According to the charts, Pleasure Luck was an “injured, vanned off” in the 8th at Saratoga Sunday. The buzz in the aftermath was that she was stabilized and taken to a nearby hospital. Which only makes sense, for the last thing this storied track needed was a second (on-track) racing kill in three days (Strong Moment Friday). It’s a simple strategy, really: get the broken horse offsite and hope everyone forgets about her. Well, we didn’t. And now, we can report that as fully expected, Pleasure Luck has been euthanized (yesterday). While I admittedly do not know the medical particulars, I’ve been at this long enough to know that in all likelihood the only thing the powers that be accomplished was to extend this poor animal’s suffering by 24 hours. All to avoid more bad press. And that, folks, is more than just contemptible; it’s downright wicked.
The Saratoga ’21 Dead (reminder: this track averages 15 kills per summer)
Mister Bobby, May 13, Saratoga T – “collapsed and died” (five years old)
Trucking Baron, Jun 29, Saratoga S – “chronic laminitis”
Strong Moment, Jul 16, Saratoga R – “catastrophic injury…euthanized on the course”
Pleasure Luck, Jul 18, Saratoga R (euthanized Jul 19) – “took a bad step”
My perception is that many of those racing fans can somehow easily continue to follow racing as gamblers regardless of how many horses are killed. I don’t think they care in the first place about the horses as sentient beings. The betting fans only care about how much money they can win. But the connections can make it look like they are “doing right” by the horse in the process of prolonging the horse’s pain and misery. Since the folks in this business of extreme brutalization of horses for gambling bets have deviated from humane treatment of horses, they see their brute force and inhumane treatment of horses as normal. Nothing could be further from the truth.
You’re Absolutely right, Wanda. And what of these “so called” veterinarians? I mean seriously, keeping a poor horse alive just to keep this disgusting business in business!?
Something , or someone( many) is VERY wrong here. Sad.
One veterinarian stands out as a poster child of sorts for the deviant behaviors of the horse racing industry. His name is Dr. Lawrence (Larry) BRAMLAGE. His name and details will come up on a Google search. He did the “official” evaluation of MONGOLIAN GROOM, in case you didn’t already know that. I downloaded it on my previous phone. It also shows X-RAYS of both “Before” the Breeders Cup Race and “After” the catastrophic breakdown of THAT BC RACE. It is enough to make any person with any sense of common sense and common decency want to go ballistic on these demented and DEGENERATE people. The convoluted bunch of drivel is enough to make your blood boil. He epitomizes what is wrong with the people in HORSERACING whether they have a lot of money and education or not. Obviously, in BRAMLAGE’s case he would be making plenty of money at the expense of the horses pain, suffering, misery, racing-induced lameness, unsoundness, and catastrophic, life-ending breakdowns of racehorses.
One can only hope and pray that while banished to the equine “hospital” she was at least given something to ease her pain while waiting for the proper amount of time to go by before racing finished what it started and finally killed her. It wasn’t euthanasia – as I’ve said before, when a murderer finally kills the victim he’s been torturing, it isn’t mercy. It’s boredom or convenience.
‘I think that’s probably the only blessing that came to poor Pleasure Luck: that she was likely heavily sedated for the whole decision-making time.
Well, that and the fact that they decided not to force her into surgery and an unlikely recovery. After all, there’s always some asshole in racing who’s looking to capitalize on broken-down fillies. “Hey, I know! Let’s turn ’em into broodmares so they can produce breakdown-prone babies for us!”
Still waiting for all the Super-Journalists in the racing press to at least acknowledge the THREE HORSE DEATHS in four DAYS of Saratoga’s triumphant return to “public” racing:
NBC “Sports”?
DRF/Grening?
TDN?
PR? (Where’s that bulb of yours, Ray?)
The BloodyHorse?
I’ll be happy to acknowledge any so-called news reports they care to produce about the Saratoga “Spike,” but I won’t hold my breath waiting for ’em.
And wait til the barbaric STEEPLECHASE races start at Saratoga