The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has confirmed that Alittlevodka, a “went wrong, vanned off” in the 3rd at Churchill May 31, is dead. From the official report:
“Gelding was racing in the pack and suddenly pulled up near the 7/16’s pole with an injury to his left front limb. The KHRC veterinarian summoned the equine ambulance and administered a sedative/analgesic to assist loading onto the ambulance and minimize further injury. He was ambulanced off the track and after consulting with the private veterinarian the decision was made to euthanize the gelding due to the extent of his injuries and a poor prognosis.”
Necropsy findings:
“Left forelimb: biaxial sesamoid fractures, comminuted. Right forelimb: There is a single lag screw fracture repair of the first phalanx. On interview with the trainer it was noted that the lag screw in the RF P1 was placed before the horse began racing.”
So: This poor animal suffered a fracture and was operated on prior to ever being entered in a race; was then put to the whip 31 times on a screwed-together leg; was killed when his other leg snapped. This industry’s wickedness knows no bounds.
Horseracing is for the morally depraved. It is unbelievable at how cruel the “people” really are who commit these horrible acts of barbaric brutality against horses. They all belong in prison!!!!
End the brutality!!!
#Endhorseracing
this wicked industry has bounds to the CRUELTY that they put there horses through because MONEY TALKS VOLUMES so if it breaks down patch it up and run it into the ground BECAUSE THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ANOTHER TO REPLACE the horse they killed JUST BECAUSE THEY LOVE THEM TO DEATH LITERALLY 😡🤬😡🤬
About 100 vile incidents ago I stated in one of my comments here that horse racing has reached the bottom only to realize that it’s actually the ceiling.
That’s how bad it is.
It’s heartbreaking what they do to racehorses and has anybody ever wondered about the things that we don’t know about?
We have the vile unacceptable facts on this site that are condoned and defended by this industry and their brigade of parasites.
However, this is just scraping the surface if you can imagine that?
Doping and race fixing rings like Servis and Jorge Navarro plus the vets are not uncommon either and this is the first major legal prosecution of thugs like this, but they are common in horse racing.
Look at Bob Baffert, Todd Pletcher, Steve Asmussen, Mike Maker etc. who all have extensive unruly backgrounds with racehorses and just because they are doing it at an upper level doesn’t make it right.
Of course we see with our own eyes and the facts stated here that their voiceless victims pay the price and they continue to pay the price even when dumped by these parasites, if they make it out alive, because they usually end up dying on the slaughterhouse floor.
This business is so vile that not only does it not belong in a civilized society, but it doesn’t belong anywhere at any time.
Thank-you Patrick and all supporters of HRW in heart, mind, soul and/or financially.
EXACTLY, Gina – and the parasites you mentioned include the commissions…as evidenced by THIS;
“Jockey Gabriel Saez, currently serving a 30-day suspension for what Indiana Horse Racing Commission stewards said was “extreme carelessness” in a June 17 race at Indiana Grand, has been given an exemption to ride [granted by Indiana Horse Racing Commission ED Deena Pitman] in Saturday’s Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes and other stakes races outside of Indiana.”
Saez broke their “rules” – guilty of “EXTREME CARELESSNESS” which caused one 2-year-old filly, Lichita, to fall and two other fillies to lose their riders. Suspended. Oh but he can ride the stakes races during that “suspension”. One can’t make this idiocy up!!
Joy I’ve always maintained that there are only 3 categories of apologists: 1. Abusers 2. Enablers of the abuse 3. Both.
The commissions qualify for 2.
Just look at what happened today during the CHRB meeting!
They refused to invoke Bill 469 to shut down Los Alamitos citing it was “too harsh.”
Instead, they proposed that Los Al must come up with a “safety plan” and present it in 3 days.
They then rejected that citing that “3 days is not enough.”
My heavens Los Al has been killing racehorses for YEARS and 3 days to come up with a safety plan is not enough??
Instead they extended it to 10 days, permiting them to continue racing of course, and to put them on notice that if they don’t come up with a “plan” then they will invoke Bill 469.
So a couple of pieces of paper meaning nothing can be submitted to continue their killings.
It doesn’t surprise me because this meeting was a carbon copy of meetings I attended back in 2005.
So 15 years later, thousands of dead racehorses later, equipped with a Bill to stop it and the CHRB does nothing.
Just shut it down because nothing has changed nor will it ever and I can’t stand the killings anymore.
And his “good” leg snapped because he was trying to protect the previously fractured and put-back-together other limb – at 7 years old and having raced 31 times (in addition to training), there’s no way Alittlevodka escaped arthritis (and its subsequent pain) in that right forelimb.
Joy, I was thinking about how painful the injury was that ALITTLEVODKA suffered from when they put a screw or screws into his bones to hold them together. Then in the world of sadistic, money-grubbing, heartless heathens of horseracing ALITTLEVODKA’s pain was compounded by training and racing with his bones held together with screws. There is no excuse for such vile thinking and behavior!!! It’s unthinkable and unacceptable to allow such horrible and horrific cruelty and torture to horses to continue. These morbid, vile animal abusers and killers belong in prison!!!
#Endhorseracing
I just read an article yesterday about a “success story” of a filly who had a condylar fracture she obtained while training. The article goes on to state a condylar fracture is a “fracture of high speed activity”, and that it doesn’t have to be “career ending” any longer, though depending on the fracture, some may have a poor prognosis and only be able to be broodmares, etc.
The article then describes how this filly had 3 screws placed in her leg, was handwalked for months, and, yippee, she is now back to racing. Of course the pro racing people are all stoked about this success story and congrats to the owners for caring so much about her, blah blah.
So the first thing I thought was, ok the article says it’s an injury of speed, like she’s not going to be pounded on again over and over to recreate that speed?? How long before she’s crippled for good and can “only” be a broodmare?? Or how about all those horses for whom a condylar fracture is a death sentence?
Good old racing – atta boy for running horses with hardware in their legs!!
I read the same stories (Saez suspension and the fracture story) with disbelief. And the sad part is the connections and foul ball jockeys pull this off time and time again.
Yes, Peggy – racing’s “success stories” merely incriminate the industry they’re all patting on the back! – do these folks really not see how stupid they are in trying to convince the public how “caring” the industry is?
Not to take away from this post about Alittlevodka, but there are two horses I think of immediately when I hear about another breakdown and death of a horse being raced with hardware…Winds of Love (he’s got a Shedrow Secrets’ story) and Melodeeman. Patrick has written about Melodeeman – I think it’s a good time to revisit that post if a visual is needed for some who still need convincing this abhorrent industry should be allowed to continue….
http://horseracingwrongs.com/2013/08/01/melodeeman-and-the-screws-that-held-him-together/
As well as the beautiful Rose’s Asset, Joy.
This horse was 7 years old and bred in Indiana. He started racing well in Indiana winning in 2018 but subsequently started dropping in quality of races until May 31st when he ran in a cheap claiming race and broke down. This is the anatomy of destruction for inexpensive racing geldings as the horses get tired and sore but their disgusting owners and trainers try to squeeze every last drop of energy and good will out of them to get a share of a crappy purse. This could be the story of all racing geldings if forced to do this too long. Why didn’t Lothenbach stables retire this horse last year? When they are older and are steadily dropping in price it doesn’t take a genius to see what is coming next. Both the owner and trainer (Neil Pessin) should be charged with animal cruelty. The problem is…horseracing is not considered animal cruelty.
This is one of the worst things I’ve heard that has been done to a horse just so he could race! His pain must have been horrific when he ran! I wish there were criminal charges that could be brought against a trainer doing such a horrible thing, making an animal suffer pain beyond words!
Enough is enough!
Disgusting felony animal abuse is what that is. Horrible people.. Killing and abusing God’s creatures. Shameful. God is watching and so are we.
I don’t know why anyone would race a horse that had fractured a leg. The ole mighty dollar wins again. Wake up people.
No words to describe this, the ones responsible for the suffering of this animal should have their legs broken with a baseball bat. What kind of vet says this horse can race?
So vile! When will it ever end great strides have been made on public awareness of abuse. Let’s make this a criminal act.
In short, racehorses would have to be recategorized from “livestock” to “pets” in order to be covered under Felony Animal Cruelty laws.
It sucks and so does this vile business.
Gina, I get emails from White Coat Waste project about domestic and wild animals being used for disturbingly cruel experiments. Some of the animals are purebred Beagles. I don’t know how they get away with what they do to these animals. It seems like it should be covered under the PACT ACT: Protecting Animals from Cruelty and Torture Act. Horses should be protected under the animal cruelty laws…😥
All kinds of fun, exciting news coming out of California today: Del Mar kicks off its triumphant return with a horse death (not yet CHRB-confirmed because, well, it’s Saturday, and we all know racehorses almost never die on weekends;). Plus big name jockey number THREE is COVID-positive. Martin, Saez, and, now, Espinoza have all been making the rounds from track to track (and state to state) so that oh-so-essential horse racing can continue through this pandemic. All three have been riding at Los Alamitos recently, and all are quarantining — now that they’ve been pulled from their mounts after testing proved they’re carrying (and likely spreading) the novel Coronavirus. And speaking of Los Al…well, we all know what’s going on with them. Kill 29 horses, get probation. The only positive part of THAT horror show is that the Los Angeles Times is finally forced to report Los Al’s many kills. Baby steps toward journalism from the L.A. Times so-called Sports?
And yet these so-called owners, trainers and jockeys ALL profess to ‘love their horses’ NO…..all they love is the smell of filthy money, earned on the heinous atrocities inflicted onto these innocent, defenseless horses….horses that are abused and raced until they drop dead or are ‘euthanized’ I expect the same owners and trainers even send the bodies of these horses to the slaughterhouses so they can have their last bit of ‘money’
Irene, the dead bodies of horses euthanized at the racetracks could not be used for meat-eating dogs or humans but they could be rendered by a rendering company, or dumped in a landfill.
#Endhorseracing
My heart breaks for these innocent, helpless creatures. They have no say. They cannot object. They are “silent sufferers”. I pray that every person involved in horse racing–past, present, and future–that has turned a blind eye and deaf ear to their suffering, stands before their God one day and answers for their brutality.