds of horses coming and going, and jogging clockwise, and galloping and breezing counter-clockwise., all at the same time. Now, most people would realize that would be a recipe for disaster, and it is. We’ve even seen some famous horses recently, such as Caixa Electronica, get killed because of these collisions. And yet things continue status quo. Horses act up often, because they are confined unnaturally, and sometimes dump riders, and sometimes the riders get run away with, and have no control over their horses. And how dangerous is that, with 100s of other moving objects in your way??
Again, apologists May say it could happen in a pasture, and I can say with certainty that I’ve seen groups of 10 or more horses in smaller paddocks galloping and circling full speed around each other, and I’ve yet to ever see a collision, much less a head- on one. So to me, these collisions are proof that these poor horses are in an unnatural environment , where even their behaviors are panicked and fear driven at times, and that the industry sets the situation up to be as dangerous as possible, both for the horses and the humans that choose to participate.
Deprivation of everything natural to them definitely contributes to dangerous behavior, but doping has a large role to play as well.
This industry knows that, but they require doping to keep sore horses filling races and their wagering coffers.
Required rest is rarely given, and in place is a good beating/whipping, “juicing” and whatever else gets them out there to pick up a check.
Another possible factor is the lack or absence of required vet care because the majority of people who run in the lower claiming ranks can’t afford vet care and we have direct examples to support this like the trainer who left a horse in the stall with a broken leg for a month if you can imagine that!!
https://horseracingwrongs.com/2017/12/11/horse-left-in-stall-with-broken-leg-for-almost-a-month-trainers-wrist-is-just-fine/
Yes, Gina…I was just reading about a coming 8-year-old gelding who was USED at the cheap tracks. Del Rio Harbor “went wrong, pulled up” in July, 2018…now, after 44 starts and just coming into an equine’s prime age, he is only pasture sound. PASTURE SOUND – at 8 years old. Oh, and BTW? – this account was a racing “feel good” story. Doesn’t that speak volumes…
Yes, Gina, I always thought the same thing about toting kids along to the track for family fun days. I can’t remember which track it was last year, but they advertised face painting, petting zoo, blah blah for the kids, and there was a horrific breakdown that day. I hope that parents realized that they could provide less traumatic and more wholesome entertainment for their kids instead of watching drunk old bettors cheer on jockeys beating horses, and horses snapping legs off.
TY, Peggy, for your added insight…gained from having been witness to what this site exposes.
This is so cruel to do to uch wonderful animals.People are so cruel since Trump is president. I think the whole country has become so cruel and without empathy for animals.
No animal suffers more than a horse.
We see a great deal of equine suffering, no doubt, Sandy – it’s infuriating and heartbreaking all at once.
Another horror day at the races — the cruel, sadistic, unconscionable treatment of HORSES must be STOPPED // the horse-racing industry must be SHUT DOWN — if one has an addiction to be entertained by inflicting brutal cruelty on other living beings, such person belongs in a PSCYHO ward — LEAVE THE HORSES ALONE — they want to live happy, healthy lives — the betting industry is huge : let’s keep it! — BUT, keep our horses out of it — keep ALL our animals out of it.
so so sad…….These atrosities must be exposed so that the milliions know what is really going on! I can’t stand it when people say…”the horses loves to run!” they have to be either ignorant or they refuse to accept the truth!
Keep exposing! Counting on the masses to show compassion and shut these tracks down!
Yes, Maret, we will keep exposing and educating. I receive messages nearly every week from individuals who had no idea what the reality in horse racing is. They do now. TY.
In a follow-up to the BloodHorse’s Jeremy Balan’s tweet about Derby Treasure’s jockey Edgar Payeras whipping her “right before the incident [her “really bad breakdown” – per Balan] while she pretty obviously was done and going to finish last”, THIS (and again, per Balan’s Twitter)…”The stewards fined Edgar Payeras $300 today for ‘use of riding crop — when the horse has obtained its maximum placing’ aboard Derby Treasure yesterday.”
In other words, the not-yet-4-year-old little bay filly was running as fast as she possibly could – doing the very best she could – yet the jockey continued to STRIKE her with the whip and then she broke down…a “really bad breakdown” per paid racing mouthpiece Jeremy Balan. Derby Treasure was literally whipped to her death. What a SPORT, right?!?!?
Oh but the tweets in reply to Balan’s? – while some call for the jockey to “be done…[not] allowed back on any horse”, then there are the likes of these…
– “A slow, bad racehorse was in a race where he [Derby Treasure was a SHE] was 137-1 and had no place being in. A terrible trainer (2-132 or so) and owners that allow it to happen. I’ll bet a dime to a dozen the horse was already hurt and they ran it [Derby Treasure was a SHE] any way. Pretty sure a few taps didn’t cause the fatality.” Wow – the lack of compassion….
– “He [jockey Payeras] need to [go] to the bush tracks and stay there.” Really?…so he can whip those poor horses to death?
I always think I won’t be surprised anymore by what comes out of racing fans’ mouths – then the next day comes and I read some more….
Derby Treasure, you mattered to us. Oh how I wish you could have known a life of love and caring.
Ah, the bush league tracks which our state has in great abundance! We have seen jockeys whip the daylights out of a horse BEFORE the race on their way to their entering the starting gate. The jockey said he was trying to ” wake up the horse” All those poor horses stuck in a crummy environment where most of them in our bush league track races have large swollen fetlocks the size of grapefruit but still try to please their egotistical owners.We feel sorry for all of you!
Fred and Joan – I would take pics and document all that, and make it public! This is what the general public needs to see – not the hype of the pretty horses in the Pegasus today!
I wait for the day, and it will happen, when a jockey gets his ass dragged into court for whipping/beating a racehorse.
They can claim industry operations, but that will no longer fly in a court with a jury.
It will just take one case,just one case to win, and their torture tools will be banned.
If they can ban the bullhook (which pro-circus people used the same defense) then the whip will be banned.
Of course I know that the business needs to shut down, but at least give these racehorses some relief in the meantime.