Through a FOIA request to the California Horse Racing Board, I have obtained the following details on 4 of that state’s 64 kills last year (previous ones here).
Night Girl, Jul 20, Del Mar T
“Collapsed following half-mile workout – sudden death, cause undetermined.” Night Girl was just two years old and being prepped for her first race.
Rapacious, Jul 26, Los Alamitos T
“Several displaced vertebral fractures with exposure of the spinal cord, [multiple] rib fractures, extensive hemorrhages, complete bilateral hind paralysis.” Rapacious was also just two years old, and he, too, was being prepped for his first race.
Smokin Hot Fire, Jul 30, Los Alamitos R
“Fell past wire: bilateral carpal breakdown with [multiple] fractures and [multiple] ruptures [in each].” Again, both front legs. Smokin Hot Fire was also just two years old.
Munny One, Jul 31, Del Mar T
“During training, horse appeared tied up, distressed, and shocky. Attending vet administered IV fluids, NSAIDS, muscle relaxants, and DMSO. Horse urinated red-colored urine. Following treatment, horse became more unstable and died spontaneously – cause not determined.” Munny One was also just two years old.
The people who caused the injuries and death to these young, underdeveloped colts and fillies would have been arrested for Animal Cruelty and prosecuted if there were any justice. The whole horseracing community including the members of the California Horse Racing Board would be behind bars and the horses that had not yet been killed would be rescued from their abusers, if justice were carried out.
There are people in the horseracing industry who are egregiously barbaric and don’t deserve to be allowed to continue to cause harm to horses. This inhumane treatment of horses must be stopped.
Well, I must give the horse racing industry credit for a job amazingly well done – they are extraordinarily efficient at hiding all the horrors, the mistreatment of the animals, and also they utilize an incredible amount of skill and subterfuge at HIDING the rampant, out of control drug use, while, all the time, presenting a lofty, family- oriented, fair, decent, animal- friendly enterprise.
Not.
Information regarding the training and stall deaths was almost always never publicized, particular to [former] bettors, like myself, who were regularly, and unknowingly, placing wagers on infirm, lame, drug- riddled unhealthy horses with the misrepresentation that these were fine, healthy, well cared-for athletes in tip-top condition, at the very peak of their form.
Breakdowns in races seemed rare to the uninformed public, and we bettors did not witness them all that often, since race breakdowns don’t occur every single day, at every single track.
That’s good news for the industry – helps them hide the horror.
Also, the track officials did their very best to scrub the data base, websites and race replays of these horrors, and still do. Probably now, more than ever.
As I am, – and I freely admit – a hard-core gambler, these revelations that I have witnessed over the past year since I stopped betting on the races are horrendous. There are not enough adjectives in the dictionary to describe this disgusting spectacle, once one’s eyes have been opened to the facts specifically and deliberately hidden to the public.
Two and three year old horses should NOT be dying and rendered unsound with injuries that usually occur with old age. It’s awful, and I know all of Mr. Battuello’s posts are backed up with documentation. I was a regular reader of the Daily Racing Form, The Paulick Report, Blood Horse, TDN, and very little, if anything was ever mentioned about these breakdowns that occur regularly. We are led to believe that just about everything is fine; fatal breakdowns are extremely rare.
Again. Not.
The light at the end of the tunnel: yes, the ‘sport’ is dying.
Young people are staying away in droves, and sports betting sites, like Draft Kings and Fan Duel are skyrocketing in revenue. Other than the Triple Crown races, very little of it is bet on horse racing – almost all on pro ball games.
I too, once thought that the ‘sport’ could be fixed, and I still entertain that notion occasionally. Logic, though, tells me it’s patently impossible. Way too far gone.
-Joe
Remembering all of those adjectives that are in the dictionary that describe horseracing whenever a person has a “delusional-thinking attack” will be enough to repulse anyone who is not completely morally depraved. Horseracing is DECEPTIVE, depraved, demented, detestable, despicable, degenerate, vomit-worthy, and on and on the list goes.
Horseracing is a cesspool of animal cruelty and racketeering. Horseracing is cruel indifference to the horses. It’s a criminal enterprise. This is a given.