Notes from the stewards at “The Legacy Chase” – “a family fun-filled day of steeplechase racing, picnicking, and tailgating” – Shawan Downs, Maryland, Sep 24:
race 1: “Carloun was scratched due to lameness.” Carloun is trained by the ugly – internally, of course – Keri Brion.
race 3: “Ludicrous Mode fell at the 4th fence [and] was transported back to the barn via the horse ambulance. The course vet reported later that the horse was uncomfortable but standing and able to walk.”
race 4: “Ljay was scratched due to lameness.” Ljay is also trained by Brion.
race 5: “Junior Senator appeared to be an out-of-control runaway when he fell at the third fence.”
race 6: “Coach Carter was scratched due to lameness; Gaye Breeze was scratched due to lameness; Western Crusader was scratched due to lameness.”
race 7: “Agitare was scratched due to lameness.”
Then this: “During the course of the afternoon, the stewards were informed by the course vet that trainer Keri Brion was posting videos of her pre-race exams on social media. Dr. Blakey said she felt that posting the videos was unprofessional and asked that they be taken down. The stewards…called Brion to request that she remove them. Brion was upset and refused to delete the videos.”
Just as Keri Brion feels entitled to abuse and kill racehorses it only stands to reason that she feels entitled to be above any rules such as scratching a lame racehorse.
The serial racehorse abusers and killers in horse racing, both male and female, all operate under the same blueprint and Keri Brion is no different.
Remember on the PETA video Steve Asmussen’s Assistant Jimmy Barnes had a temper tantrum when VALIDICTION got scratched?
This racehorse was lame and in pain, but to Barnes he was just a “rat,” and he vowed to “trick the vets” next time by giving him needles to mask the lameness in order to pass the exam.
Look no further than Bob Baffert whose been operating above the rules and law for years and still, to this day, he’s trying to get a ruling dismissed that should so obviously remain in place.
When trainers watch Baffert doing this year in and year out, they want to do it too and for those who play by the rules? – well, they get screwed and lose their stable because they can’t compete with this level of corruption. (not trying to construe that I care, but just saying).
In this example, we have Brion posting videos of pre-race exams and refusing to take them down because this is her way of controlling the system in place most likely.
It clearly shows a person who has total disregard for the racehorses under her custody and those are the type of “trainers” that this industry supports and, unfortunately, our casino profits and taxpayers are forced to support this as well.
These ‘lameness’ issues that pop up on race day which, to the chagrin of these trainers and ‘connections’, require a horse to be scratched are one of the main reasons I gave up wagering on horse racing. We handicappers are given a wealth of information in the Daily Racing Form regarding almost the entire history of the entrant’s past performances. And yet, the true condition of the horse on race day itself still remains a mystery.
I have stated in previous posts, that I am not, nor ever was, an animal activist. But I AM a human being. While I certainly do take issue with the ongoing cheating [i.e., the drugs, entering unsound horses, the ‘claiming’ game in which one dishonest trainer tries to unload an infirm horse on another dishonest trainer – and more] like any rational human being, I hate to see the poor animals suffer. I always thought that these race horse athletes were pampered, well taken care of, healthy and STRONG.
Apparently not .
Suspect trainers will enter an unsound animal to which the betting public has no clue about, until after the race is run. Only then, when we find these poor horses which will often finish up the track, or, worse, need to be euthanized because they were in no condition to run, sometimes suffering fatal breakdowns as a result, do we see the true condition of the horse.
I dislike cheaters, sneaks and liars. Always have.
I will freely admit I used to LOVE the races, including the handicapping aspect of it, using your skills to try and pick a winner from – or at least I THOUGHT- an evenly mached field. But when some horse are on drugs, some lame, some at the top of thier game, some being ‘buzzed’ by jockeys with illegal electronic devices, it’s not an only UNEVENLY matched contest, but, you, the bettor, are knowingly being cheated by the entire industry,.
Stop being cheated. I urge race track bettors to take your gambling bankroll elsewhere, like I have. It’s very sad, but unfortunately, I see no answer to fix this game.
So I left. So should you.
-Joe
There are many different aspects of the cheating “game” and part of it is the toe grabs and heel caulks on the horse shoes to give the horses a supposed advantage in the order of finish in a race, but they also cause more internal physical injuries to the horses. The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has allegedly taken steps to eliminate the use of them. I’m not sure if the “new rules” (or whatever they are called) about toe grabs and heel caulks are being followed for sure. The “Authority” is “on a mission” to protect horseracing as an industry and if any horse happens to be spared a premature injury while being trained or raced, it would be only to prolong the horse’s life as part of the “inventory” of horses available to fill out the race card at any given racetrack.
For most of us it’s the daily racehorse abuse and killings that should end this, but it won’t end until gamblers stop wagering and, even when that’s not enough to financially sustain it, then comes along elected politicians to bail it out with casino and taxpayers money.
Thankfully gamblers like yourself, arrive at the right conclusion to not support it anymore because bets ensures that racehorses will continue to die.
Even if they were to post the vet treatment records for gambling purposes, that are currently omitted, it still wouldn’t change the fact that racehorses die on a daily basis and that’s why I left this business as an owner trainer.
I have never nor will ever comprehend how somebody can watch a racehorse snap their leg-off and go down in the dirt, but sill continue to support this regardless of motives.
It boils down to an issue of morality and horse racing is wrong – it’s so wrong and it’s not ok.
How many horses can one “licensed” trainer kill before the Stewards or Commissioners decide that maybe he or she is making their so-called sport look bad (as if they were not looking bad already)?
I was under the impression that there was a certain trainer, namely Peter Miller, in California who had killed so many racehorses that even the illustrious California Horse Racing Board decided that maybe he should take a “hiatus”.
(May I stand corrected if I am wrong about the reason he took a half-baked hiatus.)
So many horses had been killed by racing in California and especially at the Santa Anita race track which became the death track that brought the injuring and subsequent killing of horses to the national news (CBS News) in a way that no other one racetrack could.
Hiding the ACTUAL number of horses killed as a consequence of running horses to FATAL INJURIES became a top priority (or should I say, “the” top priority) since all of the public relations baloney and expensive x-ray machines cannot and will not prevent the occurrence of injuries to running horses being whipped and shocked by jockeys around the racetracks.
It seems like it would be a little more difficult to hide the fatal injuries and subsequent deaths of horses trained by an egotistical and outspoken professional horse-killer like KERI BRION.
The more a trainer kills racehorses the more likely they will be admitted into their Racing Hall of (Sh)ame that’s full of repeat offenders, drug violators, manglers and killers.
That’s a fact although I believe that “distinction” is reserved for trainers at the higher levels of horseracing, especially flat track racing.