Friday, Hoosier Shooter was scratched from a race at Vernon Downs. Saturday, says the Gaming Commission, he was “found dead in the barn.” Strange enough, but adding to this, it has been classified as a “breakdown.” I will of course make inquiries, but this commission is notoriously unresponsive. Hoosier was 12 years old. Poor boy.
12 years an abused slave. Wonder when the last time was this poor guy had a taste of green grass…maybe as a weanling?? Disgusting.
Stranger still, they haven’t bothered to add him to their list of DEAD horses — even though they admit he was Found Dead in Barn. Guess the Gaming Commission is not real eager to surpass the 60 kills mark just yet.
(Can’t say I blame ’em. They’re in the midst of what can only be described as an unmitigated DISASTER, the poor horse-killing enablers.) .
I always feel these deaths are sinister. Sinister a very harsh word but that’s what this whole business is,isn’t it?
Nancy, I agree with you. Harsh words are appropriate for harsh violations of Animal Welfare Codes.
If someone takes something that belongs to someone else without asking for consent or approval and without the owner’s knowledge until after the fact, it’s the same as “stealing” and I don’t think saying that they “stole” it is a harsh word for it. I think it is telling the truth of the matter.
Patrick, I just read Thoughbred Daily News and the trainer of NY Thunder left Saratoga immediately following the accident and drove back to his barn in Monmouth. He can’t stop crying and said if someone would shoot him in the leg and the horse would come back he’d do it. But the point I have is the comment section apparently there were several spectators at the finish line and saw the whole thing. They are now sworn off any horse race,betting,etc. They are DONE. and it was a passionate description of their feelings.
Thank you, Nancy. I’ve been seeing stories like that too.
I would take the sobbing trainer story with an entire salt lick – they drive these horses beyond their limits day in and day out, are complacent if not outright involved in the drugging of the horses, and send sick and lame horses out to race on the off chance the horse ‘might’ make it across the finish line before collapsing and bring in a few bucks on the way out. They all have crocodile tears and a sob story when the cameras are on, but the “tragedies” never stop them from doing it again and again and again.
Noticed it too. Many of those “new to racing” who witnessed even one of these recent Saratoga horrors are describing post-traumatic stress-type symptoms from the experience.
Of course, the unofficial public response from racing’s mouthpieces to them is, “Oh, these were the absolute WORST ever in the history of breakdowns. But, really, events like this are just so, so exceedingly RARE. If you’ll only give us another try, you might not have to see this level of gruesome, sickening, nightmare-inducing carnage again for at least another week or so. So rare! Come back! Please?”
Hoosier Shooter, 12 years of hell, likely, is gone because human sociopaths roam the earth. I hope he’s far better off dead, now. RIP. We grieve for you.
Unfortunately,you are right Martha. I agree that these horrible monsters that put horses like him through hell are sociopaths. Horses deserve a better life than this. This is a sad tragedy!
FYI (for anybody else that didn’t know this): Vernon Downs Racing,
4229 Stuhlman Road,
Vernon, New York 13476
(315) 829-3400
My hope is that other people with the willingness and the capability to bring this information forward out of the dark into anything that resembles a spotlight will use this information in the quest to bring these “organized horseracing criminals” to some semblance of justice, as opposed to “they get away with murder” because relatively very few people really know what is going on in this dark corner of the world. Frankly, I didn’t know which state this racetrack is in; I had to look it up. Thank you, Patrick, for reporting on this unacceptable cruelty to a harness racing horse.