Sky Writer in the 4th at Mahoning yesterday: “took a bad step pulling up near the eighth pole…euthanized on the track.” He was six; this was his 40th time under the whip. Complicit in the kill: owner Susan Yoder, trainer Lori Yoder, jockey Sonny Leon, Mahoning Valley, and anyone who wagered on any race run in America yesterday.
Also Friday, at Gulfstream, Rakasa “suffered a catastrophic injury past the wire” of the 9th. She is almost assuredly dead – at the pubescent age of three.
This is horseracing.
It’s beyond sad that the killing of racehorses never stops. I read a story about two living descendants of SECRETARIAT and that one was born in 1988 and the other was born in 1989. You’ll never be reading about these two horses, SKY WRITER or RAKASA in a trade journal of any kind. It doesn’t glorify the racing industry to tell of the many horses killed.
I think the story of poor Sky Writer is one of the saddest I’ve ever read. He was a Midwestern Stakes horse who made most of his blood money for his creepy connections waaaaay back in 2017-’18, when he was still a baby. But as he slowed down in his geriatric years — because four-year-olds are already too ancient and crippled to be of use to all those humanitarians in the game, you know — his loving owners, Mast Thoroughbreds, LLC, decided it wasn’t enough. IT IS NEVER ENOUGH. So, Mast took their “lightly raced” big-money earner, Sky Writer, and dumped him in a shitty Mahoning (redundant) $4K Claiming Race, where literally ANY horse-abusing monster could pick him up for a song. And they did:
Enter the Yoder gals to swoop in like vultures and nearly DOUBLE poor Sky Writer’s lifetime races in less than ONE year. These titans of equine advocacy and altruism figured the old guy had a few more races in him. So, by God, they were gonna suck every last drop of life out of him while they still could. In fact, as soon as they put their claws into him, they forced him to race EIGHTEEN more times in one YEAR. Sadly, even that wasn’t enough torture of poor Sky from those sweet, horse-loving Yoder gals, so he was whipped into 2022 yesterday, with the threat of doing it all over again and again, until he died. So he did.
To finish up my little racing eulogy: Please accept my deepest condolences, Susan and Lori Yoder. I know you both gave him the most loving, amazing care any racehorse could have asked for. (And I’m sorry you didn’t get to collect meat price for his remains. The cash could’ve helped with your next victim’s purchase.)
Thoughts and Prayers, girls!
If it was a contest between the owners and trainers versus the Stewards and the owners of the Pari-Mutuel handle, who would get the prize for being the lowest of the low? Just saying…
I think it’s a dead heat — with emphasis on the dead part. But special accolades always need to go to the racing press. The so-called reporters who (pretend to) cover this sick game deserve SOME credit for all their carnage cover-ups.
No helpless innocent ANIMAL should ever die for this unnecessary nonsense. Animals lives are just the same as people’s lives. I would ask the trainers,owners,etc….would YOU be willing to give your life for old men placing a two dollar bet? … I didn’t think so.