Through a FOIA request to the Arizona Dept. of Gaming, I have confirmed the following kills at that state’s tracks thus far this year. (I am posting in installments.)
Last Gifted Eagle, Jan 5, Turf R
“[Multiple] complete pelvic and vertebral fractures with bone exposure and spinal canal hemorrhage.” Also: “chronic ulcerative gastritis.” Then this: “marked chronic osteoarthrosis of the right intercarpal joint [which] may have caused [him] to shift more weight to the hind end, which predisposed to the pelvic injuries.”
Last Gifted Eagle was just two years old; this was his first ever race.
Kat’s Hitman, Jan 12, Turf R
“Severe acute transverse and comminuted fractures of lateral and medial proximal
sesamoids with tendon tear and intraarticular, intramuscular, and subcutaneous hemorrhage.” Also: “osteoarthritis [both front limbs]; chronic gastric ulceration.”
Kat’s Hitman was five years old.
Rail Hugger, Jan 22, Turf S
“Horse was examined Friday, diagnosed with cellulitis. Saturday, horse had a fever. Sunday morning horse was found dead in its stall.” Also: “chronic ulcers.”
Rail Hugger was five years old.
Drama Diva, Jan 25, Turf S
“Horse was found dead in its stall in morning. It had been fine the night before, no signs of illness. There was some blood noted on the gate, the side panel of the stall and below the nose of the horse on the ground.” Cause: “Fatal coagulopathy that resulted in multisystemic hemorrhage affecting the respiratory tract most severely.”
Drama Diva was just two years old.
Graze Stone, Jan 25, Turf T
“Horse got loose, jumped the rail, fell into a drainage ditch and was trapped: blunt-force trauma, brain hemorrhage, pulmonary hemorrhage.”
Graze Stone was two years old.
I’ve said it before: these are the types of injuries you’d expect to find on horses involved in a high speed collision with a vehicle – or from stepping on a land mine.
Anybody reading the necropsy reports of these horses should be horrified at the suffering these victims of racing abuse endured during their short lives.
A 2yr. old, Last Gifted Eagle, with chronic degeneration of his right intercarpal joint, chronic ulcerative gastritis and then the total destruction of his pelvis and vertebrae with hemorrhage into his spinal canal…
What were these people doing to this 2 yr. old that his poor worn – out – body just disintegrated in his very first
race??!
Two year old Graze Stone, out of his mind with terror, jumps to his death and 2 yr. old, Drama Diva bleeds to death in her stall because her blood suddenly has a fatal coagulation problem. WHAT!?
Tomorrow we will have the annual “run for the roses”, the epitome of whitewashing this obscenity .
Exactly, Rose. Thank you.
Obscene is the perfect word for horse racing, Rose. I cannot get my head around the fact that we, as a so-called civilized society, can allow such an industry to exist.
There’s a saying for all this carnage: It’s called “Pure Evil”.
Front page of the WSJ today reads:
“Cloud Hangs Over Derby Week After Horse Deaths”.
Maybe there is a chink in the armor!!?
There is some significant coverage regarding the horse deaths, and last I looked at a yahoo article on them, there were 77 comments and all but maybe 6 were anti- horse racing!
Progress!!
The veterinarians (and others) know that these injuries described above are specific to forcing young, impressionable and UNDERDEVELOPED colts and fillies to GALLOP carrying extra weight on their backs while being threatened with the whip and whipped. Certain types of injuries are specific to certain types of activities. The only thing that is unusual about any of these injuries to these horses that were NOT ALLOWED to mature before they were brutalized is that WE ARE READING ABOUT THEM ON THIS BLOG.
Horse racing is animal cruelty and the Kentucky Derby, being a high-profile race, will be televised and the daily routine cruelty to horses will be glamorized as the racing of Thoroughbreds always has been glamorized by the Jockey Club and other groups and individuals.
The truth is there is nothing glamorous about BRUTALIZING ANY OF THESE YOUNG and UNDERDEVELOPED COLTS AND FILLIES for racing and gambling.
These hideous injuries to these horses above were a consequence of human beings abusing and brutalizing young, underdeveloped baby horses from birth to “breaking and training” and racing.
These INJURIES and killings are the natural consequences of forcing young horses to perform beyond what is natural for the horses, and is the part of horse racing that the industry insiders don’t want you to see or know about! That is why this site is so important! It is essential to educate the public of the truth and the reality of horse racing!
Horseracing is brutal for the horses. It should not be glamorized. It should be punished and banned completely!
Animal Welfare Code violators should be in jail.
If there were any justice for the horses, one thing is that the people at the Derby would be arrested and hauled off to jail for Animal Cruelty and Unethical Business Conduct, etc.
There must be quite a bit of negative publicity because even my mother, who does not follow Racing in any way, shape, or form mentioned she saw an article questioning the safety of racing ahead of the Derby.
Yes, there are quite a few different articles if you Google it. I didn’t read every article or watch every video on this, but so far, I have not heard or seen any reports that report the fact that 5 (five) horses died. So far of what I have seen and heard is that 4 (four) horses died MYSTERIOUSLY.
That irks me to say the least. The “news” reporters/reports do not mention CODE OF HONOR, the FIFTH horse killed by racing during Derby Death Week.
Saffie Joseph, Jr. had two horses die of collapse for a “mysterious” cause so he’s out completely; all of the horses he had scheduled to run have been scratched from Churchill Downs. One of them was entered to run in the Derby.
Two more horses have been scratched from the Derby due to having a fever, a temperature. That leaves 19 horses entered to run.
No word so far that I know of why the two horses have a fever. That must add a little more mystery to the dark cloud, because so far I have not seen any information about the cause of the fever in these two scratched horses. After all, they’ve got ROOD & RIDDLE and how many veterinarians here and there and everywhere making their living off of the suffering inflicted on these horses. So with all of that knowledge and experience with abused and doped to death racehorses, it’s got to be a big mystery, of course.
Correction: CODE OF KINGS was the fifth horse killed by racing during Derby Death Week. Sorry.
I managed to find an article that does include CODE OF KINGS in the death count in the week leading up to the Derby; “The Sporting News” an article written by Edward Sutelan, “Kentucky Derby horse death investigation, explained: Why horses are dying at Churchill Downs during week of racing”