In the 1st at Belterra yesterday, 7-year-old Punahele was a “went wrong, fell, vanned off.” This, of course, almost always means dead, though confirmation will have to wait (FOIA). Anyway, this is what it looked like (and yes, the “Winner’s Circle” carried on):
I’m sure the horse is dead. There’s no way they’re going to save any race horse with allegedly two broken legs. This vile, business as usual, approach to horse-killing and WAGERING must be outlawed!!!!
NO horse should lose their life for this corny bs. So old men from a bygone era can widdle away two dollar bets. One word ….PATHETIC.
Agree with previous comment: this looks virtually unsurvivable. What a sick disgusting business.
DISGUSTING. That owner/trainer just wanted to get rid of her….I bet. Who can watch this? I know I can’t. EVERYONE in this VILE industry is a SICKO.
“Went wrong” – as if anything every went right for the exploited, abused horses trapped in the racing industry.
This is what millions in subsidies ensures: a whole bunch of dead racehorses like Punahele not to mention the endless suffering leading up to their deaths whether on the track or the slaughterhouse floor.
The viper killing pits in the state of Ohio only exist due to subsidies, government handouts at the expense of Ohio residents and public education.
MOX NIX a 8 y.o gelding was pulled out of a field after 5 years and snapped-off his rear leg on September 28 necessitating euthanasia.
A bystander describes it as horrific with bone fragments and blood flying everywhere.
His last race 5 years earlier was at the other viper killing pit called Mahoning where he finished 30 lengths back.
Yet, this track allowed the entry and racing of this gelding who had 1 workout in 5 years.
That would be like sending out Caeleb Dressel for 50m full out with no training in 5 years!
The Ohio Racing Commission vows to change some rules to prevent this from happening.
Of course the only time that the health and welfare of a racehorse ever passes over their lips is when there is public outrage.
There are no changes, no reforms that can ever change this vile killing business.
There’s only 1 change needed: END the subsidies and horse killing is sure to END.
I wonder if that bystander who saw what happened to Mox Nix will continue to go to the racetrack?
Gina, wondering if you read the same article about Mox Nix that I did? “‘Just Tragic’: Death Of Maiden In His First Start Since 2016 Could Spur Change In Ohio”? – what a freaking JOKE these people are…
The Ohio racing commission’s executive director Chris Dragone “was not certain” about Belterra’s minimum performance requirements – didn’t know the rules for one of his own tracks – sounds about right for an executive director in this industry. Oh, but he DID know that the gelding’s workout [prior to his death race] was observed by a vet, that he “passed an examination following the workout”, and that a “commission vet also gave the horse an extra look in the paddock ahead of his race [in which he was killed]”. Can Dragone lay the BS on any thicker?
While Dragone didn’t know his own track’s minimum performance requirements, the article’s author provided them; the horses must be “serviceably sound”, “cannot be wearing a trachea tube”, must not have “undergone a nerving surgery”, and “cannot have impaired sight in both eyes”. They need rules to NOT RACE a horse with a tracheostomy tube? – or one that cannot feel his foot/feet? – or a BLIND horse?
But back to Dragone and the commission’s “discussions” – “I think we’re going to need a rule to make sure [racing an 8-year-old maiden on a five-year layoff] doesn’t happen again.” Hey, WAIT, aren’t you the same folks who always remind us that what racehorses do on the track is NO DIFFERENT from the running horses do in their own pastures? Is it Mox Nix’s age? – can’t be, at only 8 he hadn’t yet reached an equine’s prime age. The 5 years off? – don’t you think he was bored at the farm? – missed the “competition”? – wanted to WIN a race and get into that winner’s circle? – and let’s not forgot all that “pasture racing” he had been doing during that five-year layoff! That said, it does seem a bit odd that he breaks his leg in his FIRST race back (and after THREE vets had checked him over) and not during those five years of running around back at the farm…you know, since it’s all the same.
These people lie and obfuscate to save face while they wait for the “outrage” to blow over…
We know there will NEVER be any meaningful rules to protect the horse as long as racing exists.
Mox Nix, like the overwhelming majority of the horses in this business, was doomed.
And, incidentally, the poor horse’s name is slang for unimportant, irrelevant, doesn’t matter. It comes from the German macht nichts ( “doesn’t matter”), a sentiment that applies to most of these horses.
Oh Rose, that is heartbreaking – the meaning of his name, that is – yet how appropriate for a horse named and used by the racing-employed. Their horses are NOT the family members so many in the industry like to claim, because if they were, they wouldn’t constantly risk their lives and we wouldn’t be seeing discarded racehorses in kill pens every damn day.
And yes, Dragone’s comments are confusing when looking at the entire picture! So he says how TRAGIC racing Mox Nix was (considering his age and lay-off) and that things are going to change (“We’re taking it very seriously and it will not happen again”)! Is that so? – Dragone, in trying to cover their asses, saying Mox Nix “[got] an extra look in the paddock”, actually let it slip that they KNEW about his circumstances YET THEY LET HIM RACE. Oh but it was “tragic”? – and it will not happen again? Well, Dragone, you freaking heartless moron, YOU let it happen and now you’re doing damage control because the poor gelding died, this site reported it and therefore became public knowledge. Dragone had no choice but to appear concerned.
And BTW, Dragone, a mare named Arch’s Pearl Black just raced October 5 at Thistledown – she is five years old and had never raced. So how serious are you?