In the 10th race at Parx yesterday, Good Culture, says the chart, “engaged the leader on the final turn, suffered a catastrophic injury to his right front leg and was subsequently euthanized.” Dead. He was five years old, and this was his 28th time under the whip.
What happened at Churchill Downs in the week leading up to, and the actual day of, the Kentucky Derby (7 kills in 10 days) should have forever put to rest the notion that there’s any meaningful difference between the so-called top-tier tracks and the rest. Besides, as the horses are ever being shuttled among the various tracks, and indeed, across state lines, U.S. Racing should be viewed as a single entity. Good Culture provides a noteworthy example. While his final race came at pedestrian Parx, prior to that he was raced at the Who’s Who of U.S. tracks, including all three Triple Crown venues (Churchill, Pimlico, Belmont), as well as Saratoga and Keeneland. In short, his death, this kill, is the industry’s.
Creative Force dead yesterday at York UK.Another beautiful.horse that was shuttled here,there and everywhere. And the media reporting how heartbroken people are that he was fatally injured. If so, why continue this barbaric sport anywhere in the world???
I’m sure no one wants to hear this, but breeders have bred all the sturdiness and stamina out of our thoroughbreds. Add to that, medications and in many cases illegal substances, plus the fact they race before their bone structure is fully developed. The horses we see today are not fit to do anything but stand in their paddocks. They are not the equines of a century ago. They are not fit to work and not fit to run. Breeders and the industry have destroyed what God created and intended to be strong resilient beasts. When human beings inject their interference into the animal kingdom the result is never good. That is what has happened here and it’s tragic beyond words.
The rules of racing and the laws of nature are in direct conflict with each other. Futurities are for 2-year-olds and Derbies are for 3-year-olds. That is the way it has always been. The Kentucky Derby was started in the 1800s for 3 year olds so starting them out under saddle carrying 100+ pounds of a whip-wielding human being has been standard procedure for a very long time. This is fundamentally wrong for the horses. Racing them way too young, before they’re fully formed, is the way it has always been which has brought this atrocious gambling game to where it is now — more and more young and underdeveloped colts and fillies dying at the Grade One Level races. (The overall population of Thoroughbreds in North America has declined significantly since 1986.)
The mortality rate in racing horses is not something the industry as a whole is willing to admit to or fully disclose to the public. Only on rare occasions does someone in this industry blurt out the truth of the matter. A veterinarian and more recently a TVG employee, namely Ken Rudulph, have openly admitted to the death of racehorses as being part of the game. The logical implication is that it isn’t possible to have horseracing without having many horses being killed in the process. The racing industry as a whole wants people to believe that horse deaths rarely happen and go to great lengths to hide the truth.
Now Ken Rudulph will not be welcome to fill the position he had been filling. The industry as a whole has a “public relations playbook” that this particular employee threw out the window, so to speak, and admitted the truth of the matter to the public; the truth that it isn’t possible to have horseracing without having “death” (which could include a human jockey here and there but mostly horses).
Hiding the mortality rate of racehorses has been a job within a job in this egregiously barbaric and cruel industry.