For many within U.S. Racing the problem is U.S. Racing. Drugs, mostly – Lasix, a lack of uniformity, etc. – but also dirt surfaces, claiming races, and the like. The clear suggestion being that if only we could emulate clean, well-run jurisdictions like Hong Kong, France, or England, all would be right with the world. Because you know, horses don’t die over there, at least not like they die here in the States.
I recently received the following video of a horse – Voyage King – breaking down in a race at Happy Valley in Hong Kong November 20. The Hong Kong Jockey Club subsequently confirmed that Voyage King’s fracture was “irreparable” and he was “humanely euthanised.” But there’s more: According to the JC itself, just this past May the 4-year-old VK was diagnosed “lame left front leg [yes, same one that broke] on the day after racing, [with] osteoarthritis in both front fetlocks.” Then in September, “substantial blood in trachea after racing.” How’s that for “doing things the right way”?
The reader and person who took the video, Oliver Kemsley, was attending his first horserace. Fair warning: it is difficult to watch.
Reblogged this on Armory of the Revolution.
Witnessing is not easy, but it may be the only (or best) way to expose horseracing’s horrific truths, especially when words cannot accurately convey how greatly horses suffer. HW’s work in informing others is very much appreciated.
Please lets not forget the steeplechase races run with frequency overseas.
I’m very glad that you published this. I am so tired of hearing how other countries are doing everything better than we are in the United States. This business is overloaded with crooks and scam artists. And oriental people know how to lie and use subterfuge with the experts. I want to see reports from Japan. After that mass poisoning incident of thoroughbreds with the chocolate deivative I have trusted them even less if that is possible. I don’t know where your reports come from but I am glad I am not the only 1 watching. Get ready for the onslaught from Gulfstream. It just started.
From a racing supporter…”Horses are an industry. The purpose of industry is to make money…” It doesn’t matter if that industry is in the United States, Hong Kong or Great Britain. Money is THE king.
I can’t watch the video because I know that the carnage will be too much for me to bear. I’ve seen enough horror stories in racing to last a lifetime. I just hope that this vile industry eventually dies in the dirt the same way that many of its horses do.
Mary,so glad others are out there like me….I cannot watch ANYTHING that involves animals being harmed.
Unconscionable, perpetuated, animal abuse that’s allowed within an industry that needs to be banned! Horse Racing is not a sport. Gamblers are degenerates, sick, with a nationally known disease for which treatment centers are plentiful and thriving! Gambling is what drives the Racing Industry and why the good old boys club sticks together like thieves. All about money, nothing trumps that and the horses are the living beings suffering from the moment the mare drops her foal in a breeding barn. Filthy bastards….every, single, person attached to Horse Racing.
You BET —- They DIE 🚫🏇 🚫
Any animal exploitation industry will treat its commodities the same no matter what country it is. The only reason the US seems to be worse is because of people like Patrick who are exposing the real numbers. Horse racing needs to end, once and for all, across the board, because there is no better way to race a horse.
Horrific breakdown, but aren’t they all?
Horse racing, anywhere, in any country is all the same
This is the face of horse racing – a living being forced into servitude to be doped, beaten, confined, dumped, and killed – all for $2 bets.
The horror on Voyage King’s face and eyes while his leg is flapping-off and you can hear it banging the fence.
There’s no denying these facts except for when you read the apologists commentaries on pro-horse racing sites.
Take for example the latest commentary called “Don’t Concede Higher Moral Ground To Critics Of Horse Racing.”
The title alone prepares you for one doozie of a lie devoid of facts and Armen Antonian doesn’t disappoint.
First of all, a business that facilitates the massive suffering and killing of living beings should be the last people claiming to possess any sort of moral compass whatsoever.
Nevertheless, I don’t need your concessions and neither does anybody else who sees this business for what it is; killing racehorses or dumping them when they can no longer flip a buck because your vile industry and the vile people in it has crippled the horse for life.
Instead, leave it up to everybody else to clean up your unwanted racehorse mess and play on the heart strings of those of us who actually care about your disposed of, crippled racehorses who are in dire need of vet care and a normal life for the next 20 years!
Do all of this while you boast about your billion dollar profits, while you are all well aware about the fate of most racehorses whom you continue to exploit, dump, and kill.
Then, true to industry form, attack those who oppose your business and/or attack any group that is exposing the facts, the lies, the morally bankrupt people who are deliberately delusional as they continue to kill racehorses.
Horseracingwrongs didn’t make it into this round of attacks, but Governor Newsom did as he’s quoted “a sport whose time is up.”
Amen finds this bewildering “who has the governor been listening to?” and then a rebuttal that can only be found in the likes of Grimms Fairy Tales.
It goes on to recite the same old lines and how wonderful Santa Anita is steeped in rich traditional history, but fails to mention the solid record of racehorses being maimed and killed.
Of course one name was not even mentioned during this glorification process: MONGOLIAN GROOM.
Amen than continues to refer to critics of horse racing as “myopic moralists.”
Indeed, accepting the facts about horse racing, the reality of what’s going on is the antithesis of myopic.
Of course the fact that racehorses have been dying at Santa Anita (about 50 every single year) completely escapes Amen’s mind although he does refer to how great Santa Anita is and has been.
Reading these apologists commentaries and comments truly expose them for what they are.
There are NO reforms that could ever get to the bottom of this deeply flawed psyche of watching racehorses getting beaten while their bones are snapping-off.
Horse racing is a cesspool of horror, a blood bath, a modern day gladiator show that has no place in the 21st century – none.
Shameful.