The Weekly Report

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Last week…

Game On Girl “fell at the top of the stretch” at Parx
Rodeo Red “stopped suddenly when bleeding from the nostrils” at Parx
Miss Classy Tee “vanned off” at Evangeline
Total Tap “vanned off” at Tampa Bay
Secret Boyfriend “vanned off” at Gulfstream
Rey de Ligas “vanned off” at Gulfstream
Isabellaalexa “pulled up lame, vanned off” at Laurel
Ransack “vanned off” at Turfway
Strike Now “returned bleeding from the nostrils” at Turfway
Rockin Jo “vanned off” at Aqueduct
Tellyouinseattle “fell, vanned off” at Remington

While not all the “vanned” end up dead, most do as borne out by my year-end FOIA reports. But even if death is not the ultimate result, the above are victims nonetheless, suffering painful injuries – in the case of the bleeders, pulmonary hemorrhage – so that some men may gamble, others chase pots of gold. (For any new confirmed deaths during the week, please see my running annual list.)

10 Comments

  1. OMG, what a cluster F__k!!!! How horrible particularly for the horses. I think horse racing should be banned! Too many serious injuries and/or death to precious, innocent horses. This is unacceptable!

  2. This list seems kind of light. I believe it’s because some of the shitty little dirtbag horse-killing tracks are finding it, well, inconvenient to report their van-offs as they happen. So, to avoid Patrick’s list, they’re taking full advantage of COVID protocols that don’t allow the public to monitor/record the horrors as they happen. In addition to the two at Parx, listed above, there’s a growing number of situations in which a TB is a DNF, but the chartwriter evasively OMITS the poor horse’s outcome altogether. Vanned off? Probably. Euthanized on the track? Possibly. Simply unsaddled and cooled off before trotting back to the barn to enjoy dinner? Not likely. IF the horse had, in fact, walked off the course under her/his own power, why wouldn’t they want to state that proudly on their Equibase report?

      • One at Mountaineer on Monday, TWICE at Remington on Thursday. I stopped looking, but I’m sure there’s more. It’s like they’re enjoying the “benefits” of this pandemic.

    • Many of the tracks were shut down last week for at least one day due to the big snowstorm that hit much of the east and northeast. That’s probably why the list is lighter this week.

      • Yes, true, Peggy. But I was referring specifically to tracks that actually DID run their scheduled cards, in which the dispensations of their DNFs aren’t noted at all. Seems lately there’s been more and more cases of chartwriters failing to record ANY negative outcomes. I think having no spectators there to refute a claim of “walked off” is the reason for this. They don’t want to be caught in a deliberate lie — just in case one of their workers flips and reports the horror, or there’s drone footage of an animal being vanned off or euthed that they’d claimed had been walked off — so they just admit nothing. “Filly X was eased while (double-digit) lengths back and Did Not Finish. The End. Lalalalalalala.”

        Oh, (and oops!): Remington’s double deception was Friday, races 3 and 5, not Thursday, as I’d written;)

  3. The drawing with the two jockeys whipping their mounts sums up racing: it is very cruel and very abusive and too many people watching it do nothing to stop it.
    I’m grateful for all of you who have done something to stop horseracing with its inherent cruelty and inhumane treatment of horses, whether it was a little or a lot.

    • Yes, Wanda…some compassionate humans have to have “balls”,to fight for what’s RIGHT. So be it , it’s left to us.

  4. I’m a retired police office and I think that horseracing would be greatly curtailed if an outside independent law enforcement agency was to monitor the everyday corruption. I sent a ltr. to the NYS A.G.’s office on 12/14/2020 regarding illegal doping and still haven’t received a reply. This office needs to get more calls about the illegal aspects of horseracing. If outside agencies don’t consistently hear from us, nothing will happen. The racing industry is an entity that oversees and polices themselves with little or no consequences for the illegal doping, whipping and other corruption involved. I believe that the A.G’s office must get involved. I also believe that many trainers will quit if they can’t keep drugging horses.
    Furthermore, the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine developed an X-ray machine under the direction of Sheila Lyons DVM, which can detect the slightest fracture in racehorses. It could be used before every race. Why isn’t this happening?
    The name and email address of the individual I was referred to is:

    travis.hill@ag.ny.gov

    Mr. Travis Hill
    Deputy Chief – NYS Attorney General
    Albany, NY

    Dear Mr. Hill,

    I spoke with you back in June concerning the illegal drugging of racehorses but at that time, you were not able to look into the matter.

    The article below was sent to me recently regarding an individual who was caught stealing and selling Adequan to several trainers and vets on NYS Racetracks.

    I called the office of the U.S. Attorney to find out if the veterinarians and trainers involved in the purchase of the stolen drugs would be prosecuted. I was transferred to John Marzelli in their Public Information Office who said that any charges pertaining to the trainers would probably be state charges, which their office would not handle.

    I’m hoping that your office would look into this matter.

    Sincerely,
    Susan C. McDonough
    Cruelty Investigations Committee 518-488-9318
    NYS Humane Association

    Subject: drugs on the backstretch
    N.Y. Man Admits to Selling Stolen Drugs at Tracks – BloodHorse Magazine

    Adequan is a treatment for degenerative joint disease. The thief pled guilty to stealing and selling $600,000 of the drug to veterinarians and trainers at Belmont. Perhaps other tracks.

    • Thank you for sharing this information, Susan McDonough.
      Regarding the X-Rays, Santa Anita claims in their online “brochure” about “safety protocols” and such that one of the things they will have is pre-race x-rays/scans for pre-existing conditions. I don’t think it necessarily means that they are not going to race horses with pre-existing conditions/micro-fractures. I think it is more of a smoke-screen, if you will, and that they will continue to allow horses to run and then just deny, deflect, make lame excuses, etc. I think they, at Santa Anita, will continue to betray the horses, and any human who might be gullible enough to trust them and to NOT hold them accountable. I think they are hoping that people will make “a leap of faith” and take it to mean that they’re not going to race any horse with micro-fractures but the public relations brochure does NOT say specifically that they won’t race certain horses anyway (with pre-existing conditions/fractures). It states that the X-ray machine will be used, or, that they have one. So this is where the hair-splitting begins…
      I am interested to read comments from others on this. Thanks again.
      santaanita.com

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