11-year-old King’s House was raced again yesterday at Parx. It came less than two weeks after his last race, and was his 111th overall. He came in last, but Parx being a racino flush with non-racing-related cash, pays first-last. So, King’s abuser-masquerading-as-“horseman,” Jose Gonzalez-Milian, still won ($250).
This is horseracing.
Horseracing continues to live up to its notorious reputation. This poor horse – what a miserable existence he is being forced to endure.
Agree 100% Carolyn McDonald!
Do his earnings even cover the bill to feed, board, train, shoe him? Is he being whipped throughout the race? It makes me wonder why they keep him? What is the financial incentive to keep him at the racetrack? Please explain.
KING’S HOUSE has more than earned a safe retirement $281,418 and shouldn’t even be on the racetrack let alone racing.
Horse racing deliberately sets-up a system of exploiting and dumping with no fiscal responsibility so you often see that the owners of a racehorse who took most of the earnings are the ones who dump the racehorse into a life of claiming hell.
By the time they get to this point they are a liability and are now disposable trash.
There is no amount of money that these racehorses can make to secure their well-earned and well-deserved retirement.
They are forced into a never ending cycle of dumping and claiming, dumping and claiming with no legal accountability for violating animal cruelty laws.
IKE WALKER $475,648 used and abused until he dropped dead in the dirt during a race.
GHOST GIANT $425,518 still being exploited, claimed and dumped.
HAMMERIN AAMER $557,879 same as above.
NIGHT OPS $919,603.
So on and so forth, but the owners who made the money dump them and then watch them suffer with less than 1% going back to take care of a racehorse who once took such good care of them.
Horse racing makes it easy for them to walk away from any sort of minimal accountability.
Horse racing’s retirement plan is the slaughterhouse because that’s where most end up.
So King’s house is for sale, but since no one claimed him, they have to keep racing him to at least cover the cost of keeping him indefinitely?
One of the reasons why they continue to race this horse is because he has not dropped dead yet or suffered life-threatening injuries up to this point in time. This is what these people do regardless of whether or not it makes any sense to you or me. They exploit horses. It’s what they do. It’s how they roll. Another thing is that the trainer most likely doesn’t want to lose any stall space for the next horse to be used and abused as long as they can get away with it.
While KING’S HOUSE earned $250 USD for finishing 6th place in a Claiming race of six horses running, his stable mate, EMPIRE’S SCORE earned $630 USD for finishing 5th place in this same six-horse race. The last time these two horses were raced, they both earned $250 USD each. Their claiming price is still at $7,500 USD. They’re both still finishing last and second to last. It’s sort of like they’re taking turns finishing last and/or second to last, because the last time out, KING’S HOUSE finished second to last and EMPIRE’S SCORE finished last.
Jx Racing must be “proud” that they’re still “in the game” helping the ownership and management team of a racetrack that is being propped up by Corporate Welfare (government subsidies and government-directed benefits including tax write-offs to horseracing) to fill out a race card.
#EndHorseracingNOW
CORRUPTION – thy name is horse racing and the racehorses pay the price.
Racehorses like X Y JET this 7 y.o gelding multiple graded stakes winner of $$3,096,513 was subjected to unimaginable cruelty, abuse and corruption by Jorge Navarro and his owner Rockingham Ranch in California.
The horse racing industry permitted and malicioiusly protected this monster to train and race all over the country after repeated serious doping violations and even after he was caught on tape openly admitting that he was “juicing-up” racehorses.
It took a court case (outside of the racing commissioners – surprise surprise) to reveal the evidence of just how horrific the doping abuse was and it’s heartbreaking.
X Y JET was injected with hundreds of doping cocktails in his stall, according to direct testimony from Jorge Navarro, and eventually succumbed when he died of a heart attack at Gulfstream Park.
I sincerely hope Jorge Navarro rots in his jail cell where he belongs, but horse racing didn’t hold him accountable – an outside investigation did.
As far back as 2003, Mike Gill was given a huge allotment of stalls at Gulfstream Park even after he had an established history of racehorses dying under suspicious circumstances.
I mention the stalls because anybody whose been in this business and plays by the rules must literally beg for even a couple of stalls as they are deliberately kept out of the loop.
CASUAL CONFLICT in 2003 dropped dead under owner Mike Gill and then vet Philip Aleong found his way back to an isolated area and cut-off his leg so that they couldn’t conduct an accurate necropsy later stating that it was in the racehorses “best interest.”
Their Kentucky Derby, year in and year out, is chock full of repeat offenders with serious nefarious activities under their belt and look no further than Bob Baffert who seems to feel entitled to cheating and appealing his way into the Kentucky Derby.
Corruption – thy name is horse racing and it’s the racehorses who pay the price every step of the way.
I can’t even imagine how dead inside this poor horse must be from years of confinement, the near-constant pounding of his body during workouts and racing, the cocktails of drugs, and the complete lack of anything regarding compassion from the people around him.
This corrupt business would be well on the way to oblivion were it not for the subsidies, tax breaks and corrupt politicians.
All these enablers are just as guilty of obscene animal cruelty as those directly involved.
The abuse of Kings House is a disgrace. His trainer, Jose Gonzales Milian and associates are pathetic leeches. Unfortunately, they are not alone.