Through a FOIA request to the California Horse Racing Board, I have obtained the following details on 2020 kills (previous ones here). (The names were redacted but, paradoxically, the dead had already been identified on the Board’s public database.)
Tailback, May 10, Santa Anita T – “compound, comminuted fractures of MCII, MCIII, MCIV”
Wire to Wire Tigah, Jun 13, Golden Gate R – “[multiple] fractures, [multiple] ruptures” (first race)
Mean Sophia, Sep 5, Del Mar R – “humeral fracture, massive hemorrhage”
Bob E McGee, Sep 13, Los Alamitos R – “fell past wire: humeral fracture, biceps and triceps ruptures, massive hemorrhage”
unidentified, Oct 11, Los Alamitos S – “Quarterhorse with a history of being found dead – aortic rupture”
Hit It Up, Oct 23, Los Alamitos R (died Oct 28) – “locked up [during] race, ambulanced to stall; found dead five days [later]: catastrophic lumbar fracture; multiple, variably shaped fragments within spinal canal accompanied by massive hemorrhage and complete transection of the spinal cord”
From necropsy report: “I suspect that the ventral displacement of lumbar vertebrae accompanied by complete transection of spinal cord occurred shortly prior to the death of the horse, and may have been associated with high level of pain. In some instances extreme pain can cause overstimulation of parasympathetic system that leads to general vasodilation, significant decrease in blood pressure, and ultimately to cardiopulmonary failure.” (emphasis added)
Celtic Miracle, Nov 6, Los Alamitos R – “[multiple] fractures, [multiple] ruptures”
Love Wins, Dec 19, Golden Gate S – “found dead in stall at 4:30 am; [had] arthroscopy [day before]” (two years old)
Ebeko, Dec 27, Santa Anita R – “[multiple] displaced fractures”
Where the hell are the animal cruelty people? Where the hell are those who are to care for animals back at the barn? Where did human decency go? How can ANYONE see this suffering and not HELP an innocent dependent living creature??? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE
Unidentified, October 11, 2020, Los Alamitos Racecourse, Stall death; “Quarterhorse with a history of being found dead, aortic rupture.” That doesn’t make sense. How many times can one horse be found dead? An unidentified Quarter Horse with a history of being found dead sounds goofy. What is that supposed to mean? Does it mean the “trainer” of this particular unidentified Quarter Horse has a history of having horses mysteriously dying in their stalls and being found dead???
I was thinking the same thing Wanda! Maybe race horses now have 9 lives? Or at least 2 so they can be killed over and over again? They can’t even write properly.. how can we expect these “vets” to care for their patients?
Those race vets can’t even keep the gender of the horses straight – usually just refer to them as “it”.
Wanda, shows mentality of the “humans” taking care of business.
Hold it Up.. these parasites left him there in agony?? And they “found” him dead 5 days later?? There are NO words to describe these excrements. Wicked, vile, demonic, monsters are all far too mild.
What was done to HIT IT UP is egregious abuse of a horse exploited for racing and gambling!!!! The people responsible for this abuse, brutality, cruelty and death of a horse should all be in jail!!!!!!!!!
People who are outraged about this should know that horse racing operates with total impunity.
Racehorses are not covered under our animal cruelty laws, although minimal, because horse racing deliberately strips them of that and puts their welfare in the hands or pro-horse racing Stewards on racing commissions.
Stewards and any employee of a racing commission is paid for by taxpayers – state coffers.
Make no doubt about it horse racing is widespread state-sanctioned cruelty and killing, which is precisely why they get away with such egregious cruelty, abuse, inhumane treatment and even dying.
The racing commissions appear to make the health and welfare of racehorses their priority, but don’t be fooled by that to you newbies.
Racing commissions are there to protect the billions in profits over the detriment of the racehorses.
Kill List after Kill List should make this clear to anybody and you should be outraged.
Moreover, politicians are in bed with horse racing as they continue to give them billions, collectively, in either taxpayers money or casino profits to keep this utterly disgusting freak show going.
The majority of tracks in North America haven’t been financially sustainable for years and would not remain open if they weren’t getting this money approved by politicians.
Don’t forget that we, the people, vote these politicians into office so it’s time to get busy writing and calling your local office and tell them that you want funding to stop supporting horse racing.
Once this funding ends so will many tracks close and that will mean less racehorses suffering and dying.
MEAN SOPHIA, Sep 5, Del Mar R – “humeral fracture, massive hemorrhage”
This poor filly yet another victim of serial racehorse killer “Trainer”: PETER MILLER.
Really strange sales history with red flags everywhere.
This filly RNA’d for $240,000 and was consequently bought by PETER MILLER for $90,000 – WTF?
Both times the same consignors? really strange.
Remember that Peter Miller has a history of racehorses dying under suspicious circumstances that appear to possibly be equine insurance payouts like BOBBY ABU DHABI who collapsed and died.
“Sudden cardiac event” while training at Del Mar.
Not so much scrutiny during training hours as race day all the red flags are there purchased for $335,000 made over $300,000 so would have been worth over $600,000 if insurance was involved.
In any other setting he would be in jail on Felony Animal Cruelty charges, but not horse racing regardless of any insurance claims just sheer abuse and dying.
UNCONTAINABLE, Jan 18, Santa Anita R – “catastrophic fetlock breakdown, [multiple] severe ruptures”
EBEKO yet another victim of serial racehorse killer PETER MILLER on 12/27/2020 at Santa Anita.
How about the heartbreaking abuse of ELTONINADRESS?
This poor mare was claimed no less than 15 times and Peter Miller claimed her for 1 race like a true parasite.
Suck the blood and life out of them then dump them into claiming until they drop dead or go to the kill pens.
How about 5-year-old FLY TO FREEDOM who was euthanized on 10/17/2014 after fracturing a pair of sesamoids Friday at Santa Anita Race 3?
This poor mare dead after 11 starts under the direct custody of Peter Miller – obnoxious piece of killing crap.
How about Peter Miller-trained CHILLED MOUSSE who died on July 27, 2014 after breaking down during training hours at Del Mar?
How about HE’S NOT TOO SHABY who died 02/17/2014 after breaking down at Santa Anita?
This gelding was trained by Peter Miller and owned by Camille Paris Jr. T
Serial killer Peter Miller had another one die in just 4 days – CODE OF CONDUCT – who was purchased for $250,000 for Peter and Cecil Barber who has teamed up with Peter Miller on prior occasions when a racehorse has died under suspicious circumstances.
Do I sound redundant yet?
All information herein sourced from HRW and Equibase.
Awful! This needs to stopped before more horses suffer!
“Found dead”? Like there was nobody around anytime before that to see this horse in agony. Like there was no one around to watch Tiz Willow starve to death.
These people are vomit-inducing.
Does SILENT RULER ring a bell to anybody?
On August 26, 2017 at the infamous hell hole called PENN racetrack Silent Ruler finished next to last by lengths.
The horse finishing last actually “stopped” in the race so technically Silent Ruler was last.
The charts say that he was “outrun on the outside.”
Outrun indeed by some 30 lengths and it was during this race that he evidently sustained a broken leg.
This would explain why he was outrun don’t you think?
Running on a severely damaged limb, a possibly broken limb. is a inconvenience to gambling bets isn’t it?
“Trainer” Mario Rodriquez put him back into his stall, knowing he had a broken leg and let him suffer.
Did he get much needed vet care to Silent Ruler that day?
Or did he get much needed vet care for the next week while he was in extreme pain and suffering?
No, not on any account, in fact, 1 month later (let me repeat that – 1 month later) track vet Kathryn Papp was leading a potential adopter to his stall and noticed that he was suffering greatly and discovered the broken leg.
Full story provided on HRW “Horse Left in Stall With Broken Leg.”
Now one would beg the question: how in the hell could all those Exercise Riders, Grooms, Vets, Stable Personnel walk by that stall day in and day out and not notice that this horse was suffering?
Somebody HAD TO know other than the sadistic, demented “Trainer” who chose to let him suffer.
It seems clear that many apologists made a conscious decision to NOT report this suffering and that’s why they are all enablers.
Incidentally, PENN is financed by millions in casino profits or it would be dust in the wind.
Sounds like the story of Celtic Trick in Shedrow Secrets. Like I said, these people are vomit-inducing.
Gina, these horror stories remind me of Alydar.
Absolutely Nancy, but the main difference between Alydar vs. Silent Ruler is that Alydar was killed for insurance money and the article is a very good read: :https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-killing-of-alydar/
Silent Ruler, being a low level claimer, would not have an insurance policy in place plus he never made the millions that Alydar did.
I suppose it’s all the same really because they all count with the same motivation being money, but just at different levels.
Living in Kentucky almost 20 years ago I would stumble across some of the grooms that worked in the Stallion Barn at Calumet Farm because they would often be in the Waffle House at about 5 AM and they loved to talk about their memories from working at Calumet Farm.
One of them told me that they used and abused Alydar at stud forcing him to breed hundreds of mares in order to support the spending habits of J.T. Lundy which were out of control with no neutral oversight.
Alydar was his private ATM card – so to speak and as his spending habits increased so did the mare bookings.
They said that Alydar was so sour and so exhausted from breeding so many mares that he would put his head in the corner so that they couldn’t put the halter on him knowing that he was being led over to the breeding shed.
Once they got him over to the breeding shed he refused to mount the broodmare so they had to rub their bare fingers over the mare’s “juice” (vaginal fluids) and rub it into Alydar’s nose to get him excited.
Just for reference nowadays they just give the Stallion a shot similar to Viagra to excite him to breed.
At the time, I found it so heartbreaking and incredulous that this actually occurred, but this story was later confirmed in the book WILD RIDE: The Rise and Fall of Calumet Farm. Author: Ann Hagedorn.
Calamet (with its red roof) housing a burial site for Alydar like he had this fabulous life under that Lundy. There’s a picture of him gently walking Alydar around the grassy knolls. Thank you Gina for a glimpse at the real behind closed doors.
Always like reading of your experiences & current knowledge! A Viagra like shot for a healthy stallion! Now we know how a prominent stakes winning sire is able to be bred AI & natural cover. This horse we know of is reasonably famous & we predict he will not live long due to such overuse. We remember reading this article above when it 1st was published & we still cry over such a beautiful horse so cruelly treated. Thanks for posting the link so that others may know of the many bad aspects of the thoroughbred industry outside of racing itself.We have seen pictures of riders working horses in Calumet barns aisle ways under terribly dusty & dirty conditions so bad that we would have had to use a respirator with sinuses.
Hit It Up – we can be 100% certain his vertebral fractures that ultimately progressed to the catastrophic lumbar fracture and complete transection of the cord were initially suffered during his last race on October 23. Reading the chart, he was “bumped [at the] start” and then “tied up” – or per his necropsy report, “locked up”. Clearly his spinal cord was affected then already as evidenced by the “tied up” and “locked up” statements.
Vertebral fractures are among the most frequent injuries in racehorses and the level of injury is associated with particular neurological symptoms. For lumber spine injury causing cord swelling or compression, the horse will be ataxic with hindquarter weakness. Hit It Up surely was symptomatic after that race…
FIVE DAYS later. FOUND dead. Those filthy bastards.
(Hit It Up’s breeder and former owner is Edward Allred, owner of Los Alamitos.)
On the 20th of this month he would have turned 3yrs.
His short life was one of abuse and neglect. These immoral people – Jamie Gomez, owner/trainer, along with those at the track who knew the young gelding was desperately in need of help are as guilty as Gomez of the sickening neglect and cruelty.
And the abhorrent suffering is ignored by racing officials and the professionals involved in the necropsy. They are complicit. This so wrong. Gomez, et al, know there will be no consequences. There never are.
This is one sick business.
What is wrong with these people?!!
Their inhumanity to horses knows no bounds! It appears they would rather attempt to hide their carnage and let the horse suffer unbearable and unbelievable pain!!!! This INSANE & INHUMANE ABUSE OF HORSES must be made illegal by legislation!!!!
The pathological love of money and the malignant absence of apathy and morality. That is what is wrong with these “people”.
I agree with Rebecca