Back in March, I posted this video of 8-year-old Rated R Superstar being mercilessly beaten by jockey Ramon Vazquez in a half-million-dollar race at Oaklawn:
Almost a year later, Rated, soon to turn nine, is still being whipped for cash. Yesterday (photo below), after a $90,000 win at Oaklawn, owner Danny Caldwell said this in BloodHorse: “They’re old, hard-knocking horses and they know their job.” Yup, they “know their job” all right – all you have to do is beat the hell out of ’em.
So sick how they justify their greedy actions. No horse wants to live in a box and get whipped. They want to roll in dirt and be in a herd. Keep fighting the good fight. 💪🏼 💖
Truly vile people we are dealing with here.
If only the jockeys and owners and trainers and everyone else involved in horse racing had to be whipped mercilessly in order to participate in this vile abuse of horses.
Isn’t there a rule about whipping a horse so many times in a row. None of the other jockeys are whipping their horses to death. Poor horse, I bet the horse loves his job. Nine years old only a matter of time before he breaks down.
Jennifer, I believe that there are rules and regulations regarding the use of the whip in every racing jurisdiction. It’s up to the Stewards to say something or maybe do something, but who is going to make the Stewards do anything? Horse racing is a cesspool of corruption and abuse. It’s based on abusing horses to begin with.
According to ARCI (Association of Racing Commissioners International), the jockey shall not strike the horse with the Riding Crop or whip more than two consecutive times and must wait three strides before striking the horse again. It definitely appears that the jockey, Ramon Vazquez, violated the whip rules on RATED R SUPERSTAR.
Just to clarify further every state has different rules for whipping/beating a racehorse.
For example, Kentucky (the horse capital of the USA) DOES NOT have a maximum amount of time you can whip a racehorse so you can literally whip a racehorse into the ground with no repercussions as we saw with American Pharoah who got whipped at least 32 times consecutively during the Kentucky Derby.
Chief steward Barbara Borden told the Courier-Journal that “We watched it many, many times prior to making it official, and that wasn’t anything that got our attention.”
“There isn’t a limit in Kentucky as to how many times a jockey can hit a horse during a race.” Borden told the C-J that Espinoza’s ride “didn’t stand out to us to be super excessive.”
Now if these statements don’t tell you anything then nothing will.
FYI many stewards own racehorses and so do the Racing Commissioners who are supposed to be protecting racehorses and instead, time and time again, protect the wagering and their personal profits at the detriment of the racehorse.
Finally, when a jockey does whip a racehorse beyond the stated rules in said state they get a “slap on the wrist” fine pretty much condoning beating a racehorse.
Also, just to be clear, the horse racing industry was only reacting to the court of public opinion when they started to implement their “whipping rules” in various states.
Most of it is public wallpaper and empty words as many racehorses go down in the dirt while still being beaten.
This is horse racing.
In Arkansas, the Racing Commissioners voted to overturn the suspension of Bob Baffert for violations of doping racehorses. That’s one corrupt part of this abusive gambling enterprise that got a lot of attention.
California horseracing Boards says the whips are soft and do not hurt them. Total BS, this corrupt industry is evil at every level.
The Board need to be whipped( and more)
I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THE WHIP OF THE JOCKEY AND BEAT HIM WITH IT SEE HOW HE LIKES IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
NONE OF THESE MERCILESS BEATINGS WILL STOP AS LONG AS MEMBERS OF THE CONGRESS ARE BENEFITING FROM THE OPERATIVES OF DARK MONEY! WE MUST MERCILESSLY BEAT THOSE WHO PROFIT FROM SLAVE-HORSE ABUSE!!