Friday, the Gaming Commission reports, there were two kills during morning training at Finger Lakes: Kenny Hustle, three, “suffered sudden death.” Again, three years old – “sudden death.” Princessinparadise injured her stifle, “necessitating euthanasia.” She, too, was just three years old. These are kills 38 and 39 on the NY Horseracing year.
Both racehorses are New York breds.
They were bred to gain access to the super generous New York breeding awards and to the high purse money all of which is being financially supported by taxpayer-funded/casino subsidies.
Even with the subsidies they still can’t make it and went to former Gov. Cuomo for some more handouts.
Without batting an eyelash he immediately approved an additional 100 million in funding directly to Finger Lakes to offset the profitable casino up the street who refused to support horse racing.
The funding was approved for 2 years and has since expired so what’s going on with this now?
Has it already been rubber stamped by pro-horse racing current Gov. Hochul?
The majority of tracks in this country are not financially sustainable and require ongoing ATM cash machines all provided by taxpayer and casino subsidies.
They don’t even pay sales taxes on racehorses they buy and sell.
Of course the racehorses see little to nothing of the billions in profits they generate nor do they share in their millions in subsidy money and not even a mandatory aftercare program.
This is all being operated with total impunity, little to no oversight by our politicians, and total lack of concern for their constituents and/or animal welfare.
Racehorses like KENNY HUSTLE & PRINCESSINPARADISE pay the price every single damn day and so does public education and our communities suffering from lack of funding.
I just noticed this week that NYRA has released a commercial for New Yorkians to see that pushes all the benefits of NY racing. They drop all the numbers as far as jobs created, taxes paid, and billions in revenue.
They sure are getting desperate!
And the Belmont will be here in a couple of weeks. Come on out and spend your money in NY and hobnob with the rich and famous.
The New York Racing Association does NOT pay property taxes on the land where they hold their horseracing and horse-killing shit shows. I don’t know how much money that amount would be in dollars and cents, but I think it would be a very significant amount. This is just one of the many ways that the State of New York bankrolls horse racing & wagering in New York and LOSES MONEY on HORSERACING and the consequential ABUSE & KILLING of horses that goes hand in hand with this moral depravity. I’m sure you knew that. For the NYRA to say they pay taxes is an egregious falsehood in my opinion, because I don’t think they pay their fair share of anything!!!!!
I don’t live far from Finger Lakes. It is a deplorable track. I simply don’t understand why the state wants to subsidize such places. They are certainly not tourist attractions. There’s never any spectators at that track. Why not just have the casino there? It seems that stand alone casinos are now allowed in New York (Del Lago), even non-Native owned casinos. So why throw money away on these run down, hell hole, tracks?
This is a quote from thePaulick Report, November 2020, so the info is relatively recent. Milkshaking is horrid.
Sodium bicarbonate, usually given in the form of baking soda mixed with some sort of liquid, is typically given through nasogastric tube within hours of race time. It has long been believed by horsemen that the baking soda acts as a neutralizer of lactic acid, which is responsible for the feeling of achey or tired muscles during exertion.
For lead author Dr. Joshua Denham, lecturer in exercise science at RMIT University, the findings were not a surprise.
“Some recent reviews on the influence of sodium bicarbonate on endurance performance in humans have emphasized equivocal findings,” said Denham. “Given we know humans are prone to placebos, I was always skeptical about its utility as an ergogenic aid.”
Milkshaking has been banned within 24 hours of a race by most racing authorities, but the study suggests it “remains an issue in modern horse racing.” TCO2 tests, designed to pick up on the administration of sodium bicarbonate, are part of the standard pre-race testing procedures in most states, though not all horses in all races are tested in some places.
Besides being an uncomfortable and apparently unnecessary procedure, milkshaking can be dangerous if it goes wrong. In addition to potential gastric upset and possible injury to the nose and throat that can happen during tubing, an inexperienced practitioner can also send the tube down the trachea rather than the esophagus, sending the sludgy solution into the horse’s lungs instead of the stomach.