The following tracks conducted live racing yesterday. In addition to employing the usual tools of the trade – nose chains, tongue ties, eye blinders, mouth bits, whips – the racing people at these (and other) tracks subjected the horses to the kind of weather conditions that typically come with warnings for pet owners – you know, let your dogs outside only when absolutely necessary. It’s called animal cruelty, folks.
Belterra Park, Cincinnati, OH…
Thistledown, Cuyahoga County, OH…
Fairmount Park (aka FanDuel), Collinsville, IL…
Indiana Grand, Shelbyville, IN…
Parx, Bensalem, PA…
I commented about this on an earlier post. We’ve had high temps and insanely high humidity in the eastern area. No horse should be out in it, let alone running. I went outside yesterday and went straight back into the house. I could hardly breathe. Running horses in this weather is life threatening.
They don’t care…hate to miss a chance to make a buck or inflate an ego. Disgusting.
It’s only because these horses just love running that they kept the races, right apologists?
All of this is because it is never ever about the horses – only the god damn greed of the owners, trainers, jockeys, right down to the vets and the racing commission. These are such sad sad events and I wish to hell all of these bastards involved in the horse racing would have to endure the pain daily that they force on these horses. They are all horse abusers and for those of us who love the animals we would all gladly see the whole bunch of you rot in the hell and the sooner the better for the lives of the horses.
The United States Postal Service must deliver mail in all kinds of weather, but this ANIMAL CRUELTY FOR GAMBLING BETS IS NOT AN ESSENTIAL SERVICE. This DESPICABLE INDUSTRY IS COMMITTING EGREGIOUS ANIMAL CRUELTY TO HORSES!!!! This CRUELTY TO HORSES must be recognized as the CRIME THAT IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for posting about this, Patrick. Watching my horses in these extreme high temps – they seek the shade and the fans I have strategically placed, move about very little and even eat less – I, of course, think about the additional danger racehorses are subjected to. Horses are more sensitive to heat than what humans are, in part due to their larger muscle mass, and they do seek relief from heat as opposed to choosing an activity that increases their body temperature.
But the industry thinks only of the money they and the “horsemen” will lose if they don’t subject their beloved athletes – their children – to the suffering and danger of racing in these ungodly high temps.
Indiana Grand would like to take a bow for “keeping in mind…the health of our staff and [horses]” by moving the post times up today to “avoid the highest temperatures”. “‘The forecasted temperatures are the most extreme we have seen in Shelbyville in decades,’ said Eric Halstrom, Vice President and General Manager of Racing.” He continued that the decision wasn’t “business interests”-driven YET stated “[we want to give] our loyal horsemen the opportunity to race.”
A quick look at the post times for the 11 races at Indiana Grand today – race 9 at 2:08…”real feel” at 2:08 in Shelbyville was 105 degrees. And all 12 horses in that race were dehydrated pre-race with Lasix.
Dehydrate them then make them race in temps that feel like 105 degrees. Does that sound like looking out for the health of their “children”?
It’s unbelievable that no authority of any kind can or will step in and, at the very least, put a temporary halt to this EGREGIOUS ABUSE OF HORSES!!!!!!
IF this were dogs or children left in hot cars in a parking lot, the police would be called!!!
Delaware park is running tomorr thurs with saratoga heat included it says dangerous heat look out for ur pets also their hoofs running on hot dirt
When the temperature reaches the upper 90’s people are told not to leave their animals outside, make sure they have lots of water and a cool enviorment out of the sun. Of course those suggestions do not mean anything to people involved in horse racing. Those magnificent animals are raced under horribly sweltering temperatures, some of them do not survive and suffer horrible deaths. This is horse racing!