Yesterday while training at Saratoga, Volpaia “fell over [the] rail, sustained multiple injuries [and was] euthanized.” Dead. Volpaia was three years old and being prepped for her debut. The Gaming Commission, incidentally, is trying desperately to mitigate the ugliness at the state’s (nation’s?) marquee track: This death has been classified “unknown” (not “training”) because Volpaia “got loose” before taking that fall. As if that is relevant in any way. A kill is a kill is a kill. And this is #8 thus far at Saratoga:
Mister Bobby, May 13, training – “collapsed and died”
Strong Moment, Jul 16, racing – “catastrophic injury…euthanized on the course”
Pleasure Luck, Jul 18, racing (euthanized Jul 19) – “took a bad step”
Fattoria, Jul 19, training – “pelvic injury necessitating euthanasia”
Fiya, Jul 31, training – “injury to RH leg…euthanized”
Butter Lou, Aug 5, racing – “injured, vanned off, euthanized”
Fifth Avenue Red, Aug 7, training – “pulled up, vanned off, euthanized”
Volpaia, Aug 10, training – “fell over rail, multiple injuries, euthanized”
Obviously, there would be numerous witnesses to this tragic and horrifying fatal injury to VOLPAIA! It’s no secret that you must keep your mouth shut “if you know what’s good for you” in this BUSINESS OF ABUSING AND KILLING HORSES FOR MONEY. To say, “Unknown” is a straight up lie!!!! Since VOLPAIA had not been raced yet, her name will be conveniently NOT listed on Equibase, as if she never existed. How much sense does it make to sweep these hideous kills under the rug and pretend that they love their horses like family…?! HORSERACING is for the morally depraved and needs to be done away with from sea to shining sea!!!!
I stand corrected. VOLPAIA is listed on Equibase. I have no idea for how long though.
These “freak accidents” and “unforeseeable tragedies” happen ALL THE FREAKING TIME, and at every track and racing barn across the country. I’m so sick and tired of the NY Gaming Commission being the ONLY racing entity to even try to publicly release their state’s dirty little horse-killing secrets. So, if they want to classify the circumstances of Volpaia’s killing as “Unknown,” that’s okay by me. Meanwhile, every other jurisdiction gets to pretend they’re not hauling away dead young horses by the truckload every week. They are.
Just imagine if they were ALL forced to admit to their own killings. There’d have to be a new post on this site every hour or so(!).
Yes, a kill is a kill is a kill. And everyone who takes part in this sick game bears some responsibility for ALL the equine destruction it produces innately, then tries to deny and cover up. So sorry, racing creeps; the public is on to your abuse. All of it.
“Fell over rail”, just like that, huh? Horses are always just flopping over railings and running into walls. The only other time this kind of thing happens regularly is at the rodeo – I’ve seen videos of bucking horses running full tilt into walls and breaking their necks. And from what I’ve seen, no one on the track seems to have a God-given clue how to actually handle a horse. If the horse isn’t wearing a stud chain or tongue tie or some other torture device, they have absolutely no control. It’s seriously revolting that they have the gaul to claim to actually love these horses.
Writing of no one at the track having a clue as to how to handle horses. How true that experience has been with us as a rider! Once when being led to the track by an owners/ trainers wife, the horse we were to gallop began pulling back on the lead backing across the track in opposition to the stupid owners wife`s pulling trying to get the horse to move forward! Almost caused a wreck with many horses already on the track galloping that our horse that we were riding was backing into! This whole industry is full of stupid uneducated as to horses behavior in our experience.