The Melbourne Cup, one of the planet’s most famous races, has killed, again. Anthony Van Dyck, a multi-million-dollar-winning colt from Ireland, broke down in yesterday’s edition and was euthanized. “The Race That Stops a Nation” has, in recent years, averaged one dead horse each time out. Imagine that. Kristin Leigh of our sister organization Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses summed it well to the ABC: “As much as people are going through hard times I still think they don’t want to see animals abused and being killed in the name of gambling products. We’ve proven this so-called sport cannot be made kind.” Indeed, Kristin. Indeed.
Anthony, soon to be dead…
Fractured fetlock…..and the celebration for the winner’s owners just kept breaking into the champagne
This so sad! What a beautiful horse he was! Were glad to see Patrick noting international racing abuses as well.Also glad to see Gina back commenting as well. Her related experiences though different from ours are similar in many aspects as to threats made against us in this business. As a well trained English jockey once told us ” Racing is a crummy , crooked , gamboling game”. He and us used to gallop horses together in the mornings at our now dismantled 5/8 state fairgrounds track in the mid-1980`s.
Cruel, stupid people. Another pointless tragedy..all in the name of money.
Geez. My wrists are bigger than his cannon bones. I don’t weigh half a ton and run around on my hands.
Alan. I have seen this horse previously and this picture looks like something is wrong with him. Do you agree?
I had Standardbreds Nancy. Thoroughbreds always look unbalanced to me.
An international example of the boundless cruelty of human greed.
Alan thank you as usual.
Very sad and unbelievable anguish for these poor horses. $8 million dollar Melbourne Cup…kills another one. This will never end if people continue to believe that horse racing is the King of Sports…. I just can’t stand the fact that people spend so much money on this sport, when they could be spending their money on saving these animals from slaughter….smh
Two of the biggest, bloodiest, horse races in the world this week, and the first one grabs more news coverage for the horses it KILLS than for its so-called winners.
That leaves only the ominously approaching Bleeders’ Cup — with its, um, “safety” record that looks to be right up there with Melbourne Cup carnage.
Wonder how much BC officials and NBC “Sports” executives are crapping themselves right now?
I was around thoroughbreds years ago in Ireland and I can tell you, unequivocally, their legs did not look like that !!!
But what a sweet face and kind eye.
Sad short life. No get
I agree Rose. I had met an Irish master of hounds here in America who’s family still breeds thoroughbreds to hunt in Ireland. He had told me that Americans way of prepping youngsters to race is completely wrong, as well as breeding for flash speed. It’s creating unsound horses. He said the way Americans pound on the babies going round and round on a dirt circle doesn’t “build bone”, as pro racing vets keep spewing. He said in Ireland, they hack the youngsters out on country roads, only trotting them, not galloping them, on concrete, to build bone. It also makes for a more rounded, saner horse, and exposes them to a great variety of situations. He frowned on the newer creation of fragile, spindly legged horses and predicted it would ultimately go poorly for the breed. His family prefers to keep lines of more solid, larger boned horses to try to perpetuate a horse of substance.
A horse of substance? Ha! We don’t need that silly nonsense! We like ’em to live fast and die young. Solid? Larger boned? Pffft. What for? Those bulky structures just inhibit speed. in fact, if we could breed for more or less hollow bones, kinda like birds have — I’m thinking biscotti is our goal here, in terms of size and density — even better!
True, this might cause even more scenes that aren’t, um, “pleasant” to watch. But, hey. Too bad; WE are the KINGS, here, not you. So toughen up, sports fans.
And Kelly, regarding those scenes that aren’t “pleasant”? – ie, racehorses breaking bones and tearing tendons – hey, as racing-employed Donna Brothers said, and I quote; “We will all die one day. Let’s hope we’re all lucky enough to die doing something we love.” Yes, Brothers, those damn-lucky dead racehorses…surely they loved losing their lives so you can have a job! – what a moron.
This poor soul, I can say that he did not die in vain. The outpouring of antiracing sentiment due to his loss has been loud, and vehement. His death was trending overnight on twitter, and every Australian news source made a point to bringing his death to light. bless this poor horse and the awareness his death has raised to the dangers and vileness of the racing industry.
This outpouring of news coverage can certainly be advantageous to those against this sport
We ought to show them that video a couple of weeks ago with the newscaster at the factories also
Really put a damper on horse abuses.
Really? How low can people go? What kind of world are you building ? Money makes you shallow if that’s all you want.
Barbaric!
Is the cause of death known with all the technology this should have been possible.
Yes. Euthanasia.
The replay shows Anthony Van Dyck’s foreleg swinging wildly about – he CLEARLY suffered a fatal injury. Yet they loaded the colt into a van and transported him off the course – imagine that additional pain and confusion.
But moving catastrophically injured horses is exactly what the INDUSTRY does – in fact, here in America, it’s ENCOURAGED in the protocol laid out in the “Thoroughbred Race Day Injury Management Guidelines”.
It states on page 7; “The regulatory veterinarian should make EVERY effort to load the injured horse into the ambulance before euthanasia” (even the word “every” was capitalized in the directive – I didn’t just do that).
So what does that show us? – for the racing industry, it’s NOT about what is humane, what is kind, what is compassionate for the “injured horse before euthanasia”…it’s get that injured horse out of sight before they finish what they started.
Cruel scum.