Spy Story, says Equibase, “took bad steps then was vanned off” in the 4th at Aqueduct yesterday. We now know (Gaming Commission) that, no surprise, he is dead. Spy Story was two years old, and this was his very first race. He is the fourth horse to die at a New York Racing Association track in the first eight days of 2021. This, after 84 kills last year. And yet, NYRA still has the chutzpah to boast of “the best proven safety practices” in the industry. Vile.
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WAY AHEAD OF LAST YEAR. JANURARY 2020 FOR THE MONTH THEY HAD 4 DIE. ALREADY 2021 THEY HAD 4 IN 8 DAYS. EVEN 1 DEATH IS ONE TO MANY. SO SAD.
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So much for their “new safety standards”. They are a PATHETIC joke(ny).
Congratulations NY…..at least you are number one in SOMETHING. You are the number one killer of horses.
And they deleted race #4 from replays. Out of sight out of mind
That is one of the things that really p***es me off about horse racing!!! They hurt horses and kill horses and they try to cover it up, or hide the heinous killing by racing, and then say that they have such a great safety “practice” or whatever line of crap they use. It just p***es me off!!! It is so upsetting!!!!
Grening just tweeted another van-off.
Kelly, WHO?
Thank you, Kelly. I have no clue what anybody is tweeting since I don’t have a Twitter account. Any further details would be much appreciated.
You and me both Wanda. I’m not on ANY social media, or whatever it is. I guess I’m an “old school” person 🤣 I just never had an interest, I still don’t.
Bonnie, I have a Facebook account thanks to one of my daughters, but it can be too much sometimes. I shared this Horseracing Wrongs post on Facebook today. I can only hope that someone sees it and that it touches their heart in some meaningful way so that horseracing can be ended by being exposed for what it is: ANIMAL ABUSE AND SENSELESS WANTON DESTRUCTION OF HORSES.
Gotcha. The chart is up now, and shows race 2, El Potro was vanned after the wire. But my point is: There was, like, eight or nine van-offs nationwide yesterday on the charts, but ZERO reports from anybody else in the racing press EXCEPT David Grening of the DRF. Curious how the ONLY racing reporter to consistently report these (mostly catastrophic) events also happens to be assigned to the ONLY racing jurisdiction that publicly records them immediately, as they happen.
The whole thing screams forced transparency, rather than integrity.
I DO respect Dave, for being transparent. People have the RIGHT to know the truth.
Right, Kelly. It is very obvious that there are so many holes in their “bucket of so-called integrity” that it’s more like a “seive” if you will.
Of course, the articles on Horseracing Nation and Paulick Report are not going to focus on the heinous abuse and CARNAGE of the industry that they themselves are an active part of. Obviously, they are going to talk it up about which horses the gambling addicts “should” bet on. Despicable!!!
EL POTRO – another victim of this vile business and might even be dead.
Something that I’ve never seen in the pro-racing charts:
“All riders carried an additional 2 pounds in accordance with a weather related safety initiative.”
Now if this isn’t self incrimination I don’t know what is?!
First of all, they are admitting that there the weather conditions were unsafe so they added 2 pounds?!
However, adding 2 pounds is making it heavier for a racehorse and more unsafe.
For those of you who scoff at 2 pounds that’s a lot of weight on these young thoroughbreds backs while they are running at break neck speeds being beaten to go.
This statement makes absolutely no sense at all and they will never be held accountable for it.
Furthermore, it’s obvious that this specific “safety initiative” sure as hell didn’t work as all of them don’t.
Not only did EL POTRO breakdown, but there was a racehorse after him that barely made it through the race.
This is so outrageous and out of control all supported by taxpayers/casino profits and it must end.
Thanks Kelly for pointing this out.
F’n YES. Soooooooo out of control. This is a real life train wreck,we are WITNESSING in real time.
Hey, don’t thank me. I just find it sooooo typical of racing “journalists” to omit every single negative (e.g. horse-killing) element of their so-called coverage when they think they can get away with it. I don’t credit Mr. Grening for transparency at all; I think he only reports van-offs (and on-track euths, and gate carnage, and…) because he knows the NYS Gaming Commission is about to do it for him. It’ll be interesting to see if all the rest of the racing press will be forced to start tweeting about all their daily horrors as they occur, too, under the terms of the new, comically-titled Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. I suspect they won’t have to, and will carry on with their defiant avoidance of reporting all things bad.
As for the weather-related “safety” measure? Good catch, I didn’t even think about it until your reply. I guess they could put TWO jockeys on each horse, then keep running them through blizzard conditions, huh?
Agree, Kelly.
SPY STORY yet another victim of this repulsive killing business.
The only thing I have to go on is 1. his price at the sale 2. official workouts since this was his only start.
His price was $1000 so that immediately sets up a red flag. When a horse sells for so little there’s usually a physical problem that nobody else will buy. So it’s very possible that SS had real issues from the get go
2. Official workouts. His workout times demonstrably reflect a racehorse with serious issues.
Yet, these people continued to pound on this baby probably knowing full well that he was in pain, suffering and/or struggling every step of the way.
Once again, the private vet doping/treatment records are a major component of massive cover-ups going on at every track.
Those records, if made public, would show just how much these racehorses are suffering and that’s precisely why they fight hard to keep them secret just as they edit out the ugly truth when a racehorse crumbles to the dirt.
I saw SPY STORY in the 4th at Aqueduct on tvg yesterday. From what I can remember, this poor little 2-year-old baby in his first “race” looked like something was terribly wrong from the get-go right out of the gate. He was not moving well and could barely canter. He looked so tender and sore and in so much pain. He was in the middle of the track all alone several lengths behind the group of horses as they all raced away. The jockey did nothing to try to ease his pain and just kept on riding SPY STORY forward even though he was under obvious distress.
Then the camera followed the other horses racing along. Towards the finish, Manny Franco on #4 brutally tried to crowd the rail horse which caused Franco to immediately fall off and roll around in the dirt, but his horse finished in first without him. Who needs jockeys and all that whipping anyway.
Then the camera came back to SPY STORY who was in almost the same spot as he was in previously, but he was riderless at that point and was hobbling slowly and severely while holding up his front leg which appeared to have been broken. The camera broke away then and nothing further was mentioned about it.
This happened right out of the starting gate. He couldn’t even get going because he was so injured. Why was he even in this race! Perfect example of sending them out to die. He was just a baby and it was his first race. What torturous training they put these babies through even before they make it to their “debut.” His jockey didn’t even care or try to help him or even stop him and get his 100+ pound ass off, just kept trying to “race” him. It doesn’t get much sicker than this.
We can’t go back and watch the replay because NYRA shut it down to CYA and keep the public from seeing what really goes on every day at tracks all across the country in this horrific cruel racing industry. We must end horseracing.
RIP, SPY STORY. They can’t torture you anymore, precious sweet baby boy.
Yes! You are correct Sandy. Plus he is by a sire who had soundness issues. It is NOT the horses fault. This is what too much INBREEDING does.
Bonnie and Sandy..NYRA deleted race 4 from replays
NO WONDER
Manny Franco again Bonnie
Thank you for sharing this, Sandy K…even though it was heartbreaking to read.
To the racing industry (permeated with cowards and deceivers); why not keep the full replay available and let the public watch Spy Story dying doing what he “loved”?
You know, being whipped to maximum exertion, pulmonary vessels often rupturing during this forced, intense activity, is abusive to any horse – but it’s even more difficult to stomach when it’s a baby whose body and mind are so immature, more vulnerable even. In a pro-racing article by John Scheinman, racing owner Barry Irwin states; “I think it’s tough being a racehorse. You have a lot of concussion, a lot of pounding, and being in a horse race can be a very hard experience physically on a horse’s body.”
No horse would ever choose this existence.
All jockeys must puke their guts out to make weight, correct? Then these demented con-artists come up with this phony baloney so-and-so crap about adding 2 pounds to the horses’ backs in a RACE RUN WHEN THE WEATHER IS BAD and call it “a weather related safety initiative.” Are you (bleep) kidding me!!!!!!
Every pound added on top of a racehorse’s back INCREASES THE CHANCES OF BREAKDOWNS IN THE FORM OF FRACTURED BONES. Every horse that gallops puts all of its own weight plus the weight of the tack and the weight of the rider plus whatever load is added onto its back on one leg, one hoof, one pastern, one fetlock, one knee for split-seconds multiple times as they run. Being forced to run faster with whips and/or shocking devices increases the risk of breakdowns in the horses’ skeletal structure and soft tissues, etc.
This asinine and convoluted DECEPTION must be called out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Guys, does anyone think they can get through ONE day of no kills? I will say this again… if this was people dying at this rate, it would be ENDED immediately. Horses LIVES are just as valuable. Most people make me sick.
First – the bone structure in these young horses is not trained in this sense, the horse is far too young to survive such a race!
Second – these horses are used like toilet paper and thrown away, if something breaks, then the next comes!! Third – this sport is highly animal cruelty. It would be like a 4 year old toddler running the marathon !!! Fourth – the horses are all crammed with drugs, all innards in a two-year-old horse are already broken.
Fifthly, if the horse is still alive, why does a horse have to be flown to Korea or Japan etc. with no water and no food in a wooden box? Where it has to stand in the box with the most severe injuries for hours with the greatest pain and continues to be tortured there in a brutal manner! The virus should be a void for us, but NO, animal experiments must continue to be carried out on this globe. When these cruel animals finally get it, it can be too late. No living being on earth should come into the world to break its legs on purpose or cause other serious injuries, which is what happens here on these racetracks and give is, the horse has to run too, even if it already has an injury. the horse’s trainer should ask himself what kind of shit he decides for a living being !! He sends a horse to its death on purpose !!! No athlete runs with an injury but it doesn’t seem to matter with horses !!! It’s ONLY A HORSE !!!
Humans do not have the authority to treat living beings as disposable products !!
or horses that have clearly been tortured to be euthanized in rows !!!! These people have long since lost their respect for horses, including the jockeys !!! These races should be stopped immediately, these are once the greatest animal cruelty on this earth! How can we stop this ?????