In the 1st race at Santa Anita yesterday, Pushing Sixty snapped an ankle and is dead. At least one observer noted that she was “fractious” in the gate. Injured even before she started, perhaps? Pushing was four; ’twas her 9th time under the whip. For Santa Anita, this makes 12 kills on the year. For all California tracks, it’s 33. Reform is a ruse, safe racing a lie. Horseracing kills horses. Full stop.
Another inexcusable and preventable death due to negligence and irresponsibility! Shame on those who caused this precious horse’s death. RIP dearest equine angel.
*PUSHING SIXTY will never know true love and respect. Rest in peace, beautiful angel, you will now..
That term has always irritated me because it makes it seem as though the horse is acting out for no reason. A horse will always respond with the level of behavior he thinks is warranted for the situation, from flicking an ear back to flipping over backwards. Humans are just to stupid ( or too disinterested) in reading what the behavior means.
A good horseman can hear his horse speak, a great horseman can hear his horse whisper – but what kind of horseman can’t even hear his horse scream?
Please check on horse #1 Sherilinda
She did not cross the finish and was close to Pushing Sixty when the horse stumbled.
Reblogged this on Armory of the Revolution.
Using horses as gambling chips for the Pari-Mutuel WAGERING HANDLE is not true HORSEMANSHIP. It’s Animal Cruelty and Abuse!!!!!! It’s what the participants at Santa Anita Park and the California Horse Racing Board members do best. They EXPLOIT horses and injure them and kill them. This evil must be OUTLAWED!!!!
PUSHING SIXTY died by extreme brutalization and the Pari-Mutuel WAGERING HANDLE. It’s just unacceptable!!!!
Well, they almost made it two whole weeks. Almost. The infamous Santa Anita Death Track implemented ground-breaking, world-class safety measures, purchased a pricey PET Scanner, loaded up on pre-race vet inspectors, and just generally appointed themselves to be the Saviors of Racehorse Welfare.
They need not have bothered. Consumers of their “product” simply do not care (cannot care) how many horses they kill. These guys will only complain about their short fields and lack of betting opportunities. But the SADT must continue their Safety appeals for the sake of the public (who are about to take away their killing privileges, anyway), and pretend they’re doing all they can to MINIMIZE the risks. They’ve all but stopped reporting their Training deaths. Their Other (Stall) deaths kinda have to be reported (because hiding a horse who’s already dead is even trickier than hauling a catastrophically injured one off-property to be euthanized). So all that leaves is those inconvenient Racing deaths. And the SADT’s record on racing kills has been nothing short of terrible this meet: FiVE on-track, on-camera breakdowns — one of whom is still (presumably) alive due to surgical intervention after the fact — since mid-April alone. And those occurred with MINIMAL horses, running in minimal races, on the fewest racing days the SADT has ever had in its sordid history.
So, yeah. They’re only killing off fewer horses because they have fewer horses to kill.
The expensive X-ray/scan machine DOES NOT prevent injuries. It is used to take pictures of injuries after they have already occurred. You know that it is the behavior of the human beings that are forcing these horses to perform beyond the horses’ capacity and causing injuries in the first place that IS NOT being prevented. It’s similar to a situation of domestic violence and saying, “Well, we have this expensive new machine that will show any fractures of the person you are beating the crap out of, so just keep on beating the crap out of your victim and we’ll stand by with our big, expensive razzle-dazzle X-ray/scan machine and get a picture of just how bad your victim’s injuries are. How’s that for safety?!” WHAT A JOKE, BUT I’M NOT LAUGHING!
I’m laughing at your analogy, though, Wanda. Wife-beaters and horse-manglers can take pride in their state-of-the-art commitment to safety, Santa Anita style:)
Spot-on, Kelly. Thank you.
Horse racing should be ended!