Racing at Laurel has officially been canceled for the entire weekend. And now it’s beginning to make more sense. Bigmancan, who was a “pulled up lame, vanned off” Thursday, is confirmed dead, the second kill at Laurel that day – actually, in back-to-back races (Golden Pegasus preceded him). Bigman would have turned six tomorrow.
As mentioned yesterday, this is the second time in two weeks that Laurel has had to suspend racing, with each prompted by multiple kills (on Apr 8, two horses perished during morning training). There is, as you can probably imagine, a lot of finger pointing, with the horsemen blaming the track and the track suggesting otherwise:
Laurel owner Maryland Jockey Club (aka Stronach Group): “MJC will also be discussing plans for implementation of updated safety and veterinary protocols….”
Tim Keefe, representing the owners and trainers (to The Racing Biz): “These are not the result of horsemen that are sending out bad horses. They’re just not.”
And now the truth: From breeding for speed, to employing pubescent bodies, to the incessant grinding – not to mention commodification – of those bodies, to forcing them to run at an unnatural rate, in an unnatural way, and through unnatural means, horseracing guarantees a certain level of killing. Guarantees. And what’s more, the racing people know it. What you are seeing is what has heretofore been their tried and true when up against it: distract, deflect, dissemble, deceive. Except now, largely because of us, it’s not so easy to get away with it.
Oh, my goodness, DEATHS in horseracing?! It’s an
.
.
absolutely,
.
.
100%,
.
.
guaranteed,
.
.
“done deal,” for sure!!
‘Wishing this particular track’s (and all tracks!) TEMPORARY suspension of horseracing could just “morph” into ………… a PERMANENT cancellation/closure!!
There is no way to prevent catastrophic injuries and deaths in horse racing. Anyone saying otherwise is lying.
We know from so much information published here and other sources that the owners and trainers of racehorses send out PRE-INJURED horses to perform as though they are/were replaceable objects all the time. For this cringe-worthy representative of the owners and trainers, Tim Keefe, to deny that they are sending out “bad horses” is evil at its core.
Tim Keefe is not telling the truth and anyone paying attention and following the information trail knows this.
Take the case of MONGOLIAN GROOM who was well-documented to have hairline fractures BEFORE the owners and trainer sent him out to die in the BREEDERS’ CUP race at Santa Anita in 2019. If anyone has not seen the PDF of the Evaluation of MONGOLIAN GROOM, it was available online and I assume that it still is. The evaluation done by Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Bramlage of Rood & Riddle in Kentucky contains X-rays of the fractures in MONGOLIAN GROOM both BEFORE the BC race and AFTER the BC race.
After reading the evaluation and following along with Horseracing Wrongs, checking information on Equibase and other sources, a person would have to have rocks in their head to not be able to see that these owners and trainers send out horses to breakdown catastrophically to die or be killed by the so-called humane euthanasia as a matter of routine.
Good on all of you who stood up for the horses in Maryland. You’re making a difference for the horses.
Horse racing is an UNNECESSARY waste of life. This whole evil shitshow MUST be forcibly taken down.Nothing in the world makes me angrier than animals being harmed.
Such a waste of lives everyday for these poor horses. They are owned by losers, trained by losers, rode by losers, the vets are basically losers and we all know that the racing commissions are just a bunch of idiots. The sad sad thing is that every day more horses are killed by these f*ckers. Horse racing needs to end – it is only always about the money – never about the horses. This is a sad state of affairs. All of the people that took a stand in Maryland you deserve medals each and every one of you – the horses thank you as well. Be safe out there!!
As if Laurel didn’t inflict enough carnage on these “beloved athletes” on Thursday, it’s now being reported that a THIRD horse was vanned off their (super-safe, HISA-approved) death track: This one, Excellorator, who finished third in Race 7, *might* actually survive
Why Laurel’s highly-accurate, eagle-eyed chartwriter failed to notice the equine ambulance’s triple-trip has not yet been explained by Maryland racing officials. But all of them surely knew what a disaster they had on their, um…consciences(?) as they gave the go-ahead for the final race to be run, anyway.