Saratoga does not open for business until mid July – but already two kills. Ami’s Curlin, says the Gaming Commission, was euthanized Saturday for “laminitis in all four feet.” Ami’s had just turned two and was being prepped (at Saratoga) for his debut, with his most recent “workout” May 23. Imagine how much pain this poor boy was in: laminitis – an inflammatory disease (see this as it pertains to horseracing) – in all four feet. Vile.
The Saratoga ’23 Death Watch
Kaon, May 26, stall – “euthanized [undisclosed reason]” (three years old)
Ami’s Curlin, Jun 10, stall – “laminitis, all four feet” (two years old)
$100,000 yearling purchase too. If that’s how they treat those horses what chance do the rest of them have? Sad
So, they knew he was having at least some problems in the feet and “trained” him anyway?
Most race horse owners have more money than brains, and effectively let their ‘trainers’ – and I say that disparagingly, knowing much more about this ‘game’ than I did a year or so ago- handle every aspect of the care of their charges. Most owners who can afford to spend $100,000 on a yearling can easily buy 20 or more at that price just out of their “play money”.
For most owners, winning the purse money, paying for the horse’s upkeep, expenses and ‘care’ – another term that is really an oxymoron in horse racing- means nothing to them, but is only a path to get their pictures taken in the winner’s circle – and brag to their well-heeled friends.
Trainers fleece their owners regularly, particularly their most ‘monied’ clients, knowing that these characters will spend whatever it takes to get a ‘winner’ – and the horses be damned.
Oh, they do love their horses, though, but much as you and I might love a favorite toy, a new car, a vacation home – something to be discarded when it wears out or we tire of it – but they are absolutely incapable of thinking of these wonderful creatures as kind, sentient, living beings.
I used to love this game – and everything about it, and at one time I even thought that it could be fixed! Until, of course, I came to realize the dark underbelly of horse racing that I can’t ever un-see, but exists everywhere in this game, from the cheapest claiming tracks to the ‘hallowed’ grounds of Saratoga and the Kentucky Derby. It’s just awful.
-Joe