A couple of notes from yesterday’s charts…
In the 3rd race at Canterbury, Poverty Flats was “roughed at the start,” then, after being “steadied by his rider,” “hit the rail and was pulled up.” I note that this poor animal is 10 years old – “roughed at the start, hit the rail.” Oh, and he was also “For Sale” yesterday. What do you have to say for yourself, (owner/trainer) Tim Anderson?
In the 6th race at Thistledown, Gehrig “was bounced around between rivals at the start,” then, “returned bleeding from the nostrils.” (He finished last, some 18 lengths back.) Gehrig, too, is a long-suffering racehorse: 9 years old, 53 times under the whip. His primary exploiter: owner/trainer David Wolochuk.
GEHRIG’s stallion is GHOSTZAPPER (GZ) and who is GZ and why do I bring this up?
Well, GZ was the prize possession of, yours truly, Frank Stronach.
GZ’s sire was AWESOME AGAIN – yet another prize possession of Frank Stronach whom I watched win the Kentucky Derby when I attended that day.
Both sires were super busy in the breeding shed when Stronach couldn’t pump out enough foals to race, sell and/or fill races for any exploiter willing to buy one.
From a former employee who worked there “we couldn’t book enough mares because Frank made it clear that he wanted to be King, he wanted to be represented in every major stake race in North America.”
In order to be “King” he had to put out as many foals as possible (knowing that only about 10% would probably make it) and in the busy years probably around 400 per year for at least 10 years totaling around 40,000 racehorses most of whom ended up unwanted.
GEHRIG’s roots traces back to the Stronach empire and he’s just one of the many victims whom are found at kill auctions or running for their lives in the claiming ranks every single day.
They are all paying the price for one man’s ego and his goal to be horse racing’s “king.”
My kingdom for a horse.
Now it is all my horses for a kingdom!
These morally bankrupt ego and money driven people will “sacrifice“
any number of defenseless horses to come up with the one that will put them on the map and establish them as “king of it all”.
Rose, so true unfortunately and sad.
Gina, one of the writers for one of the rags recently posted on his Twitter … he said the bad part out loud in a moment of breathtaking candor … it’s never been about racing .. it’s always just been about breeding he said. GREED … thy name is horse killing industry
As for an actual answer to the question, “What do you have to say for yourself?”:
In a word: Nothing.
Strange how they all become eerily silent, particularly when asked to defend their own ongoing racing abuses.
I suspect both Anderson and Wolochuk will continue in perverse defiance to extend the torture of both Poverty Flats and Gehrig. Only when they’re publicly SHAMED in actual racing circles (i.e., the racing press/trade rags, the handful of racing insiders who actually support equine welfare on occasion, tracks and commissions looking to improve their Death Count stats) will they consider doing right by their equine victims.
(I’m certain they won’t even try to defend their animal cruelty to the likes of us — or anyone at all in the general public, for that matter. That would be a violation of racing’s Secrecy Code, which is a huge no-no.)
The following are just some examples of NY bred racehorses that have more than earned their retirement and are still being grinded into the ground until they either drop dead or get claimed most likely.
This is all facilitated and endorsed by the millions in NY subsidies that permits this to go on with no accountability to these racehorses in even the most minimal way.
I don’t think that the NY politicians are even aware of this blatant racehorse abuse and they need to be educated with the following examples:
FOOLISH GHOST – this 7 y.o gelding is a stakes winner back in his day and has earned over $509,712. On July 4 at Belmont he was just claimed by Trainer Rudy Rodriguez for another round of abuse.
TIERGAN – a 6 y.o stakes winning gelding of over $433,657 was just claimed again on June 26.
MAXWELL ESQUIRE – 5 y.o horse made over $345,525 only to be claimed again his last time out.
CONTROL GROUP – 8 y.o horse who won multiple times at the highest level of horse racing has made over $885,517 and is still being repeatedly claimed and run into the ground. His last 3 races finished in the bottoms for a combined 40+ lengths and they are STILL running and claiming him.
This is shameful and isn’t it telling that they want something like 250+ million to upgrade their clubhouse, that is empty year round except for a few big race days, but just can’t find one dime to protect and retire racehorses like the above examples?
Disgusting, repulsive and unacceptable.
It was $450-Million but was denied by the state legislature. That is almost ONE-HALF of ONE-BILLION DOLLARS because that’s how much they suck! The NYRA sucks the life out of the horses and the people!!!!
Accounting for inflation and “Fraud, Waste & Abuse” of public funding/Corporate Welfare, I believe that the figure of $450-Million would have been “insufficient” and the NYRA would be begging for more money. Multiplied by two or three, the figure of $450-Million could snowball into a demand for $900,000,000 or $1,350,000,000 so it would be a nightmare from hell; as if it is not bad enough already!!!
As you know, the legislative branch is making efforts to stop the original bankrolling to the racing industry, which is more than the Video Lottery Terminal payments. What sense would it make to give the horse-abusing, horse-killing white collar criminals at the NYRA more money???!!!!!!
We have ridden many of these old warriors of racing as they were going down in the claiming ranks. We always galloped those poor high mileage horses as gently as we could while many of the track people just laughed. Shameful & terrible that when a horse has earned more $$ than we can they are not retired! Thankfully we believe we read somewhere the clubhouse upgrade was not approved as a tax assessment by the voters. Maybe the citizens of New York are becoming aware of the misuse of their tax $$.
HORSERACING WRONGS, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals & The Blood Horse reported on the New York legislators’ denial of the $450-Million bond plan to subsidize the NYRA & Belmont Park with an ADDITIONAL outrageous amount of money to support their habit.
The legislators in New York absolutely did the right thing, not only for the horses but also for the people of New York State!!!!!
Now to get the ORIGINAL bankrolling to the horseracing industry in New York stopped…!