I received the following after Zelenskyy Strong was injured and vanned off at Monmouth Sunday. (I have a FOIA request on Zelenskyy pending.)
“Hi Patrick. I’m not a horse racing fan; I’m not knowledgeable about it at all. But I am an animal person. Yesterday, friends and I went to Monmouth Park for a wine festival. The horse racing was secondary. But we did view the horses prior to race #8. One of them was clearly distressed. He was very agitated, hard to handle, kicking a bit, drooling. Then prior to the race, he didn’t want to go into the gate. They forced him in.
“The horse got hurt and was taken away at the end of the race in the equine ambulance. This horse was clearly crying out for help and was ignored. The horse’s name is Zelenskyy Strong. I do not know what happened after they took him away, but I am furious that he and others like him who are not in the condition to race are being forced to. I found your site while trying to find out what happened to him. While I had been neutral on horse racing, I am now vehemently opposed to it. Thank you for what you do.” – Bob Beucler
Thank you, Bob.
Replay…horse #4 backpedaling and then off to the side. Lost rider but horse still.on all fours.
This is at least the second time Monmouth has done this in a short period of time…the previous identical incident was a young filly. CHARGES must be brought up on Monmouth.
Monmouth, a track that revered Noriega and welcomed him and his criminal activity back each season tells all one needs to know about that place!
Correction: Navarro not Noriega.
Is there anything we can do here? Perhaps report the owners? Will that do any good? My guess is that it won’t, but the people responsible for this are less than human, obviously.
An interesting comment from a new reader, “Yesterday, friends and I went to Monmouth Park for a wine festival. The horse racing was secondary.” – this is also very true at Saratoga, where like Monmouth, the grounds and surrounding areas are beautiful, attracting people for a wonderful summer afternoon of relaxation, sometimes knowing very little [or caring] about the racing in general.
But now, of course, the idiots who run the horse racing industry in the US, are doing their level best to shoot themselves in the foot.
Had they shown even the slightest bit of care about the horse’s obviously distressed condition, they’d have scratched him out of the race. Then reader Bob and his group would have never witnessed this ugly spectacle, and would have remained, like most of the general public, completely unaware of the horrors and maltreatment of these animals that occurs at race tracks across the country on a daily basis.
Bob, as a new reader, please allow me point out that I am not an animal activist, but I was a full-time horse player and bettor for over 30 years. I’ve placed bets and visited almost every major [and some minor] race tracks during that time, but after the many cheating scandals, culminating in the take-down of the Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit in 2021, and the subsequent suspension of top trainer Bob Baffert, I could no longer ignore the dark underbelly of horse racing.
-Joe
Thank you for having a heart for the horses, Bob Beucler. It’s refreshing to hear that you’re vehemently opposed to horse racing because horse racing is horse abuse.
How can we stop this cruel sport of racing horses as soon as possible? This is the only solution to stop all the torture and killing of horses.