Ultimate Diva has been confirmed killed at Golden Gate Friday. Curiously, the chart was changed from the initial “euthanized” to just “vanned off.” In any event, she is dead, at the age of three. Also dead: 4-year-old Class Proof, a “went wrong” at Turf Jan 28. Class, by the way, was “claimed” – sold – for $4,500 immediately prior to dying.
This is horseracing.
Ultimate Diva after she won the race. Sad sad sad and disgusting.
Nancy, I agree with you that What happened to Ultimate Diva is sad sad sad and disgusting. Even winners are losers in the cruel activity of horse racing. For example, Barbaro won the 2006 Kentucky Derby. He was then raced in the Preakness Stakes (the so-called second leg of the so-called Triple Crown), but after being forced out of the starting gate (as all raced thoroughbreds are – it’s not normal for a horse to go from a complete standstill to a fast gallop immediately) poor Barbaro fractured three bones in the fetlock of his right hind leg. Despite the best veterinary care in the U.S. (and avoid the tragic mistake of surgery on Ruffian), Barbaro eventually got laminitis and had to be euthanized anyway.
I feel like the horses are more or less the same as “lab rats” because what is done to them to attempt to save them from the deliberately inflicted injuries is an experiment of sorts. During the process of attempting to save the horse, the veterinarians may (or may not) learn something new that they can use to prolong the life of a horse that is so injured that euthanasia would be the usual decision.
Of course, the animals suffer but that is nothing new. It’s all animal abuse to deliberately put horses in the position of having no choice in how they are treated. In horseracing, it’s all deliberate and routine abuse, brutality and cruelty. Making horses suffer is “normal” in this industry. Locking horses up in stalls for 23 hours a day is egregiously cruel to horses. They should not be locked up in a stall for longer than 10 hours a day. Racing is cruel.
Two thoughts:
1. In the Digital Age, Golden Gate Killing Fields altered the official chart in order to make themselves appear less deadly. (Good thinking, Stronachs. You monsters.)
2. Class Proof probably wasn’t gonna survive his servitude with Juan Silva/Tijuana Racing Stables anyway — at Turf Pairo’Deaths, or any other racing hellhole.
So sorry for both victims.
Last week an owner relinquished a beautiful dark bay gelding and the horse is now retired and safe. He will turn 3yrs. old soon. He never placed in his 3 starts which were claiming races. He went from a 25,000 claim to 16,000 and 10,000 in his 3rd and final start. Lucky for him, he was not claimed because we know, all too well, how the claiming game works. Suffice to say, he would continue to drop in “value” while being pushed to the max…
The person who hauled him said he was a “perfect gentleman”. How many “perfect gentlemen” are hauled across the borders or hauled from the tracks to the land fills?!!
This game is a disgraceful cesspool of corruption and animal cruelty operating as a legitimate autonomous gambling business that would fail but for subsidies.
Time to face this reality and stop the charade.
In my opinion, this two-year-old perfect gentleman is one of the lucky ones in that he was rescued from the daily routine cruelty and certain premature death by abuse caused by the racing industry fiends.
Thank you, Rose, for sharing the story of this colt.