Racing’s Gift to Horse on His Third Birthday: Death

By |

According to the chart for the 5th at Turfway January 27, Aerator “took a bad step first turn, bobbled, [was] pulled up in distress and vanned off.” We now know (stewards) that “the horse suffered a catastrophic injury to his left foreleg and was humanely euthanized.” It was “the horse’s” third birthday. What more can I add?

4 Comments

  1. horses are raced too young!!!!!!!!!!! poor babies dont even have a chance for their bones to grow strong! ABUSE! FOR HUMAN ENTERTAINMENT!

  2. Why would anyone in the horseracing industry care about the TRUE birthday of a Thoroughbred colt when the whole horseracing industry recognizes January 1st as being the birthday of all Thoroughbreds? It appears obvious that they don’t even care about the longevity of any racehorse, so why would they care about the day this colt was born?
    Kenneth McPeek, who has lots of experience at cutting short the lives of Thoroughbred racehorses, is listed as the trainer. Why would he care which day he ran a horse into the ground?

  3. Because the catchall birthdate of thoroughbred raced horses is January 1, I wonder how it was figured out that January 27 was actually Aerator’s third birthday?

    Does anyone know if a raced horse is born on, like, April 1, is the birthdate retroactive to January 1 (making the horse 8 months old on January 1 (abusive) or is forwarded to the next January 1 (one year and 8 months, less abusive)?

    From the web: “All Thoroughbred racehorses have the same birthday unless they live in different hemispheres. Horses born in the Northern Hemisphere are considered born on January 1st, and horses born in Southern Hemisphere celebrate their birthday on August 1st.” I believe that in August 1, it’s cold in the Southern Hemisphere. No difference, same old, same old garbage, nothing to “celebrate.”

    • The biological birthday of Thoroughbreds is recorded with The Jockey Club. The American Quarter Horse Association records the biological birthday of Quarter Horse foals. Each breed registry records the biological birthday of each foal that is registered with their respective breed association, club or registry. Sometimes this is referred to as the Stud Book.
      As far as competition goes in horse shows or horse racing or any kind of competition, they go by the Universal Birthday of January 1st.
      AERATOR having a biological birthday of January 27, 2020 was considered to be 3-years-old on January 1st, 2023. If his birthday would have been April 1st, 2020, he would still be considered a 3-year-old on January 1st of 2023.
      Using the Universal Birthday for human children and teenagers competing in junior rodeos and gymkhanas is a standard practice as well.
      In so-called sports involving horses, longevity of the horses is not always a high priority. With heavy use, especially starting out at 18 months to 24 months of age, the likelihood of the horses going lame and unsound is extremely high. That’s one of the reasons why they make painkillers like “bute” also known as phenylbutazone. Phenylbutazone or “bute” is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (also referred to as an NSAID) and contributes to ulcers in horses. It’s a vicious cycle.

Comments are closed.