Grecian Admiral in the 4th at Charles Town last night: “pulled up lame leaving the first turn and was euthanized on the track.” Dead. He was five years old; ’twas his 35th time under the whip. He was also “For Sale” the day he died.
Here is what “pulling up lame” looks like…
That is just horrible. Horseracing is not exciting to watch. It is heart wrenching. No way for a horse to live.
Front right fetlock joint looks shattered and so does all the supporting structures.
It also appears that the rear right left broke and it looks like it might have started that way and then the front right followed after that?
No matter what GRECIAN ADMIRAL is yet another victim of this vile business.
He was claimed, bought and sold throughout his entire servitude to this industry with no vet records following him so any existing issue is virtually unknown with every claim.
It’s unfathomable that Massachusetts is actually considering a track.
Unfortunately, it looks like they are going to approve the track.
This is what I was told by somebody close to the board “it’s up to the board to make the decision not the public, and if the public doesn’t like it then they can appeal it,” and she was talking in the past tense.
It appears to be a done deal another back room deal cut with a Board probably set-up to approve this long before the public meetings true to industry form.
Horse racing wants the built-in state funds via the Racehorse Development Fund and once they get into any community then the money pit starts all paid for by the public coffers, taxpayers money and/or corporate welfare.
Wonder if MA residents can sue the board or have some sort of legal recourse if they approve the track?
This is where we (as a voice for the horses) need the gamblers to wise up about the rampant cheating in this egregious-cruelty-to-horses industry. The perpetrators of horse exploitation only care about the money that they can make off of the horses. If they cared about the horses, they would not be abusing horses for any reason or excuse; they would not be subjecting horses to the daily routine of abusive and INHUMANE TREATMENT which is inherent to horseracing!
There are so many constructive ways to spend time, energy and money than to contribute to horseracing which is absolutely detrimental to our society as a whole. The ABUSE and CRUELTY to horses in horseracing must be punishable by law!!!!!
I thought same thing. His back leg was bowed out and then front leg. Poor horse. So if they are calling that lame. Wonder what they call a horse with two broke legs.
I am quite surprised that Massachusetts is considering opening a new race track.
In California, only two major race tracks operate -Santa Anita and Del Mar – and the racing is a far cry from what it used to be. In Florida only ‘Gulfstream Park’ offers a significant product for the betting public, and now operates Calder, which it calls ‘Gulfstream Park West’. In New York, while three tracks currently operate – Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga – currently Belmont Park is closed, undergoing ‘renovations’. However, some of my race track pals have informed me that these ‘renovations’ include installing a heating system, yes, Belmont Park has no heat as it is a spring-summer destintation, as well as installing an ‘all weather surface’ racing oval. ‘Belmont at the Big A’ is currently operating the racing schedule, indicating that Belmont’s fall meet is being conducted at Aqueduct while Belmont Park remains closed.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what’s going on. Aqueduct Race Track occupies some very valuable land that is worth a lot more on the open market than for the ‘powers that be’ to maintain and operate the facility when they can just as easily conduct year-round racing only at Belmont and Saratoga. By 2023, or at the latest, 2024, you will probably be able to add Aqueduct to your “Shuttered U.S. Racetracks (Since 2000)” list.
Many of you here call the racing industry ‘vile’ – but keep in mind they’re not stupid. They know just as well as you all do that racing is on the decline, and has been for some time now, and is showing very little signs of regeneration. Which is also why I’m so surprised that Mass. is opening a new track. Suffice to say, I wouldn’t bet my money that this new track will last very long.
Certainly it won’t get any support from me. I no longer bet the horses.
Anyone following the races, though, can see that attendance at both Aqueduct and even Belmont is steadily dropping. NYRA will probably extend Saratoga from July 4 to Labor Day, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they do an all-summer meet soon, from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
But horse racing is a dying ‘sport’. As I’ve stated in every one of my posts, horse racing has lost all its allure for me. Bad enough, the glamour is gone; it’s no fun that we’re being cheated and can’t win honestly; and on top of this sorry situation, the horses suffer and die needlessly and painfully. It’s lose, lose, lose all the way around.
Hard pass for me.
-Joe
Welcome to our group Joe. We never personally bet on horses. We gamboled in a different way! By galloping horses & going out of the gates with them. As the old saying goes` “one can love horses or love racing but not both”. We left the “crooked , crummy, gamboling game” in 2005 & allowed our license to expire & will never renew it. You`re 100% correct an honest horse person cannot, or rarely win at the “game” especially if your from a small operation. Witnessing breakdowns such as in the video above had us turn cold against racing as well as seeing all the illegal practices done on the poor innocent horses.
Joe, you’re right all metrics in horse racing is declining and has been for years including the foal crops.
Today The Jockey Club announced that the 2022 foal crop is going to be around 18,000 a 2% decline from last year.
Now 2% might not sound like a lot, but that translates to 2000 to 5000 less foals on the ground and we know, based on horse racing statistics, that another 10% approximately will not even make it to their first race.
So 18,000 foals for this year will probably translate to about 15,000 foals to fill races.
That’s not enough to fill the races on tracks all over this country and we do know that the existing racehorse population are mostly lame and on their “last legs” literally.
Many can no longer fill races and many are being sent off the track to the nearest kill auction since any aftercare program is so overloaded they can’t take anymore.
I know of at least 10 stake races this summer that had 5 horse fields and each race was worth a minimum of $100,000 all supported by casino profits.
Imagine selling 5 lottery tickets for $100,000?
Would never happen.
It defies logic that they want to build a track in Hardwick MA, but it seems clear that a small group of people want to get their hands on the public subsidies via the Racehorse Development Fund and will go to no lengths to get it.
Again, it’s great that you made the decision to gamble on other things other than horse racing.
As I have stated here, I am not an animal activist; neither are most bettors. That being said, no reasonable, rational person ever wishes to see any animals harmed.
But it was the cheating, drugging, and doping that turned me off from race track gambling. Most bettors would feel the same as I do if they only realized how rigged this game really is. When, arguably, the top thoroughbred trainer in the world, Bob Baffert, gets his winner of the Kentucky Derby taken down from the most famous thoroughbred race in the world, the dishonesty, cheating and abuse has become SO blatantly obvious that it CAN’T even be covered up; this whole scenario revolving around the 2021 Derby was unquestionably a public-relations nightmare for the thoroughbred racing industry as a whole.
Now, while the following may sound callous and self-serving, I do wish to be honest. Had Baffert’s charge, Medina Spirit been disqualified ON THE DAY of the Derby, which, as we know now, he should have been, I would have won several thousand dollars that day as I had several bets on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers. I lost a lot of money even though my hanidcapping was good; but Baffert’s cheating, which cheated ME out of a very handsome payoff was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I’m 100% certain that sooner or later if most bettors realize how crooked the ‘sport’ of racing is, they’ll run from it in droves.
-As I have.
I’ll reiterate here that most bettors, and until recently, myself included, are totally unaware of the ongoing abuse to the animals at the horse racing tracks. Heck, most bettors have never even SEEN a horse in real life, thanks to the proliferation of simulcasting.
I do think, though, that the betting public still feels they have a fair chance at winning with good handicapping, and that the abuse and breakdowns they’ll occasionally encounter while at the racetrack or simulcast facility are rare. Thanks to Baffert’s antics, I found out the truth for myself, and the sooner that bettors realize how wrong they are, the sooner they’ll stop betting on the horses.
-Joe
Every once in awhile, the various racing industry press publications will run articles about how some of the trainers were caught doping their horses with illegal drugs as well as excessive pain-killing drugs. I believe every single one of the top level horse trainers in addition to the low level ones dope their horses with various substances that are illegal. Take for example the illegal milkshake race injection for starters.
I was really glad to read about the fact that the gamblers filed a RICO Act lawsuit against the corrupt trainer, Bob Baffert, and the other guilty people involved in that whole mess regarding the Kentucky Derby and MEDINA SPIRIT. There were several people who enabled him to get away with so much illegal doping; they allowed him to run horses in races that he should never have been allowed to enter. Take the horse named JUSTIFY. The corruption was (is) rampant in the California Horse Racing Board. If they would have been doing their jobs as assigned, the jobs they were paid to do, paid above the table, that is, JUSTIFY would have been disqualified from being entered in some race/s leading up to the Kentucky Derby. Baffert would never have been allowed to enter JUSTIFY in the Kentucky Derby if the Stewards, Commissioners and at least some of the veterinarians were not all involved in the corruption. You know they didn’t call him “Teflon Bob” for nothing and that was long before he had the winning streak that led to Triple Crown “winners” as many people are aware of.