Recently, in advance of the resumption of racing at its tracks, the New York Racing Association issued a statement that included this: “The New York Racing Association (NYRA) today announced a number of safety initiatives…for the upcoming meet at Belmont Park. … The safety and welfare of horses…is our highest priority.”
With that in mind, consider this from Belmont yesterday:
Truck Salesman “sustained LF leg injury while breezing [a training term]” – euthanized where he lay.
Brahe “sustained injuries to both [italics added] front legs while breezing” – euthanized where he lay.
Abraxan “pulled up at 1/8 pole [with] leg injury” – euthanized back in the barn.
Without running a single race in 2020, Belmont Park, one of this nation’s most prestigious tracks, has notched 18 dead horses. 18. It ends when, and only when, you the people say, enough.
Governor Cuomo
Senator Schumer
Senator Gillibrand
NYS Senators
NYS Assemblymembers
Reblogged this on Armory of the Revolution.
As you know, Belmont is only a few miles from our home. Little did I EVER know or suspect that horses were being killed in training or even in races. Never knew, no idea whatsoever. Few who live near the track know it, I am quite sure. I am hoping that this information gets out more and more and spreads far and wide. This is so shocking: Three horses died in one morning at the same track. I want to mention “reforms”, here: I have spoken to PETA donors about what goes on and how PETA is not willing to officially call for a ban of racing and, instead, for “reforms”. I am so sorry that many, or most, in their membership, so many caring people, don’t know that a ban is necessary.. What a huge help I bet it would be. Then a speedier end to this industry, I am thinking, might be possible. I do now believe that an end is inevitable but hope for it to be faster. :(
Thank you, once more, Patrick, for always posting these horrible deaths. Truck Salesman, Brahe (BOTH front legs!!!) and Abraxan.. My heart goes out to all three of you enslaved, abused and murdered horses. RIP Fly with the angels.
And where is the racing press for this story? Where’s DRF, TVG, BH, Paulick, TDN, NBC Sports, et al.? Why all the silence, blood sports reporters? Is it that you’re all hiding from the inevitable blowback toward your anti-sport? Are you all afraid that the public is finally figuring out that ALL tracks are Santa Anita, ALL the time?
The horrors described on this site are the stories you all refuse to cover every day. Yet they’re the stories about horse racing that the public is most interested in.
Kind of gives you pause about your futures as “journalists,” doesn’t it?
Why is death of innocent animals ok with these “people”??????
I think the “reporters” who cover horse racing exclusively DO understand that they cannot report on these deaths, or they’d be in violation of their anti-sport’s Secrecy Tenet. Any full, honest portrayal would have caused their whole industry to have imploded a long time ago.
Now, they’re pretty helpless as it crumbles away, and they just don’t have the heart to admit they’ve been covering up the carnage all along.
Great question, Kelly.
Thanks, Martha, but I’ll never, ever get an answer from the racing press. Gotta keep prodding them, though;)
Kelly As aware as I have always been about the cruelty of horse and dog racing, as much as bull fighting I was never aware that the (Free Press) were prevented from reporting the truth of racing activities?
The British Grand National was in recent years a bloodbath of dead and seriously injured horses. You couldn’t hide the mass falls at a fence, nor the horse that was unable to get up and was thrashing around in agony!
How then does a reporter explain to the betting public why one, two or three of their horses fail to finish? They went for a run in the nearby woods, stopped for a bite to eat, or just stopped for a breather?
It’s ridiculous.
Ray, if reporters working for the racing press reported on all of the dead, maimed, injured and killed racehorses, the “powers that be” would simply fire the reporters that don’t “play ball” with them and find someone else willing to hide as many facts as possible when it reveals the absolute ugliness of the blood sport of horseracing. Sometimes the carnage is obvious when it is a high profile race such as the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, the Belmont Stakes and the Breeders Cup races in the USA. These are all Grade One races and people that don’t follow racing on a daily basis but still think horseracing is “fun” to watch will possibly watch these nationally televised races. These races were aired by ABC in the past but that was changed to NBC. These are free antenna TV stations and then there are the channels that you have to pay for that provide more coverage of horseracing as well as a lot of other stuff.
Once I watched a televised steeplechase race on TV. A horse dropped to the ground after going over a hurdle. The horse died. A man explained why it’s “acceptable” (more or less) for these horseracing people to run horses in steeplechase races and how the horses…blah blah blah. It sounded sort of okay but when you know more about how bad it really is on a daily basis for the horses, there are no public relations tales or “explanations” that are truly acceptable to a thinking person with any real empathy.
Ray, each and every racing publication/network has an implicit policy of not reporting all but a tiny percentage of the casualties — and even these few are reported on ONLY because they happened: 1. to a big-name, well-known horse, 2. during the course of a major race, and/or 3. in an accident that seriously injured or killed a jockey. As Wanda stated (Thanks, Wanda!), so-called reporters who even mention the bloodshed outside of these limited parameters would quickly find themselves out of a job. They are not directly “prevented” from reporting on all the carnage so much as they ALL refuse to do so out of self-interest and protectiveness toward the industry. Some “journalists,” right?
Kelly is 100% correct.
I would also ad that the horse racing industry deliberately edits out the breakdowns, will completely eliminate a race and only show the finish line if they can’t edit it out, and the notorious tarp.
The tarp is deliberately put up to block the sad truth about this repulsive business.
They don’t want the public to see a racehorse with snapped-off bones laying in the dirt struggling to get up on their feet.
They don’t want to speak the truth, tell the truth and go to no lengths to hide the truth.
They protect the billions in wagering profits and the racehorses pay the price.
These are not the actions of people who care about the racehorses and the other nasty fact that most of them end up on the slaughterhouse floor.
The facts are here. Horseracing is cruelty and torture to horses. These evil people involved in horseracing have no compassion for these horses. If they truly loved their horses, the abuse would stop. The cruel abuse of Thoroughbreds is not going to stop without outside intervention meaning, of course, that the people involved in horseracing are cold, callous, cruel, barbaric, sadistic people that are incapable of stopping themselves from their addiction to treating horses inhumanely and killing them in heinous ways and the money they make from their sick, perverted activities including gambling.
They are perverted enough to be proud of themselves and each other. Bob Baffert is a disgustingly vile person but the racing crowd can say they are proud of him for the “work” he does to get horses ready for the big races. This month, June 2020, will be the Belmont Stakes. These most vile people will continue to put practices into place to win hundreds of thousands of dollars. WHEN horses get injured and are killed by euthanasia or drop dead of heat stroke or a heart attack or complete exhaustion, these vile “trainers” will not be fired from their jobs. Instead, they will be rewarded. It’s sickening!!! It’s vile!!!! It’s tradition. It must be stopped by the people who cannot and will not tolerate this morally depraved behavior any longer. That must be people who care; people that have the capacity and capability to care. That would be Horseracing Wrongs and supporters doing what it takes to ban horseracing!!!
And in England today, the Guardian reports that December Second died as a result of a “high speed collision and fatal injury spoils racing’s long -awaited return.” First – HIGH SPEED COLLISION ?! Does that sound like something that should be happening to animals in this day and age?? And his death “SPOILED” racing’s return?? How sick is that thought??
To top it off- apparently the British are also trying their best to rationalize the racing deaths, because in the article it states that they estimate there is 1 death for every 1,000 flat racing starts, but that “statistics show” that a horse is more likely to die in a pasture accident than racing. What a line of bull that is. They are so desperately trying to spin that it’s ok for horses to die racing.
And they call us crazy??
Peggy, same morally depraved falsehoods, different day. That phony line that horses are more likely to die in a pasture accident is so predictable for the racing people to say because it is an obvious attempt to dupe a gullible public. Only morons and wagering addicts would believe it. Horses grazing on pasture do not die of high speed collisions!
So sad to see this, why can’t they stop running injured horses?
At Santa Anita Sunday in the Santa Maria race 7 Horologist took a bad step. She did walk ove r the finish line after being eased
Does anyone know her status and if she is ok?? Also re the PR, New York races wil no longer be on TVG effective tommorow. Kelly because of being it sounds like let go Tvg won’t care too much what happens at NY tracks.
And you call yourselves civilised human beings? You attend races for your pleasure and care not a jot about the pain, distress and fear caused to the beautiful creatures that run for your pleasure?
The total lack of empathy shared by race goers is akin to the lack of concern and decency in the Middle Ages when bears, tied to pillars were attacked by dogs, and similar barbaric activities.
Until you humans change your attitudes to the suffering of animals, the human race are destined to destroy themselves because the continuation of such a species must be reliant on humanity, care for all and empathy.
“The safety and welfare of horses…is our highest priority.”
How the New York Racing Association can make such a statement with a straight face is ridiculous and insulting. It is beyond obvious that racing has never and can never put the safety and welfare of the horses first.
The NYRA needs to define the meaning of horse “SAFETY” and horse “WELFARE” in this gambling business – a business where EXPLOITATION of the horse is fundamental to its survival.
In essence, racing and horse welfare/safety are incompatible.
Sad news. Arogate is dead at age 7 this morning. Cause not known yet
Neurological issue.
But that wouldn’t have anything to do with being doped-up on pain-killers, diuretics, steroids and all manner of legal and illegal “medications” his whole, short life, now would it?
Nah.
Bob Baffert can add another “notch” on his “syringe” to symbolize the death of Arrogate, since Arrogate was “trained” and “doped” by Bob Baffert during his racing “career” earning millions of dollars for his connections.
With all of the testing done to Arrogate, it is a big mystery as to what would cause him to have neurological issues. This is so typical of the racing industry. Pssst…if you want to keep your job/paycheck, keep your big mouth shut!!!! Got that????
In my getting info quest read when Baffert was informed of Arrogate passing , he teared up. I am sure his tearing up was not the same tears we shed
Nancy, I’m sure you are right about that. It doesn’t make sense that his tears (if, in fact, he had any) would mean he is sad for the horse. I think it is “wallpaper” for the racing industry to say that he “teared up” because it is the horseracing industry’s way to say things that sound good, to make it sound as though horseracing is acceptable, even though it’s false. Just as Bob Baffert is the “chosen one” to speak publicly about horseracing “reforms” he is also the one who must be portrayed as the one who cares. It is a public relations ploy in an industry that needs to be shut down in order to stop the doping, killing and torture of innocent horses for greed.
“Euthanized where he lay.” This pretty much sums up what horseracing is all about.