While I’ve already reported on the death of Run the Tap at Keeneland, more details have emerged. The specific injury, says the Racing Commission, was a “complete fracture of the left ilium” (pelvis) followed by “internal bleeding,” which caused her to “collapse and die within a few minutes.” Trainer Ken McPeek told the Commission “that he had another filly fracture her pelvis in the same week [while training] at Churchill. McPeek…thought that these incidents were freak accidents.” Yup, just “freak accidents.” (I will of course get the name of the other horse.)
Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. told the Commission that Run the Tap “never got into the race [and] as soon as he pulled her up past the wire, he knew there was something wrong.” But he also added that “he had been aboard the filly for her morning workouts and that she was a bit lazy and needed encouragement throughout.”
Also, we already knew about the 3-year-old Miniconjou dropping from a heart attack – or, as the Commission put it, “expiring by the time the vet arrived on the scene” – at Churchill last month. New, however, is this: “No diagnosis was made. The body was autolyzed [too far decayed] upon arrival at the lab and no diagnostics were possible. Upon inquiry to the track and shipper, it was determined that the death occurred late in the race day and the shipper was contacted to pick the horse up the next day.”
This is horseracing.
Brian Hernandez’s in-laws are none other than the Radosevichs from the posts below, regarding racing aged equines.
Far too decayed for an autopsy? What, did they drag the body out of one of their landfills?
Every time I hear a horse owner or trainer call a horse “lazy” it pisses me off. Horses are prey animals, they are designed to conserve energy for use in escaping potential predators, and they have an amazing sense of self-preservation, but so many people think that flailing away with a whip or spurs is motivation enough to make them walk in endless circles in an arena or run full tilt down a dirt track. The fact that so many horses will stop of their own volition to try to protect themselves when tired or injured, even while being “encouraged”, proves this.
As far as the necropsy goes, I know that it has to be done within a certain number of hours after the death of any animal. I think it’s 24 hours. After so many hours, it is too late. It was really clever how they delayed the shipping of the body because they would know how long it would take to be too late for the necropsy. These professional killers of horses would know how long it takes before a necropsy cannot be done. They also would have had at least one veterinarian on the racetrack that could advise anyone who wanted to know. As I said, they are professional killers of horses.
As far as the piece of shit jockey, Brian Hernandez Jr., whipping the filly and calling it “encouragement” he is a filthy, scumbag, horse-abusing liar. If I gave him the same type of so-called encouragement, I could be arrested and charged with assault. It would be worse than fourth degree assault! It’s totally ABUSE OF HORSES to constantly be whipping them.
Horseracing is horse killing and it needs to be terminated from all government subsidies and government-directed benefits. The abusers need to be punished by law!!!!!
The horse was giving all he could give. He was in pain .The owner should take that same crop and whip the hell out of that j
ocky.
The owners should be whipped. The owners are responsible for all of the ABUSE that they subject their horses to on a daily basis.
So the jockey ran her into the ground. The sad part of this is that she was likely trying to tell him all along it was too much.
I remember when Eight Bells lost her life I had been thinking of the term eight bells. When a sailor looses their life they honor them with eight bells. End of watch. How very true that term would be as a name for her.
Many of these horses have heart and will do their best no matter what but should we be surprised when they die? I think not and I was also struck by the fact that even as she went down the jock was swinging that dam whip.
Time to end all this suffering. It would be better for them never to be born then to live like this.
It is so disappointing that the owners of these horses allow them to be tortured and abused..Horses deserve much better. Those who are responsible for all this cruelty to horses should be punished by the full extent of the law for animal cruelty.