Thistledown Today: Hit Rail, Fell, Dead

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True Hero in the 4th at Thistledown today: “had good early speed, was bumped past the 9/16 pole, hit the rail, fell suffering a catastrophic injury and was euthanized.”

“hit the rail”

“fell”

“catastrophic injury”

“euthanized”

True was three years old. Here is his entire “career”:

race #1, May 17 of this year – last, 31+ lengths back
race #2, Jun 21 – 8th, 29 lengths back
race #3, today (a mere nine days after the last) – dead

Never had a chance. The complicit: owner Kris Nemann, trainer Richard Zielinski.

8 Comments

  1. Looked like he was having trouble finding his feet soon as he left the gate. That is painful to watch. Cruelty. How is horse racing still going on.

    • Definitely had something wrong with back end from the start. He wasn’t moving right, poor horse.

  2. No horsemanship skills necessary to apply as a “trainer” of horses for racing and wagering. Just need to fill out a race card for the race tracks, so have at it.
    TRUE HERO deserved so much better than this!!!! All of the horses deserve better than this industry can offer.
    #HorseracingisAnimalCruelty
    #EndHorseracingNOW
    The stewards should all be arrested!!!!!

  3. Wish I could say that the Thistledown Meatgrinder had to get its last kill in before the comically-titled Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act kicks in tomorrow morning. But that only suggests that HISA can or will provide even a modicum of “Safety” for any of racing’s equine victims. It can’t, and it won’t.
    One thing that the falsely-optimistic HISA will do, however, is NAME most of these horse-killers in the industry. (I think that’s probably one of the main reasons that horseman’s (haha) groups are fighting the implementation of this federal oversight; they can’t handle the accountability.) For the first time ever, they’re facing exposure for many of their cruel misdeeds through HISA’s “Whereabouts” program:

    HISA Representative: “Where is ______? He’s registered with us, but seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.”
    So-Called Horseman: “Um, uh…He’s retired and frolicking in a meadow upstate? No, wait. He’s enjoying a second career as a disabled children’s therapy horse? Er, I mean, he ran away from home and we can’t seem to find him anywhere? Yeah, that’s the one! He just up and, poof, disappeared. It’s the damnedest thing.”
    HISA Rep: “Oh, okay. We’ll just stick that in his file, then. Same note we put in about 10,000 other TBs’ files last year. Good day.”

  4. i think they are purposely killed and pushed into the rail by the owners who want that death

  5. The racing of horses must end as soon as possible. There is too much cruelty, suffering, and death for the poor horses.

  6. I don’t know what’s worse: the racing announcer or the owners-trainers-riders. ALL are complicit. And YOU, THE BETTOR, ARE AMONG THE WORST EXAMPLES OF HUMANITY EVER! I hope these people realize that they will stand before God one day. Can you hear the excuses?

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