See You At Front was killed (“musculoskeletal”) training at Los Alamitos yesterday. He had just turned two and had yet to be raced. For Los Al, this makes three kills in the past five days, four this month. Newly “safe” California racing on full display, yet again.
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Well, there it is. Just two weeks shy of Los Al’s one-year anniversary for their Big, Fake Super-Safe Training Record, there’s been an admitted training kill. Wonder what prompted the high-integrity CHRB to go ahead and publicly acknowledge the death of See You At Front? I think they just decided it was time to finally admit one — because NOBODY believes Los Alamitos went 350-something days without a single fatal morning workout injury.
this fricken sport needs to STOP !!!!!!!!!!!! assholes only in it for the money and dont give a shit that these horses are still just babies and they are getting them killed >>pure animal abuse is what it is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This isn’t a sport. It’s a slaughter with an audience. Every. Damn. Day.
At 18 months of age, a young colt or filly should never be expected to perform as a horse that has reached maturity which is at least six years of age and some people add “or seven” to that well-known fact of the age of maturity in horses.
Demanding that two-year-olds perform in races as “official” gambling chips is outright abuse of horses!!!!!!!!!! It is common practice to be greedy, narcissistic abusers of young colts and fillies in this egregiously CRUEL industry. This “common” practice must be recognized by law as the abuse of horses that it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The deeply corrupt CHRB, based on years of explosive articles and evidence, comes out with a well used repetitive statement regarding these Los Al deaths.
Like a well-worn tire their excerpts include “been in contact with personnel and executives,” “we are taking 4 steps to help improve safety.”
Every single step will do absolutely nothing to stop racehorses from dying and it’s an affront to people’s intelligence that they actually think that this public wallpaper will convince them that everything is AOK.
As a former CHRB Associate Steward who demanded an end to “toe grabs,” back in 2005 I find it incredulous that they are now calling for an end to “hind toe grabs” not front toe grabs.
All toe grabs should have been banned years ago because every reputable neutral peer-reviewed study, by equine vets, have concluded that toe grabs, whether front/rear or both, are detrimental to a racehorse and contributes to long term acute/chronic issues in the legs.
Back then trainers Bob Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas consistently used toe grabs (very high ones) on the front of their racehorses and sometimes on the rear.
In fact, at Del Mar Baffert vehemently opposed eliminating toe grabs and when I told him that it was detrimental to racehorses he looked at me, shrugged and walked away.
Of course he continued using them on a regular basis and it seemed rather baffling that people who claim to “love their racehorses” actually implement abusive business practices on racehorses every single damn day that they know harms them.
They are being supported, enabled and defended by the CHRB and it’s a disgusting shame because this entire board is paid for by California taxpayers and they don’t feel answerable or accountable to them.
When they do respond with something as ridiculous and stupid as this it’s nauseating.
They all make me sick and I hope I live to see the day where tracks are shuttered in California.
Thank you, Gina. Regarding so-called corrective shoeing (to supposedly help correct faulty conformation in the horse’s way of going) and the different calks added to horseshoes to allegedly “ENHANCE” PERFORMANCE, there was one barrel racing champion in particular that told about the physical harm a certain kind of shoeing and shoe did to her barrel racing horse after one year of competition. I’m not sure about the harm it may have caused to his legs, but she definitely make a point about the harm it did to his back.
*made
No doubt that horses in other disciplines suffer from injuries, but since this site is about racehorses I tend to focus on that.
As a former racehorse Trainer, Owner, Steward, and Certified Equine Massage Therapy who did 2000 hours of required practicum therapy on a racehorse aftercare farm in Sacramento California (circa 1998) plus based on vet reports back issues in racehorses are almost always secondary lameness to issues that start in the lower limbs and work their way up.
So if a racehorse has back issues, which is usually in the lumbar-sacral area, then that has usually been happening for a very long time because the primary cause was never addressed or addressed with a plethora of therapeutic or illegal medications to mask chronic issues such as these.
This is precisely why “no hoof no horse” greatly contributes to unsoundness and lameness issues in racehorses.
Toe grabs, as I mentioned, almost always results in bilateral fetlock joint issues especially when utilized on the front hooves and a direct result of that is damage to the supporting structures such as tendons and ligaments 55.26%.while 73.5% of the forelimb (Source: Catastrophic Muscoskeletal Injuries in Thoroughbred Racehorses on Racetracks in South Africa February 2019).
It just goes to show that injuries and death are happening on a global level when it comes to racehorses.