The notes (Equibase) from Sam Houston Race Park yesterday:
race 1: Packing My Bags “bumped hard”; Big Shark “bumped hard”; Lethal Runner “pinballed”
race 2: Hotflash Cartel “bumped hard, vanned off”
race 4: Aces Over Five “vanned off”
race 5: American Hostile “bumped hard”; Check Him Out Again “bumped both sides”; Louisiana Fun “bumped hard”; Green River Dash “hit rail”; Foxie Cleopatra “flipping rig” (finished 69 lengths back)
race 6: Seperate Rain “bumped both sides”; Miss Julie Five Bar “bumped hard”; Nanyehi “bumped both sides, taken up”
race 7: Valiant Tiberius “bumped hard, heels clipped”; Butch Glory “bumped, clipped heels, eased”
race 8: Bv Last Kiss “flipped [in] gate”
race 9: Hesdashingby “hit gate”
This, as ever, is horseracing.
Horse racing folks will say this could even happen in a pasture.
I watched my 2 OTTB girls bounce and buck and gallop around the pasture last night. There was a point they were both running towards each other, and they both stopped on a dime so they wouldn’t bump or knock into each other..
The above are just more unnatural behaviors exhibited on the track. Had my 2 girls still been at that track-they would have probably crashed head-on. (I’ve seen that happen in person).
Track life is completely unnatural for these poor horses.
EXACTLY, Marie. In over 30 years of having horses, I’ve never witnessed my horses (TB ex-racehorses included) run in the close proximity of each other that jockeys demand nor have I seen them bump into each other while running – they instinctually and purposefully keep their distance and slow/stop or veer to avoid crashing into their pasture mates.
We know horseracing is hard on horses. But so do the racing-employed and fans – they just don’t admit it. Every once in awhile they slip up though. From Barry Irwin; “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 kidding, Barry…
And then there is the Not Cloudy All Day group on Twitter – a pro-racing individual and her racing fan followers who go nuts over (particular) racehorses, nuts as in screaming those named racehorses need to be retired. It’s so strange – they are all over the place with the “criteria” that needs to be met in calling for a horse’s retirement (I asked what the criteria was but was quickly blocked). For instance, a 4-year-old that’s being raced every 7 days – that’s too often, it seems. Strange, right? They’re always claiming that racing is NO different from what my horses do of their own free will in their pastures – that racehorses are BRED for racing, that they LOVE racing, so what’s the big deal about racing every week? – hell, if it’s what horses do naturally, they should be raced every day!
I know. We know. THEY know. And while they defend racing because they don’t want their entertainment affected, they just can’t help themselves, revealing that deep down they know better – they know horseracing is dangerous and it risks horses’ limbs and lives every time they’re put on the track.
It is immoral and demented for people to hurt and continue to hurt horses like this, knowingly and willfully, and just think, “Oh, well, that’s just part of the game.” Whatever lame excuse they have for abusing and causing lameness and life-ending injuries to horses is completely UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!
A person, or his or her attorney, can say, for example, that “this (doping) trainer” loves his/her horses and gets really upset when one or more horses he/she trains gets injured and killed in racing. STOP THE ABUSE OF HORSES and the HORSES will be able to live. Except in the racing industry, the majority of racehorses won’t live long, because they “love them so much” that they sell them at an auction where the killbuyer bids on them. If there are no other bids higher than the killbuyer’s bids, the killbuyer fills a contract for the slaughterhouse/meat packer. That is not loving horses in the TRUE sense of the word!!!!
There are HONEST ways to make a living and horseracing and making bets on horses IS NOT IT. FORCING HORSES to run on a racetrack for gambling bets IS a dishonest “gambling game” that is Animal Cruelty and ABUSE!!!!!
Congrats, Sam Houston Race Park, you’re on the level of Bronze Age chariot racing when it comes to how you treat horses. Aren’t you just so proud?
True, but more like the Stone Age, since it’s CAVEMEN running these semi-legal, QH Demolition Derby operations.
(Semi-legal, because most U.S. quarter horse racing creeps now use their “sport” as cartel money-laundering gigs. Works great that way; so-called regulators in the Southwest know the biz, and try to keep heads from rolling (literally) when they upset the drug lords by reporting too many QH deaths.
And, as an added bonus, they get to double-dip when they send their “athletes” south of the border to be processed for their next “careers” when they’re done racing.
It’s a win-win!
Wow, Kelly. That sounds absolutely nauseating and disgusting!!!! It should not be a surprise though, especially considering that this is Texas, home of the American Quarter Horse Association and the King Ranch.
Don’t forget Arizona, New Mexico, and good old Doc Allred’s Los Alamitos Horse Hell, in beautiful, sunny Southern California. They all enjoy the benefits of abusing animals in such a cartel-friendly game. Wonder if HISA will put a damper on their little operations?
Nah, probably won’t apply to the high-integrity, high-safety quarter horse racing game. Besides, they’ve already got an impossible task in even beginning to address the TB racing horse-killing shitshow.
Kelly, there was a headline about Los Alamitos. I didn’t read the article. There were not enough entries for the Los Alamitos Derby. I assume that the EXTREME & EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT AND TRIPLE-DIGIT TEMPERATURES might have had something to do with the lack of entries. Did you read the article?
I’m pretty sure I understand the concept of whichever story you mean — in the racing press, you’ll be hard-pressed (ha ha) to find the truth about these matters. Either way, the Los Al Horse Hell Derby is for thoroughbreds, and with the infamous California HORSE SHORTAGE (because they keep killing them off), it’s hard to fill cards, even on big race days.
Of course, a skeptic would say that nobody wants to enter against Bob, because he always wins because he “cheats.” But how do you cheat any more than all of your opponents in the game of Animal Abuse?
Those whips must not be doing a very good job of guiding those horses.