An “accident” in the 14th at Northfield Park (harness) Saturday night has resulted in the deaths of three horses, one being the outrider’s horse, who was slammed head-on by another. In addition to the three confirmed kills, Harness Link, which called the track “sloppy [and] rain-soaked,” reports that “two others are in jeopardy.”
This is horseracing.
This sucks! This should be made punishable by law! Not only do the racetracks need to go broke, all of the participants should be held accountable by laws against such horrible abuse of horses!!!!!
So the first casualties of this morbid lousy past time has happened. And where is the replay people?? Just hid it so no.one will know,right??
NOTHING IS HIDDEN, YOU FOOL.
ONE HORSE BUCKLED AND LIKE DOMINOES THE COUPLE BEHIND FELL OVER.
I SAW IT.
JUST LIKE A FOOT RACE.
ATHLETE’S GET HURT, PLAIN AND SIMPLE.
OUR HORSES GET THE BEST OF CARE.
Yeah right
WAKE UP, Chris. Your horses get care as long as they are producing $$$$$ for you greedy bastards. Horses risk their lives every day that they are saddled up and put in the gate. Your “athletes” are commodities plain and simple. Horse racing is disgusting. Its end is in sight, thank God.
That’s what all of the horse-killers say, CHRIS. You should be arrested for animal cruelty and abuse. You should be locked up in a JAIL CELL FOR 23 HOURS A DAY. I hear the prisoners in Maricopa County get AMAZING CARE!!!! It’s too bad you are not there to enjoy the prison life…
You obviously don’t know much about racing which is typical for hysterical comments. These horse’s are very well taken care of, better than many peoples children. Accidents happen. Northfield holds thousands of races every year and in nearly all situations, no one is injured. Again, accidents happen. If your dog breaks its leash and runs into traffic and gets killed, does that make you a horrible irresponsible owner????
Wow you guys really tried to trot out a whole lot of supporters to this site to try to support this horror. Lol. So what that you guys have thousands of races? Standardbreds are a hardier breed than thoroughbreds. But even you guys are breeding that out of your horses, and even you guys have all the crazy drugs that are killing your horses. So your horses will be dying with more frequency on the track too.
And you all will still dump them to horrific lives with the Amish when you’re done with them.
And again, if your dog breaks a leash is different than you encouraging your dog to run out and dodge traffic- as you are doing with your horses each time you send your horses out.
Man, I’m starting to feel the STB folks are even more dumb than TB folks are. And that’s hard to do!
Lee Unkefer: You obviously have no compassion for a horse; so little to no feeling for the horses that you want to willfully send them out to be injured and torture them by confining them in a stall where they get ulcers and abnormal mental health conditions.
Don’t you ever read a book or anything? Try looking up what causes ulcers in horses. The racing industry routinely does all of the things that cause ulcers and many other painful and unhealthy conditions in horses.
You mention a dog breaking a leash. I have had dogs and was raised around horses, ponies, cattle and dogs from back in the 1950s. I have never had a dog break a leash which has absolutely nothing to do with the human participants involved in horse racing forcing horses to race on a track while threatening and striking the horses under saddle with the Riding Crop or the Standardbreds in harness with any other type of whip to be forced to run fast and faster and farther for a longer sustained period of time than horses do under normal circumstances. You are delusional to think that the horses are not being abused on a daily basis. The fact that a catastrophic breakdown occurred involving more than one horse and having a driver get six broken ribs and other internal injuries is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Horse racing is Animal Cruelty.
These are not accidents – they are incidents were non-consenting sentient beings are put in situations of extreme risks, ie, a sloppy track. And please enlighten all of us ignorant hysterics on that constantly lauded “great care” that your horses get. Is it the 23 hour a day confinement? The stud chains and tongue ties? The whipping, er, excuse me, enthusiastic guiding during these racked that horses live so much that many of them refuse to enter the starting gate? The drugs and the procedures used to keep sore horses running? Oh, I know, it’s that wonderful retirement plan you guys have, you know the one where your beloved family members are stuffed into a trailer and hauled off to be strung up, bled out, and butchered, which is TOTALLY the same thing as a family pet slipping a leash and running into traffic. It’s funny how those of us working for the humane and ethical treatment of the animals you routinely abuse, exploit, mangle, and dispose of are somehow supposed to be the ignorant ones.
*races that horses *love so much that they refuse to load into the starting gate….
Except that Lee Unkefer isn’t talking about horses under saddle. He is talking about Standardbreds in harness where there is no gate to load into. But, I have seen on YouTube in a video when the starter truck and the wings malfunctioned after the start of the race and it was a horrific disaster where several horses and drivers were down in the dirt. I know accidents happen without any sarcasm intended. The fact that people put horses at extremely high-risk of having accidents is just stupid. But when there is money involved, who cares about the horses getting mangled and killed. Of course it is sad but intelligence dictates that you made a very wrong choice to make a horse have to suffer just so people can get their kicks and maybe win a bet but more often than not lose a paycheck at the races.
In using the starting gait analogy, I was talking about racehorses in general, not specifically Standardbreds.
How many foot races have you seen where 3 of the athletes got killed traumatically?? And how many foot races have you seen where athletes ran head on into each other and broke their necks (which is what I’m imagining happened here because I’ve seen this happen at the track too) YOU’RE a fool If you think this is normal and ok, but like the majority in this business, I’m sure you just shrugged it off and chalked it up to “meh it happens”.
Horses are expendable to you people and it’s ok to the next one!
And you’re horses getting the best of care is laughable. MAYBE they do, until you’re done with them. Then it’s off to the Amish to be pounded on day after day until they can’t pull a buggy anymore and off to the slaughter auction they go!
Try again Chris. We know better.
Chris, it is truly shameful that you attempt to make people of conscience actually believe your garbage. With the rate that horses are dying on tracks throughout the U.S. and the world, there is no defending this sport??? any longer. It needs to end. Period. If human athletes were dying in sports events at the rate racehorses are, the public outrage would be heard on the moon. Because they’re just animals, it really doesn’t matter, does it?
If you think using all caps makes your argument more valid, think again. You’re just like the rest of the parasites and apologists in the racing industry, screaming in a tantrum about the “best of care” your disposable gambling chips get after yet another day of death at the racetrack. What were they doing racing in that slop in the first place? And how many human athletes suffer the horrendous injuries these horses did, and do on a nauseatingly regular basis? Tell me, what was done with the bodies of these horses you love so well? Did anyone bother to throw a dirty tarp over their carcasses while waiting for the rendering truck? Like so many others, you, Chris, revel in your ignorance and proudly display your complete lack of empathy toward sentient creatures mangled and broken for your entertainment.
Thank you, Rebecca, and if by the “best of care” CHRIS meant the *worst of abuse*, I get it.
Well, Chris. This is a hell of a way to start the new year. There is nothing normal about three horses getting killed, it’s not like a foot race. This kind of rationalizing is just a way to avoid the reality of the horrors involved in any type of track racing. Disgusting.
The “best of care”, Chris? – here are some of your “caring” trainers who were indicted after being caught illegally drugging Standardbred racehorses – from the March 2020 Harness Racing Update…
“Richard Banca was the leading trainer on the year (2020) at Yonkers and Rene Allard was second. Trainer Nick Surick, 10th in the Yonkers standings, has also been indicted. Other harness racing participants who have been indicted include trainers Chris Oakes, Chris Marino, Rick Dane Jr. and Conor Flynn, an assistant to Banca.”
The following conversation is between Louis Grasso (veterinarian) and Ross Cohen, two others indicted in the racehorse drugging scheme;
“Cohen: What’s going on with the Allard death camp?
Grasso: (Laughter) well I didn’t get any more emergency calls yesterday so I am assuming
Cohen: Assuming the number stopped at 7?
Grasso: Well yeah
Cohen: How many died?
Grasso: Three
Cohen: Jeez. What were you thinking?
Grasso: Three or two maybe.
Grasso and Cohen continue to discuss the effects of the drugs on the horses.
Cohen: Ok, maybe it was just the batch that Allard got I guess I don’t know.
Grasso: They got high fever kidneys shut down.
Grasso: …One of them just died on the table they just cut him open and poof it died.
Cohen: Holy f-k did they do an autopsy?
Grasso: Their heart rate was like triple they were breathing real heavy their membranes were going f-ing purple.”
Racehorses receive NOTHING that equates to the “best of care” – they are MAINTAINED much like a race car is maintained in order to make money. The glaring difference is race cars don’t endure the daily cruel existence of a racehorse’s life, the suffering of illegal drugging by some of your industry’s “FINEST”, OR death from racing injuries or slaughterhouse butchering like what happens to your “beloved” horses after your industry has used them up and thrown them out like yesterday’s garbage, Chris.
I am with you Chris. That is what those horses are born to do. They love to get out there and pace around that track. Have you seen the video of Secretariat when he was 12 years old running like a young colt around the pasture and nickering and having a fine old time. That is what he was born to do and he loved it.
You do realize that’s a dumb comparison, right, Kay? My horses all love to run around the pasture too. IF they want to. Which more often than not they don’t! And they would rather not work if they don’t have to. All of my horses were poor to mediocre performers on the track. They sure weren’t Secretariat! And ALL of them came off the track with injuries, mental issues, and lingering problems!! Bet they just LOVE that!
Just as I’m sure your horses just LOVE to then pace around Geauga and Holmes co with their Amish families after they’re done at northfield, on miles and miles on pavement, foaming and frothing with sweat, usually lamely moving along, only to be dumped for slaughter after the Amish finish using them up! Yea those pacers have a GREAT life and just LOVE that!
I know an STB owner who “loved” her 3 yo filly soooo much the she “amished her out”, (her words) after an injury when she couldn’t be used more on the track. And in her words, “I hated to do that, but what else could I do?” So now there’s another horse with a known injury hauling the Amish around. Bet she just LOVES that.
Running around a pasture is hardly the same thing as being whipped around a track. And if you know anything about horses, which you racing apologists don’t, you would understand that horses are prey animals, genetically wired to conserve energy as much as possible. Flat out running for extended periods of time would make them too tired to escape potential predators. And if they love that track so much, why do so many of them violently refuse to enter the starting gates, and why do jockeys have to whip them to keep them from slowing down? These horses are forced to perform the way they do, and the documented evidence of horrific injuries suffered as these horses simply shatter under your industry’s primeval practices proves it.
Of course they ‘love’ their horses……we ALL know how you profess to ‘love your horses’ Yea, you love them alright, just as long as they’re winning you prize money and five minutes of glory. You’re NOTHING but a glorified horse abuser and horse killer, but never mind, when one gets injured or killed, you can claim the insurance/slaughterhouse fees and just callously move onto your next innocent, defenseless ‘victim’ That’s the kind of low-life scum that you all are….
I’ve been at this track when a horse dropped dead a few years ago. They had a rickety trailer for an ambulance and the poor horse had to be loaded on a tarp and heaved into the trailer. It was a hillbilly hot mess.
There is an article online about this incident at Northfield Park and some of the people leaving comments on that feed mentioned a trailer. I wondered what in the world are they talking about a trailer on the racetrack for… I mean I didn’t know they meant “trailer” as being synonymous with “van” or “ambulance” so thanks for enlightening me, Marie. What a trainwreck this hideous cruelty to horses was and is!!!!!
I can only imagine how mediocre the lives of the horses are at Northfield Park and the idea of having year-round racing and 15 races on a race card.
Imagine how bad this hideous incident was in the FOURTEENTH RACE of the day/night!!! It was bad enough even for these love-to-watch-horses-get-injured-&-KILLED HORSE-KILLERS to cancel the FIFTEENTH RACE.
Of course, Chris, the horses get the best of care!!!
You must be joking.
I recently bailed several Standardbreds from kill pens and I can tell you they were a long way from the best of care – a long long way!! One poor creature was starving, shoes still on and not a hint of a frog on any of his 4 feet. Another with a eye draining badly and the globe pushed back into the socket. Counting ribs was not a challenge on any one of them…
I guess the “the best of care” doesn’t last very long.
Where was even the most basic of care , like food, for these horses in their hour of need?!!!
Where were you, Chris?!
The best of care is extremely mediocre at best. What a tired, worn out line from the playbook of lame excuses by these sadistic, psychopathic, horse-abusing, horse-killing, racing industry participants!!
Patrick, I read the article at HarnessLink. There is an interesting comment by a Greg Luther that anyone here might want to take a look at. I also read some of the other articles; there’s one about a TB/SB track veterinarian named Rebecca Linke that names names of TB trainers whom she supplied adulterated prerace drugs for. I wonder if timing of medications given could be correlated with some of George Navarro’s horse deaths.
Whoever wrote this article has no clue about this industry 3 confirmed kills ! This wasn’t a shootout with Isis this was a tragedy an accident the same as any accident human beings were involved with this along with our equine family !! You should be a lot more sympathetic about this tragedy and be careful what you write after all.. all of us horse people are reading this !! Compassion goes a long way and you’re not showing any of it !!
Wait, WHAT?!
There’s soooo much wrong with what you just wrote here, Gary!
Maybe try reading the actual HarnessLink article, and then the comments. There were people that were there that clearly fault Northfield Park for this fiasco. It doesn’t seem management had much sympathy for you “horse people”, and your “equine family”! (Both terms which I laughed at when I read YOUR comment). People in these industries aren’t horse people, and nor are your horses an equine family! .
If you have TRUE HORSEMANSHIP capabilities, you automatically exhibit compassion by NEVER RUNNING HORSES TO THEIR TRAGIC injuries and deaths.
Horseracing itself is a man-made disaster that exhibits a SEVERE, EXTREME AND EXCEPTIONAL LACK OF COMPASSION by putting their horses AT RISK in a highly selfish and greedy manner by subjecting horses to racing for purse money and gambling/ wagering revenue.
True horsemanship doesn’t submit to the demented lack of compassion for horses by EXPLOITING HORSES for money and possibly something to brag about.
You must have heard that saying, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt…”????
Some people may never learn from TRAGIC incidents such as this, but some of us have learned that it is certainly not compassion nor true horsemanship to put horses or humans at such RISK of injury and death.
In this case and in most, if not all, cases, the humans had a choice but the horses are slaves forced into this inhumane treatment of horses that leads to horrific injuries and death.
When human participants involved in this industry of egregious cruelty to horses are injured and recover to full functioning, many of them will go right back to doing the same thing. Horseracing itself is insanely barbaric and there is absolutely no compassion for the horses to choose to lock horses up in stalls for 23 hours a day and force them to run around a racetrack until they breakdown; not to mention the insanely barbaric and egregiously CRUEL practice of starting horses out TRAINING for racing when they are approximately one-third of the way to maturity, NOT FULLY DEVELOPED. Life-ending breakdowns are inevitable in horseracing. It is a simple fact. It is not rocket science that horseracing kills horses.
Horse racing is Animal Cruelty!
#HorseracingisAnimalCruelty
Working, training and racing babies,(most as young as 1.5 y.o to 2 y.o) on underdeveloped muscoskeletal systems 2) daily doping regimes (both legal and illegal) to mask what begins as minor issues developing into major chronic issues which deliberately puts all racehorses at high risk of dying, but still sending them out knowing this 3) hiding secret doping records that do not follow racehorses when they are continuously claimed another business practice that pretty much writes their ticket to permanent crippling and dying 4) supporting and revering multiple doping “trainer” violators to facilitate widespread doping, cheating, and deliberate masking of pain, and suffering that often leads to death 5) intense confinement that leads to widespread serious medical conditions such as chronic ulcers 6) intense confinement that does not properly develop their muscoskeletal system especially when babies 7) stabling conditions, harsh equipment, beating/whipping that forces them into the gate so gambling bets can be paid-off.
All of this and more leads to their deaths.
The inhumane daily treatment and living conditions are deliberate and malicious so when you send them out to die it’s no accident – it’s inevitable.
Then to continue supporting and defending a business that knowingly and maliciously does this is disturbing and nauseating.
Finally, sending out your “family member” to a kill auction and/or dumping them into a life of neglect and then knowing that most racehorses end up bleeding out on the slaughterhouse floor clearly shows just how delusional and callous horse racing apologists are.
Gary cave, we’ve got a “clue” – clearly, you either do NOT or you just don’t give a rat’s a** about the equine slaves of the industry you defend. And you’re reading here? – well then here’s some more to read about your beloved industry…from the March 2020 Harness Racing Uodate…
“Richard Banca was the leading trainer on the year (2020) at Yonkers and Rene Allard was second. Trainer Nick Surick, 10th in the Yonkers standings, has also been indicted [of illegally DRUGGING Standardbred racehorses]. Other harness racing participants who have been indicted include trainers Chris Oakes, Chris Marino, Rick Dane Jr. and Conor Flynn, an assistant to Banca.
“Following, a conversation between Louis Grasso and Ross Cohen, both of whom were among the original 27 people indicted, where they joke about horses of Allard’s that died, allegedly, because of the use of illegal drugs. Grasso is a veterinarian and Cohen, according to the original indictments, is someone who was distributing PEDs.
“The conversation reads (and note this appears exactly as it did in the sealed complaint in terms of grammar and spelling):
“Cohen: What’s going on with the Allard death camp?
Grasso: (Laughter) well I didn’t get any more emergency calls yesterday so I am assuming
Cohen: Assuming the number stopped at 7?
Grasso: Well yeah
Cohen: How many died?
Grasso: Three
Cohen: Jeez. What were you thinking?
Grasso: Three or two maybe.
Grasso and Cohen continue to discuss the effects of the drugs on the horses.
Cohen: Ok, maybe it was just the batch that Allard got I guess I don’t know.
Grasso: They got high fever kidneys shut down.
Grasso: …One of them just died on the table they just cut him open and poof it died.
Cohen: Holy f-k did they do an autopsy?
Grasso: Their heart rate was like triple they were breathing real heavy their membranes were going f-ing purple.”
Racehorse deaths are an accepted part of your sick “sport”, Gary cave – accepted and called “accidents” by those who benefit from using horses for their own financial benefit, gambling fixes or entertainment purposes in this antiquated, unnecessary and disgusting gambling industry.
“…be careful what you write after all…all of us horse people are reading this”. That has to be the single dumbest comment I’ve ever read here.
This is a tragedy that most likely could have been avoided had they shut the track down because the surface was so bad. Clearly, that falls on THE TRACK . It also falls in the lap of the drivers and trainers for allowing them to continue to race on an unsafe track. Seen many a race on a sloppy track wondering why they race. THERE IS ONE ANSWER….GREED! The argument on horses being mistreated doesn’t fly with me. We have dogs, cats etc and other animals as pets. The have a lifespan many less that 15 years or so and they die. No matter how great you treat them some get hurt. hit by cars or sick! I have been to stables where the horses are loved and yes raced because they were bred to do just that! Quit blaming honest horsemen and women for being in the business. Not all are as dirty as the ones you mentioned and some others who haven’t been caught. YET
Steve, you are obviously not empathetic to the horses. Many people believe that if a horse is not used for something that they are going to waste. Many people believe that if the horse is not slaughtered for his or her meat that they are going to waste. Evidently you are one of those heartless people. Horses are gregarious herd animals and they need large areas to roam and graze at their own will. Obviously you have no scruples to suggest that locking horses up in stalls for 23 hours a day is not abusing the horses. It is one of the many forms of torture for the horses. I would like to explain more to you but as long as you want to act like the rest of the Royal Twinkie Princesses in the horseracing industry, I think I would be wasting my time. By the way, horses have a lifespan of anywhere from 20 to over 30 years when cared for properly.
So, by your analogy, would you encourage your pet to keep running across the street and hope they don’t get hit? That is pretty much the game racing folks play each time they send their horses out to race. And I have seen plenty of sick, crippled horses that no one in the barn at the track cared about. Where are those “honest” ‘horsemen’ then?
And do those “honest” ‘horseman’ still not pump their horses full of drugs, even if those drugs are legal?
And I go back to the same example I’ve said before- it is not natural for horses to crash head on into each other. My horses, even at a full tilt run, have never even side-swiped each other., much less crashed into each other head on, or crashed into the ass end of the other horses, which I have seen at the track.
Oh, and if they love to run, why did Tampa bay, aqueduct, and gulfstream all have to fight horses into the gates yesterday? There were 2 horses at Tampa bay that almost flipped over in one race because they were so resistive to loading! Shouldn’t they have been bounding into the gate so they could hurry up and run while they get their ass beat to run faster??
If it were simply a matter of the track Bri g at fault, then explain how so many racehorses suffer horrific injuries on dry tracks? Certainly the slop played a part, but the hard truth of the matter is that the ENTIRE racing industry structure, from beginning rigorous training on still developing babies, to near constant confinement, to use of, at the very least, questionable substances, to the whips, chains, and tongue ties, to the final disposal of broken horses at the slaughterhouses, all of it is designed to give these sentient creatures a built in obsolescence. They are a means to make money, nothing more, and the fact that this industry is still trying to claw its way along despite the THOUSANDS of horses it has exploited, abused, mangled, broken, and disposed of in the most torturous of ways should horrify anyone with a working conscience, not encourage excuses and feeble attempts to compare the life of Hell of a racehorse to that of a sick pet actually loved by their family.
I was in the harness breeding business for almost 20 years. There are no honest people racing.
Steve, I have heard your argument ad nauseam about the people who love their horses.
Maybe you can answer a few questions concerning these people:
1) Why don’t they speak out against horse mistreatment and the corrupt connections?
2) Why do they stay in a corrupt and cruel gambling business.
3) Why do they play Russian roulette with the lives of horses they love and also put them at risk of being claimed by the cruel and unscrupulous?
The silence of these people means one thing – they consent to the rampant corruption and cruelty of this gambling business. They are pert of the problem.
“The argument on horses being mistreated doesn’t fly with me.” This is the exact quote from “steve” in his comment above. I’m sorry Rose, but “steve” is completely incapable of answering any of your very appropriate questions beginning with the first one.
Wanda so I guess you don’t believe in Pets? Animals? I enjoy being at the stable watching these beautiful animals train and play in the paddocks. I’m sorry but I am not against cutting a tree down either if it needs to be cut down. I see professional athletes being paid a lot of money to run and subject themselves to career ending injuries every night. Sports exist for betting and greed. If you have a great organization led by great people they are usually successful. In horse racing there are some pretty unscrupulous people both on the training and breeding end but NOT ALL are unscrupulous. I wonder what kind of life you have? Do you live in a bubble? Do you doubt science? You seem to know an awful lot tell me exactly how many stables you have visited? Do you take any kind of medicine for an illness ? God forbid you break a bone or pull a muscle is it because you are abused or careless or both? There are some beautiful stories about horses….racehorses that are owned by small stables or individuals who have only ONE and somehow they go on to be champions is that wrong? And by the way the people I know in the business do NOT race in claiming races they train and own what they race and when they need to get smaller they sell their horses.
Steve Jenney, it is not exactly a matter of whether I believe in pets or animals. It’s a matter of how pets including horses are cared for or not cared for. I was told in the 1970s that racehorses are not pets. I have had pets. I had a pet Shetland pony from 1953 until 1981. I was born into a family who had animals for pets and the usual commercial use of some of the animals. My parents were definitely not vegetarians but we did have a vegetable garden. We also had beef and it didn’t come from the grocery store. I grew up with animals. I grew up with the idea that racing was cool. Over the years it has become much more possible to see how horrifically cruel and sadistic people are to animals. It is possible to see how widespread the inhumane treatment of horses and other animals is through the technology that exists in this day and age. I’ve seen sadistic treatment of animals in person and on film. The more I stopped looking the other way from the cruelties committed on horses, and in particular racehorses, and discovered this website, Horseracing Wrongs, I finally got to the point where I can no longer look the other way. Horseracing does hideous things to horses. Many people who are involved in the process of deliberately forcing horses to perform as gambling chips seem to have no sense of what is right or wrong. They force horses to perform no matter what until the horses are disabled as racehorses and/or dead. This is not the horse’s choice to be abused to such horrific suffering. It is the human participants involved in the process of deliberately causing injuries to the horses that are at fault for causing the injuries to the horses.
What the hell does cutting a tree down have to do with exploiting horses? And here’s another one trying to compare race horses to family pets and human athletes. And then to make the even more stupendous leap to comparing lame horses forced to run to one of us pulling a muscle. So, Steve, when one of these human athletes, who voluntarily CHOSE this profession, and making a shit ton of money by the way, suffers an injury, is he or she shoved into the back of a van and carted off to have their throat slit in some abattoir somewhere? If you injure yourself, you get to chose whether or not you continue your activities and even whether or not you get medical care. Racehorses are not given the choice to race or not – watch a jockey flailing away on horse hide during a race and try to tell me differently. Horses are drugged and subjected to unethical medical procedures to keep them making money, not for themselves, but for their connections, and there is ample documented proof of owners and trainers laughing and bragging about what torture they subject their horses to. YOU are the one living in a bubble, Steve, whether of honest ignorance or willful corruption, and none of the cute little stories that you’ve heard around the track can make up for the thousands of horses abused, exploited, broken, and disposed of. During your happy little stroll around the barns, did you see the mangled carcasses piled up in the back, waiting for the rendering truck? Look into their dead eyes and tell them about this magical kingdom called horse racing you’re so quick to defend. Compare their shattered limbs and broken bodies with your aches and pains. Tell them about the beautiful paddocks you watched horses play in, and the sugar coated stories about the love so many owners and trainers have for horses just like them. I’m sure they’ll understand.
nope..didn’t see any carcasses…I have seen horses put down on the track because of broken bones and carted off. in fact I even saw the rendering truck the next day on the highway. yes I felt sad. if you had your way there wouldn’t be any horses on earth. what about horses in the wild that are stalked by animal predators. should we kill the predators too? not sure your agenda..nor care to know. curious are you an antivaxe
🤣🤣🤣 What the hell does my opinion on vaccinations have to do with anything, Steve?! You’re so cute I want to squeeze your cheeks! I do like the way you worded that part about horses being “carted off” due to broken bones – shows a level of sincere empathy that’s sorely missing in the racing industry. And of course, in keeping with the apologists’ rhetoric, you have to bring in the whole “ wild horses and predators” angle that is as relevant as my opinion on the pandemic. Then again, maybe it’s more relevant than I thought, given how those owners and trainers literally run a horse into the ground, much the way a natural predator would. You want to know my agenda, Steve? It’s simple. I want the exploitation and abuse of horses for profit and entertainment to end, and I want to see ignorant apologists like you to be forced to watch it die, just like the thousands of horses killed every year on those tracks.
According to “steve” there is basically no such thing as mistreatment of a horse. His statement: “The argument on horses being mistreated doesn’t fly with me.”
‘A ROYAL TWINKIE PRINCESS GUIDE TO WIFE BEATING AND HORSE WHIPPING 101’ by “steve” — because there is no such thing as mistreatment of a horse/racehorse.
Hey! Hey! I can’t wait for this! It’s got to be a revelation to all of us who have been involved in some way, shape or form with real live horses and Horseracing Wrongs!
I have no doubt that “steve” will “enlighten” us in his own contorted, convoluted and twisted kind of way!
Just like auto racing…. those who know nothing think they know it all and I’ve owned and been involved with both.
Steve Jenney, there are far, far more hideous race horse stories than “beautiful” ones’!! That is indisputable. You are clutching at straws and you know it!
And, Steve, “beautiful” from whose perspective?
The horse doesn’t care!
There is nothing “beautiful” about horses locked in tiny stalls 23 hours a day, cribbing, weaving, suffering body soreness, mental anguish and riddled with painful gastric ulcers while the connections gamble on what you call the “beautiful” story…
Sad to say, this is just a glimpse of the least horses are forced to endure because of this gambling business. Then there are the drugs, injuries, premature deaths, and thousands slaughtered year after year.
How about you go down to a local stable. You know the one down the street where someone keeps a horse AS A PET….you know the one…where daddy thinks its cool for his daughter to have a pony…er horse…to ride…LIKE ONCE A MONTH those are the people you should be targeting about abusing horses! Their stalls get mucked about once a week if that….they live in squalid barns some with no heat and maybe they get fed and maybe they don”t nobody really cares or checks on them do they? The stables I know are as clean as your kitchen..their stalls get mucked every day and clean bedding is always a must. In winter they have coats on and in summer if not AC then fans keeping them cool. They get fed on rigid schedules and bathed every day. If they so much as sneeze they are attended to immediately. They get regular excercise and water any time they need it. If they show any sign of lameness they are attended to so who are you talking about? Most of the horses you claim don’t load are babies who have not been schooled enough on the gate that is all. Most harness tracks forbid the use of excessive whipping or whipping at all. Look I love animals…all animals and I;ve had to put a few down over the years because they either became sick or too old to be themselves. Its heartbreaking but not all racehorses are abused
“steve” if you see an animal that’s being neglected, you should be the one to call someone to correct the situation. That is if you can find any authority that will do anything at all about it. It’s too bad you are not able to see what Rose Smith has done for so many horses. I have not met her in person but I have followed this site since 2019 and I know she has done a lot in the best interest of the horses. These horses were used, abused, neglected and discarded by the racing industry participants, who had no use for the horses anymore.
and I thank her for that..many Stables do that as well
The fact that horses are dumped in the first place from the racing industry is one of the things that comes under the category of “Commodification” in Patrick Battuello’s post “What’s Wrong With Horseracing” on this site.
That line about stalls you know are as clean as a kitchen is maybe hyperbole to you but it is total bullshit to me. How many people do you know that clean their kitchen with a pitchfork and how many people do you know that clean their stalls with a broom and a mop? That’s ridiculous and just not true. That reminds me of the Thoroughbred trainer that hired me as a groom in 1977. He was showing me how he wanted me to clean the stalls and then he made this incredibly ridiculous comparison that isn’t even a comparison because it’s so not the same thing. He said to clean it just like you clean a room because I had been working in the housekeeping department in a nursing home. That attempt to compare the two is so whacked when you are actually doing those tasks. I know the difference between cleaning inside a home for human beings and cleaning inside barns and stalls for cattle and horses. I’ve done both whether paid or not paid.
Anytime an apologist hears an accusation about their previous racing industry they immediately point a finger to any and every other type of animal abuse as if that somehow makes their personal horror show look better. It doesn’t. And, Steve, all of us here know exactly what those shed rows look like, the rickety dark stalls with holes in the walls and the frames completely chewed away by stir-crazy horses. Private farms might offer sunny barns and AC and clean shavings up to the horse’s belly buttons, but racetrack barns are literal shit holes. The majority of us on this site have been there, have seen the horses standing in “love” past their fetlocks in stalls as dark as caves. The only racehorses not abused are the ones the industry has already killed.
I have seen those disgusting shadows and I don’t think there are that many around anymore. I don’t think the Meadowlands or Yonkers have horses on property..most ship in unless stakes quarantine.
Stephen Jenney, you do realize that your statement that you “don’t think that Meadowlands or Yonkers has horses on property, that most ship in unless stakes quarantine” is an admission that you know the barns/ shedrows at both locations are shit holes, don’t you?
My point being that both tracks understand that providing modern stabling at the track is not economically or humane to the horses. Yes, I have been in the shedrow at both Yonkers and Meadowlands and agree that at one time they weren’t great. Meadowlands was far better than Yonkers. Lets not forget the barns at Yonkers have been there for at least 50 years and the former owners did little to improve that area. Bob Gural at the Meadowlands has a clue and is doing all he can to keep both drivers and horses safe. They only race two or three times a week so stabling there is not economically sound. I agree that some tracks are better than others and there may be some concern but I personally think that many trainers treat their horses well. To those that don’t go and attack them not the whole sport.
My question is: Will anything be done differently at Northfield Park in the future to prevent another accident such as the one on Saturday when five horses got injured and three killed in one race? Keeping in mind that racing horses is a very high-risk activity and that there is always a possibility of a fatal breakdown during a race, even before a race as well as after a race, is there going to be any type of protocol put in place where the Stewards actually draw a line and say, “No more races will be held today due to………..?
I know someone will be laughing about this because it may sound ridiculous to expect the racing industry participants to use such good judgement in protecting the horses from an obvious environmental predisposition to disabling injuries and deaths.