Much is being made of California’s lower kill numbers. One of the things that the industry, led by The Stronach Group, is supposedly doing is more surgical repairs. But history says that the equine post-surgery survival rate is very low (think Barbaro). Problem is, the injured who end up being euthanized, with or without surgery, off-site will not, as a rule, show up in public records. The lost dead.
With the above as backdrop, here are 75 horses injured (in the cases of the bleeders: pulmonary hemorrhage) on California tracks since Jan 2020 and who have not been heard from since. It falls to the CHRB to tell us where these horses are.
Clubhouse Soda, 1/16/20, Golden Gate – “went wrong, vanned off”
Captivating Cartel, 1/24/20, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Warrens Lil Margie, 2/23/20, Golden Gate – “bled in the stretch”
Tizalwaves, 6/5/20, Santa Anita – “vanned off”
Spectator’s Dream, 6/7/20, Santa Anita – “pulled up, vanned off”
Nice Blaze, 7/3/20, Pleasanton – “fell, vanned off”
Hendavid, 7/25/20, Pleasanton – “pulled up, vanned off”
Girther, 8/8/20, Del Mar – “vanned off”
No Name Fred, 8/9/20, Del Mar – “bled”
Kr Casper, 8/16/20, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Verifiable, 9/5/20, Los Alamitos – “pulled up, vanned off”
Rick’s Dream, 9/7/20, Del Mar – “injured at 1/8 pole, vanned off”
Rule He Will, 9/19/20, Los Alamitos – “pulled up, vanned off”
El Aracada, 11/13/20, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Magnolia’s Hope, 11/27/20, Del Mar – “vanned off”
Velvet Queen, 11/27/20, Del Mar – “vanned off”
Twirling the Gold, 11/27/20, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Taco Twosday, 11/29/20, Los Alamitos – “pulled up, vanned off”
Princess Noor, 12/5/20, Los Alamitos – “pulled up, vanned off”
Josephin Bono, 12/6/20, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Colour of Money, 12/11/20, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Florentine Diamond, 1/16/21, Santa Anita – “vanned off”
Gowdy, 1/23/21, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Warm It Up, 2/26/21, Los Alamitos – “pulled up, vanned off”
Whatdidido, 3/27/21, Santa Anita – “pulled up, vanned off”
Tuxedo Flats, 5/1/21, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Omph, 5/9/21, Golden Gate – “was deemed unsound, vanned off”
Big Dog Daddy, 5/14/21, Santa Anita – “faltered, vanned off”
Fashin Icon, 5/22/21, Los Alamitos – “lost action, vanned off”
Eel Point, 5/28/21, Santa Anita – “injured at top of lane, vanned off”
Street Dancing, 5/31/21, Golden Gate – “pulled up, vanned off”
Lips Like Sugar, 6/19/21, Santa Anita – “vanned off”
Contagion, 7/18/21, Del Mar – “injured at 7/16 pole, vanned off”
Listen Linda, 7/18/21, Los Alamitos – “took a bad step, vanned off”
Perrys Everlasting, 7/24/21, Los Alamitos – “lost action, vanned off”
PRESTONS LADY AA, 8/13/21, Golden Gate – “bled”
Esagerare, 8/19/21, Del Mar – “had to be vanned off”
Queen Helene, 8/27/21, Golden Gate – “collapsed, bled profusely, vanned off”
C’Mon Jenna, 9/10/21, Golden Gate – “bled, vanned off”
Investment Account, 9/10/21, Los Alamitos – “injured in upper stretch, vanned off”
Bathory, 9/11/21, Golden Gate – “vanned off”
Great Power, 10/3/21, Los Alamitos – “took a bad step, vanned off”
Rocket Song, 10/10/21, Santa Anita – “vanned off”
Wild Cat Canyon, 10/16/21, Los Alamitos – “pulled up, vanned off”
Frost Warning, 10/17/21, Fresno – “pulled up, vanned off”
Favorite First Down, 10/23/21, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Dual Reality, 10/31/21, Santa Anita – “vanned off”
Prudent, 11/4/21, Del Mar – “vanned off”
Da Kine, 11/13/21, Del Mar – “pulled up, vanned off”
Deputy Bernardini, 11/26/21, Del Mar – “sustained late injury, vanned off”
Oro Crystal, 1/9/22, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Malibu Mayhem, 1/23/22, Santa Anita – “injured in deep stretch, vanned off”
Equivalence, 2/18/22, Santa Anita – “bled following the race”
Ed Gatty, 3/6/22, Los Alamitos – “pulled up, vanned off”
Viva La Fiesta, 4/1/22, Golden Gate – “pulled up, vanned off”
Intenses Suspenses, 4/3/22, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Savvy Gal, 4/10/22, Santa Anita – “vanned off”
Union Boy, 4/23/22, Golden Gate – “bled”
Pray to an Angel, 4/29/22, Golden Gate – “pulled up, vanned off”
Discretionary Day, 4/30/22, Santa Anita – “vanned off”
Banjo Queen, 5/15/22, Santa Anita – “pulled up, vanned off”
On Raglan Road, 5/27/22, Golden Gate – “bled”
Brittany Breeze, 5/28/22, Los Alamitos – “bad step, vanned off”
Smokinhotredhead, 6/18/22, Pleasanton – “vanned off”
I Am Not Uncertain, 7/3/22, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Divine Armor, 7/24/22, Del Mar – “pulled up, vanned off”
In Doubt, 7/30/22, Los Alamitos – “bled”
Sparkling Gem, 8/14/22, Los Alamitos – “took a bad step, vanned off”
Sentauro Image, 8/20/22, Los Alamitos – “fell past wire, vanned off”
Smitten by Kitten, 9/4/22, Del Mar – “went wrong, vanned off”
Trumper, 9/4/22, Los Alamitos – “fell, vanned off”
Flying Charlie, 9/25/22, Los Alamitos – “vanned off”
Weasley, 9/25/22, Los Alamitos – “pulled up, vanned off”
Teddy’s Barino, 10/2/22, Santa Anita – “bled, vanned off”
Set for It, 10/16/22, Los Alamitos – “bled”
we need to stop this awful slaughterhouse which is the racetrack. need to do that now
I would guess most unfortunately died. Just know about one on your list, Malibu Mayhem. He suffered a broken ankle at Santa Anita on 1/23/22, the jockey got him quickly stopped, he had successful surgery the next afternoon. As of about 2 months ago he was healing and progressing. Obviously won’t race again. He is in the MRH stable and they do attempt with some success to place the horses in good situations
The jockey really doesn’t deserve the credit for the horse stopping with a broken ankle. The jockey could have passed out and fallen off or even jumped off on purpose or could have been unseated and fallen off while conscious and the horse with the broken bone/bones would not want to continue to run wildly on three legs, believe me. A horse with broken bones will often stop very quickly on his or her own.
One place I can tell you about…When you enter race track grounds, you are walking on wall to wall dead horses. That is correct. Dead horses are buried in the ground right where you walk and sit and eat your popcorn.
The chances of the highly-credible, super-transparent CHRB going in to Retroactive Horse Death Admission Mode on even a single one of these missing equine victims is absolutely, straight-up NIL.
They’re too busy protecting the Drug-Trainers and Horse-Dumping-Owners to concern themselves with accuracy in recording kills.
If the horse can’t be raced, the horse is of no significance to the pari-mutuel wagering handle. Case closed.
This is how they roll in this despicable industry.
Or they went to a low end auction/s. Yes, they end up there too and they are sold many times or right to Mexico for slaughter. It’s disgusting.
At the livestock auctions, there are basically two kinds of killbuyers, the ones that haul horses to their feedlot and the ones who do direct shipping from the livestock auction to the USA/Mexico or Canadian border and then to the slaughterhouse. Also, there are those people who secretly make horses disappear without going through the livestock auctions. A lot of these horses that are injured that can’t stay up on their feet wouldn’t make the trip. They would get trampled to death on the truck bed or trailer floor. Some of those are the horses that would be “recycled” in a sense. The killbuyers would jerk on the heartstrings of “the bleeding hearts” as they call people who are interested in rescuing horses and the chances of them making a bit of a profit would be there and, at the same time, the people who rescue the horse from the slaughter bound truck would spend a bunch of money attempting to save the horse. Many of these horses are not able to have a life without pain and being constantly medicated to help relieve their pain. They eventually have to be euthanized by a private veterinarian as a way to give the horse relief from their pain and misery. It’s a never ending cycle.
Rick’s Dream is accounted for – his surgery (the first of Stronach’s program) was successful, & he’s at his owner’s property (per article & photo on a racing site….guess I’m not allowed to post a link, because I put one in my previous attempt to post about this horse, & it was apparently rejected, so, if you want to see it, you’ll have to go searching, but the horse’s name is not in the title of the article, so it won’t be easy)
Usually the only reason a horse’s connections would bother with surgery is to prolong the exploitation by sending the horse to the breeding shed to churn out more horses to be abused and to break down on the track. It’s a vicious, disgusting cycle. Don’t confuse their greed with compassion or actual love of the horse, no matter how many heart and praying hand emojis end up are slapped on their post and twitter pages.
He’s a gelding.
Thank you, Robert, for sharing this because while it does not excuse the abuse or the pain and suffering that the horse had to endure to be a racehorse, it is interesting to know what happened to these horses and that they weren’t all killed immediately just because their connections didn’t want to spend the money on keeping their damaged, now non-racing, chattel alive. At the same time, it’s dreadful to think about what kind of pain and suffering these horses had to endure as a result of being kept alive with excruciatingly painful and disabling injuries inflicted upon them by this corrupt industry..