In addition to a “pulled up, vanned off” (Little Miss Julia) in the 7th at Penn Friday, and various other horses described as “unwilling” or “rank,” there was this for the 3-year-old filly Aamaal in the day’s final race: “AAMAAL was reluctant to load, stopped and was vanned off after the race.” Gee, do you suppose she was “reluctant” to be whip-forced to “race” because she was already injured? The turpitude of this industry knows no bounds. Jockey, Ricardo Chiappe; trainer, Michael Pino.
The horseracing industry has too much political power and have so far won the fight against cuts in government subsidies to their industry of forcing horses to do things that are completely unnatural. But, hey, it’s a “living” for those people who have been doing this for so many years. Why give students a chance to pay off their student loan debt??? To hell with the students, according to the racing industry. Cry for us, say the workers in the horse breeding, racing, gambling and horse killing “game.”
America is about Football,Baseball, Basketball,Hockey. This corny little side show (horse racing) doesn’t even register as a “blip” on the radar. And that’s a fact,Jack. Horse racing is a “niche” scumbag activity, that oh by the way kills.
Bonnie, I wouldn’t suppose an industry with an economic impact of over 39 billion dollars and with over 1.4 million jobs would just be a blip on the map.
Ann- I really believe it is. Just because it has some big money involvement – most Americans could probably not tell you who American Pharoah or Justify is. But I can guarantee that most Americans can tell you who Lebron James is, or even Tiger woods in the nichey world of golf, and they usually have a fairly good idea of how their favorite baseball team or football teams are doing. The average American only realizes when the Kentucky derby is because it’s hyped up as a big party day.
Hell, most people I’ve educated on the horrors or horse racing dont even realize horses can and do break legs, and then more often than not need to be euthanized.
You googled some numbers and copied them Ann. Do you have any idea how economic impact studies actually work, what they count, what they leave out? The fact of the matter is that almost every business is a net wash. If you close a restaurant you don’t permanently put employees out of work and suddenly lose the economic impact. Another business opens and employees find other jobs. In fact, it often leads to a better economic situation as money shifts to more stable industries with higher economic impact. The numbers are all bullshit made up to make a point for the person paying for the study.
Oh, boy, Bonnie! Here comes the jobs plea. Literally, LOL at their latest made-up number: 1.4 MILLION JOBS will be lost when racing finally goes away for good? My god, imagine the recession that’ll be created…no, make that the DEPRESSION(!).
It’ll be just awful: Geezer gambling addicts will have to play cards, or bet on robots, or something equally unsatisfying. There will be no demand whatsoever for angry little bulimic dudes with whips. Worst of all, racehorse owners might suddenly have to (gasp!) PAY FOR THEIR OWN HORSES’ UPKEEP, like the rest of us do. And we all know that the “Kings” have no interest in any of that shit.
Kelly, you got it.Frankly everyone involved in this racket should feel beyond guilty,EMBARRASSED,ashamed, that they did NOTHING with the life they were given, nothing positive ,or ANYTHING to help animals or humans. And, oh yeah Ann, no thoroughbred should EVER be sent to a slaughterhouse. Do the humans who play games go to a slaughter house Ann?
Ann, do the “participants in those REAL sports lose their lives?
Yes, Bonnie, they do lose their lives, but not at the same rate as in horseracing.
When a high school student dies of either a severe head trauma or a heat stroke, the parents don’t go out and prostitute each other out to make more babies to grow up and play HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL with the risk of injuries and the risk of severe head trauma or heat stroke. It’s more like a sport in football than a business, even though football is big business. Even though there has been major cheating scandals in football (New Orleans Saints, for example), at least, it doesn’t directly involve the heinous abuse of horses or other animals.
When someone gets hurt on a football field, whoever is filming it doesn’t cut away and not talk about it. It is the exact opposite in horseracing and football. In horseracing, they don’t take a time out from the race and focus directly on the injured horses. In football, they drag on for a long time talking about the injury and showing replays. They don’t show replays in the horse racing industry if they can get away with it. In horseracing, not showing replays of horses suffering catastrophic injuries which usually means that the horses are dead, or will sooner or later be dead, is standard procedure. The more the industry can hide their dirty, dastardly deeds of treating horses like a commodity that can quickly be disposed of at the industry’s discretion, the more they can hide the inhumane abuse, the more money they can dupe the public for in terms of government subsidies, wagering and any money spent on things like food and lodging near a racetrack and any tourism activities related to the horseracing industry.
But Wanda….they have a CHOICE. And a VOICE.
Ann, what about what this pure evil industry did to Alydar, to collect a life insurance policy. Horses are innocent souls and have no voice. Call it what it is and what it has ALWAYS been. PURE F’n EVIL. No animal DEATH is ACCEPTABLE. The End.
Ann, these “people” need to go WORK a REAL job. You know, like something that doesn’t involve TORTURING animals, and CONSTANT massive DEATH.
And, speaking of forcing pre-injured, reluctant equine victims to race to their likely deaths…
Didn’t think it was possible, but we’ve probably found ourselves a jockey who’s sunk to a new all-time low: Check out this monster named Cory Orm, everyone. Glad he was able to earn himself that ten bucks for his “ride” in race 3 at Hawthorne today. Classy Cory, they should call him.
Or, maybe just “The (w)Orm” for short.
Kelly, the poor horse was 99/1. Another EXAMPLE of torturing a poor soul.
And while I’m airing SOME of the wrongs of this gambling racket, why do so many of the thoroughbreds lose an eye in this business? What the hell goes on that so many of them “injure” an eye and have to have their eyes removed? What the HELL is up with that? So much evil and grotesqueness with this gambling scheme. I could go on forever with the wrongs that are done.
I would imagine a lot of the people who contribute and read this site,feel the obligation and gratitude of what horses have given and done for mankind throughout history. Horses have been forced to fight in brutal, horrendous wars,they were man’s way of transportation,before the automobile was invented,etc. People OWE horses the deepest of gratitude, we would not have achieved the things we did,if it wasn’t for horses. They should be sacred to Americans,the way cows are in India. So yes, I do get passionate about horses.
Horses should not be forced to run for one full mile while maintaining a speed of 45 mph for the whole distance. That is disturbing!!!! It’s like what they do to dogs in the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska. It’s for human greed. It’s not out of necessity when humans force animals to exert themselves beyond their physical limitations.