As fully expected, Speedcuber has been euthanized (today) after “suffering an injury near the 1/8 pole” Saturday at Santa Anita. She was four years old; ’twas her third time under the whip. She is the sixth (admitted) dead horse at Santa Anita this year.
Dylans Wild Cat, Feb 3, training
Warren’s Showtime, Feb 26, training
Royally Command, Apr 17, racing
Magnolia, Apr 25, training
Cayton Kid, Apr 26, training
Speedcuber, May 7 (euthanized May 9), racing
I am not surprised; just saddened.
RIP Speedcuber
What happened to her? Two days before they put her down that’s horrible
The Stronachs have come up with a clever crisis-management strategy for handling some of their many horse kills. Rather than preventing breakdowns from occurring in the first place, which we all know they’re fully INCAPABLE of doing, they get permission from the injured horse’s connections to try to surgically save the animal’s life. The Stronachs pay for all costs, then retire their victim far, far from racing.
It’s not a horrible program altogether, as it might save the lives of a few horses otherwise destined for euthanasia. But one is wise to question their motivation (public relations), as well as their willingness to extend the long-term suffering of their fatally-injured victims.
Was this the case for poor Speedcuber? I have no idea. And I’m pretty sure the Stronachs — and the CHRB — won’t tell us if it was.
Kelly the cheap ass claiming racetracks need that program more, better yet, let’s quit using ANIMALS as gambling chips!!! My heart breaks for the poor souls(claiming horses).
Amen, Bonnie. But the dumpy, smaller horse-killing tracks — as opposed to the big, elite horse-killing tracks — couldn’t even begin to TRY a program like that. Surgeries like these typically START in the $10-20 GRAND range. Even if successful, the months-long recovery costs run up from there.
(Don’t think there are too many owners in the bottom-level claimer game who are willing to shell out ten times their “beloved” investment’s previous worth to try and save her life. So the upstanding racing folks who run these little meatgrinder tracks definitely aren’t gonna pay for it, either.)
Yeah, I knew that (unfortunately), I just wanted to put it out there,that they (claimers),are the ones that deserve sooo much love.Let’s show THEM love … people. I worry everyday about those sweet “Luvable losers”. If it wasn’t for these poor souls, this racket would be gone like that …. poof.
I think they made her suffer much longer than was necessary. I don’t know exactly what her injury was because they didn’t say what it was. They just said where it occurred, at the 1/8 pole. It had to be horribly serious to be life-threatening. I wonder who is doing the surgeries. Are they licensed or even trained? We know Jeff Blea was trained enough to be licensed but dishonest enough to lose his license. I can only imagine how diabolical these surgeries might be.
Something else to consider regarding this much-ballyhooed “program,” Kelly: If the surgery fails – and there’s a high probability it will – and the horse is eventually euthanized off-site, the death is not recorded on the CHRB database. Clean hands, or so they would have us believe.
Public relations would always take priority over any concern for the horse’s life or well-being.
The pretense of offering to save a horse’s life seems like such a joke in a way because it is so obvious that the California Horse Racing Board members are up to no good. Just a “convenient” way that they can get the horse off-site far enough away from the racetrack to be able to hide the kill from the public. Thank you for sharing this information regarding the damage-to-their-image control program (as if that’s possible) and exposing the EVIL in horseracing and the CHRB.
Causing life-threatening injuries to SPEEDCUBER in the first place wasn’t sadistic enough, they had to wait two days to put her out of her misery?
She was born March 7, 2018 and sold for $525,000 at the Keeneland Association November Breeding Stock Sale 2018.
At that price, I am guessing that an insurance policy was part of the whole sadistic atrocity. More vomit-worthy industry news involving Keeneland Association sales as well. She didn’t break her maiden. All three races were Maiden Special Weight.
Agreed 100%, Wanda. Worse, insured or not: they MIGHT have actually performed surgery on her, and she just didn’t survive the anesthesia and/or recovery. Died on the operating table? Who knows, besides a bunch of shady Stronach Group lawyers — and shadier CHRB officials — what poor Speedcuber’s final moments were like?
But one thing is certain: we won’t be getting the real story of her violent and prolonged demise from the highly-journalistic RACING PRESS. (They’re busy not covering all the other Derby Death Day kills.)
The conditions for her races were kind of weird. The last race has a listed condition of $40,000 but only for those horses that have not started. The other races don`t say any claiming price. It`s possible there was no insurance policy at all. Kind of strange written race conditions.
It seems like the buyers that paid $525,000 for her would have had an insurance policy on her but at some point in her life something could have happened to her and they figured they didn’t want to pay the premiums anymore. If or when she dropped in class to $40,000 or whatever value they placed on her, it might not be worth paying the premiums and again, I am just guessing. I think they probably used her as a tax write-off as you said the people in Oregon did that you rode horses for, fredjoan.
So Sad! I pray this will end. I will always share so that the world knows of the hidden evil that goes on behind closed doors. Rest in Peace.
Santa Anita Bastards