This for the 4-year-old filly Mesmerizingpegasus in the 9th at Charles Town last night: “hesitated at the break…showed no response leaving the turn, was pulled up lame and euthanized on the track.” The dead horse’s people: owner, Teresa Haupt; trainer, Ralph Comi; jockey, Kelvin Morales. By the way, Haupt also had the poor girl for sale – at the bargain-bin price of $4,500 – immediately prior to her death. “Just like members of the family,” huh?
Sadly, it sounds like another horse that knew she was hurt, as evidenced by the hesitation and lack of response, and yet she was forced to run to her death.
Pulled up lame, eh?
And then euthanased? Really?
For what medical reason was she killed?
Performed poorly in this race (remember she was up for sale) and pulled up lame. It appears this doomed FOUR (4) year old filly was euthanased for these reasons.
Her life stolen from her.
Clearly she had a health issue and/or the demanding stresses of racing upon her body and mind was beyond her.
You owner, Teresa Haupt, trainer, Ralph Comi, jockey Kelvin Morales are despicable human beings.
You MONGREL BASTARDS!!!
And the vet/s who “euthansed” MESMERIZINGPEGASUS
you killed her on what grounds?
for what medical reasons?
Ahh yes, I can imagine…
Seen it for myself firsthand, she was a fizzer for the connections.
Next horse…
The owners probably had already called thier insurance agent, and asked how much this mare was worth dead, as an insurance claim. They probably already knew, the insurance company would pay out more than $4500, if the mare died. So, kill the mare because she’s lame, for whatever reason (who knows? Maybe a shoe was about to fall off?), and call the claims adjuster.
How the hell do these IDIOT vets not catch this kind of thing in the pre-race exams!!!?????
It’s abuse of horses and the medical profession. The track veterinarians are paid to accommodate the racing and gambling aspect of this “horse business” at the expense of living sentient beings and it is sickening!!!!! Horse racing needs to be exposed and ended!!!
Rest in peace 🙏💔💔💔💔💔
MESMERIZING PEGASUS you didn’t deserve this evil exploitation. You deserved to be treated with kindness, not cruel brutality.
I think there are a lot of factors. The track vet is responsible for a pre-race of every starter. Thoroughbreds don’t warm up so the exam consists of walking past the stall because they might have to inspect as many as 100 horses on race day. Standardbreds get vet scratched all the time because they’re out between races warming up. Being a track vet is the job you take when you can’t find a job, possibly when you retire and want something to do. The pay is crap and you don’t get to practice medicine. I don’t think anyone spends eight years in college hoping to be a state vet, looking at racehorses or tagging livestock, so the job falls to the least competent.
At the tracks I was at, the vet used to watch the horses walk in the paddock, then he would watch the jog and gallop in the post parade, and then would stand by at the gate to watch the loading. That was about it. If a jockey told him he felt the horse was off, they would scratch the horse, and more of then not, if a horse thrashed or fell in the gate they would scratch the horse also. (Thank goodness). Then he also would stand by at the end of the race and watch them all return to be unsaddled. It’s certainly not as much as other tracks, I’ve heard, where they watch horses jog in hand the morning of their race, actually do a hands on inspection, and some tracks have regulatory vets giving their lasix shots.
There are 2 categories of vets licensed to practice on a track.
1. State vet, paid for by the state, under the jurisdiction of the racing commissions, to conduct pre-race exams and euthanize racehorses on the track among some of their duties.
2. Private vet, paid for by the racehorse’s owner and almost always under the direction of the trainer to treat a given racehorse on a regular basis. This includes doping to keep the racehorse flipping a buck, and/or to increase their competitive edge. It almost always results in masking chronic conditions that can be serious and provide a safety working hazard for all those involved. This becomes even more hazardous in the claiming ranks, where most racehorses end up, with no medical records following them or being shared.
Under this deliberate non-cooperative umbrella the state vet has no idea what’s going on with the horse and a 10-minute visual exam is nothing but a ruse. One can hardly blame the State vet for missing things that can easily be masked with dope and the lack of transparency – all deliberate to placate the public and to keep sore racehorses filling races and wagering coffers. I would question the oath of a vet who deliberately hides records to make more money, at the detriment of the racehorse, over a state vet anytime.
It should seem obvious that a fixed salary of a state vet is well below the 6-figure salary of a private vet.
It’s the private vets, trainers, and owners who fight hard to keep these records private because they don’t want their dirty little secrets getting out into the public venue.
The state vet is usually the one fighting hard to gain access to those records, but it’s the tracks and wagering companies that financially benefit from this lack of transparency and cooperation among the vet factions.
If a state vet was able to review the private medical records and scratch a racehorse based on those records then there would be many small fields which doesn’t satisfy the gamblers and would greatly affect their bottom line.
This business does just about anything to placate the gamblers, claiming that they support the business, but for most tracks it’s people like you and me who are forced to support them through our taxes and by involuntarily relinquishing billions in casino profits so perhaps it’s time for us to be heard that should only lead to shutting them down.