Animal Cruelty, Animal Killing at Thistledown Yesterday

Fox On the Run at Thistledown yesterday: “had good early speed inside, suffered an injury at the half mile marker, was pulled up and euthanized.” This one line is a perfect microcosm of general industry callousness – a fully sentient being is killed (for gambling), yet the chartwriter still sees “had good early speed inside” as relevant information. Sick. The Jevon Crumley-trained Fox was six.

More from Thistle yesterday: Two other horses, Masterofthehounds and Country Club Bobby, bled, the latter “bilaterally” (through both nostrils). Again, this type of bleeding originates in the lungs. And, “Maracuja suffered an injury to her left front in deep stretch and was vanned off.” Sounds bad, probably was (I will of course update).

Subscribe and Get Notified of New Posts

29 Comments

  1. That poor horses eye & expression say it all! Extreme fear & pain.Have ridden many horses on the track with those crummy ring bits! We used to ride our own farms horses just in a halter & lead or a bit-less bridle which of course was greatly frowned on by the other horse people. The outriders forced us to ride with a bit! So glad to have left in 2005 never to return.

  2. Maracuja much ballyhooed grade 1 winner of ny based trainer Rob Atras. Grade 1 winner running a minor stake race in crummy ohio. Despicable

    • Another note … the stallion Honor Code has had a few offspring go down recently. I know we don’t know for sure yet about Maracuja, but it does not sound good 😢

  3. Fox Rox (posted on here multiple times), and Fox on the Run are half siblings. They are both out of the mare Shesastonecoldfox!

  4. FOX ON THE RUN – Yet another living being died for this vile business.
    Ohio horse racing was in a funeral march and, in fact, most tracks including Thistledown was shuttered until the good ole boys club implemented the “racino” model in 2013.
    While education and access to it is in a free fall in Ohio the elected politicians continue to rubber stamp hundreds of millions of dollars to this horrific industry.
    The suffering, crippling, dumping and dying will never end unless the subsidies end.
    I hope that states like New York and PA are successful in ending the subsidies because other states are sure to follow.
    Furthermore, the horsemen groups AKA HBPA who receive these millions have absolutely no incentive to improve the lives of racehorses.
    In fact, since these tracks have received millions there have been more rules & regulations passed to exacerbate the inhumane treatment of racehorses and more protections for their exploiters.
    The more money, the greater the exploitation, suffering and dying.
    That, in a nutshell, is the “racino” model of horse racing.

    • They are all scumbags .. the ones that rely on old people customers casino money. At least Pennsylvania had a Governor who wanted to pull the trigger of cutting it off so bad. Not the case with ny and other such, and ny has NO excuse. NONE . Their gov has a majority friendly legislature. NO EXCUSE. NONE. Don’t even try ohio, total majority of the whole state. No hope whatsoever ohio. You’ll never. What is gov of ny excuse Gina? She has friendly majority legislature.

  5. MARACUJA was born on January 30, 2018 and sold at the Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Select Yearling Sale 2019 in August to Jason Servis, agent for $200,000.
    She is one among thousands of Thoroughbred foals produced in order to be exploited by money-grubbing, horse-abusing, horse-killing, degenerate, salivating slimeballs waiting to get their hooks into an innocent young, underdeveloped colt or filly that will be easy to deprive of a normal life and a normal life span.

  6. Blood horse is reporting from the trainers wife that Maracuja is ok..nothing showed on the x-rays. So there’s hope

    • Nancy, I don’t really believe the report that there’s nothing on the X-ray. If there is a fracture and it didn’t show up on the X-ray, they need to take more X-rays and/or have someone look at the X-rays that has more experience at “reading” X-rays. The other possibility is that they did see something, but they don’t want anybody to know about it for whatever reason.
      Also, this reminds me of the numerous times that a horse was killed and the connections said the horse is fine or okay.

      • Further evaluation in New York for Maracuja asap. Being shipped back was supposed to be today. I agree though Wanda that who knows where the truths lie. So we’ll see but hopefully a good report for that beautiful horse.

    • Ah, OF COURSE the highly-credible, super-journalistic, tell-both-sides-of-the-story RACING PRESS goes out of its way to publish that elusive “She’s fine,” quote from, of all sources, the freakin’ trainer’s wife.
      But isn’t it weird how we never, ever, EVER hear about it from the spouses of these so-called trainers during all the (thousands of) times when the horses are NOT okay?

  7. this is just one more of the ways human unkind destroy life, greed overrides any sense integrity. this sickening lack of concern shames us all

    • Totally. Let’s lure lonely bored old people into racino’s and blow lifetime of working, blow it on slots.

        • Not a fact racinos filled with elderly retirees playing slots? That’s what keeps them solvent.

          • Let’s kill off racinos. Not the horses. Animals are innocent …. not the case with people.

          • Agreed, Bonnie. Many, many gamblers ARE elderly. I figure, at that advanced age, they’re grown-up enough to make their own choices about what to do with their own money. Whether they choose to bet responsibly and ‘have fun’ with it — or lose it all in a compulsive downward spiral of addiction — it’s THEIR choice to make.

            BUT, by betting on any form of animal racing, they’re just fueling, condoning and supporting cruelty and killing with their own gambling dollars. Hardly seems like a legacy they’ll be proud to leave behind.

        • Carol, I was in absolutely no way trying to offend you. Heck, I don’t even know you. Very sorry if you thought I was trying to slight you. I can One thousand percent tell you that was in no way imaginable the case. I’m ONLY all about the animals 🙌

          • Bonnie, I completely understand your anger and your sarcasm about the casinos/racinos and exploiting people for their hard-earned money only to be thrown away into the routine abuse and killing of horses for racing.

            • Thanx Wanda, yes you “get” it. (my absolute unwavering love of animals) til my last breath … as they say. Animals are pure and precious.

  8. Just saw right now on my local news there was a Bull fighting “festival” in Columbia south america, what pure evil scumbags the spanish and south americans are. Anyway lots of the spectators in the stands got killed cause they collapsed. I call that pure AWESOME KARMA!!!!! May those crazy hispanic (spain, south america) animal torturers rot. Pure Evil, and the Bull was helplessly writhing amongst the rubble. Humans are the most sac of s**t that has EVER inhabited this stupid planet. Nothing but evil and destruction. On what planet is this ok?

    • I’m very upset my local 11 pm newscast showed that bull half dead writhing in pain, without giving a warning beforehand,for us viewers who did NOT want to see that horror of animal torture.

  9. Everyday vicious vile horse racing people are torturing and causing beautiful racing horses to die

  10. To put everyone at ease regarding Maracuja, racing apologist Betsy Tarr (@Betsypaige24) offered the following (per her tweet on 6-27); “Mara is fine, her leg isn’t falling off.”

    OK then…😳

    • Okay, great. Is she dead or alive, Betsy Tarr? If she is alive, will she be forced to endure confinement 23-hours a day and whipped around the racetrack for morning training? Or, will she be used as a broodmare? Or, is she going to be exploited in some other cold and calculating way?

  11. Does anyone happen to know of a rescue group that does rescues from Charles Town racetrack? There’s a horse who has recently been put there after having raced A Lot of career races all over the damn united states. It would be much appreciated as I am worried sick. Thanks.

  12. It is gut-wrenching to see the terror in that horse’s eyes. Everyone involved in horse-racing, whether directly or indirectly, is demon-possessed. You cannot watch ANY race and feel good about it. The horses are whipped severely. They are often injured in the starting gate. They frequently bleed and it’s not unlikely that a horse will snap a leg, or break down in some other manner during a race. How do you justify that? The news media treats horse-racing just like they do everything “liberal”. They refuse to acknowledge the truth. Thank God for horseracingwrongs.org. Thank you for your courage, Patrick! Thanks to everyone who finds a way to defend horses and bring this horror to the light of day!

    • I’m not sure what you mean by everything liberal. Sadistic, barbaric treatment of horses has been around for a long, long time. As an example, pin firing, or thermocautery, was done to horses in AD 500. Obviously, this barbaric treatment of horses was done long before the New World was invaded by the Europeans. Horseracing is barbaric and it was popular long before the term liberal was made popular.

  13. Wanda, I’m wondering if it will be easier to persuade the man who owns this horse, because he is also the trainer? Anyone interested in a gorgeous chestnut with white blaze face? He carries himself with aplomb, super proud and classy, beautiful temperament,smart,a real in your pocket type, as they say. I’m totally not kidding about the gorgeous part.

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: