The CHRB reports that Navy Queen was killed training at Golden Gate Sunday. She was six and had been put to the whip 28 times. For Golden Gate, this is kill #13 on the year – but fourth in just the past two weeks. As I’ve said, can’t close soon enough.
At Grants Pass yesterday, Queen Breezy, said the chartwriter, “broke down on the second turn.” While this industry phrase is used far less than when I started, make no mistake it almost always means dead. This Queen, too, is (was) six. In this same race, Bete Rouge, four, fell over Queen. No word on her status.
This is horseracing.
Oh my beautiful state of Oregon! Queen of the bushes with its 1/2 mile bull ring tracks which we can`t stand! Eliminate all tax based subsidies for this “crooked, crummy,gamboling game” Those simulcast taxes subsidies are the only thing keeping racing alive in my state.Stop all of the subsidies & use the $$ for better health care & education of the people!
Actually, the monetary subsides, this ‘last-to-first’ payout, [along with all the cheating & doping, naturally] are really hurting this game more than most realize. But really, it’s time to go. This so-called ‘sport’ has denigrated itself into a lying, cheating, harmful enterprise that siphons off, vampirically, on the taxpayer’s dollars.
Golden Gate Fields is another one of those tracks that has long since seen its day, and even with the propped-up subsidiary money, still can’t turn a profit. Good riddance, I say. In my betting days, I always avoid GGF like the plague.
-Joe
Joe, I’m not sure if horseracing is that much worse than it ever was as far as the lying, cheating, doping and fixing races goes. My perception of the vileness in horseracing has changed due to the technology we have now and the information from the Freedom Of Information Act requests reported on this site.
I understand that you have several years of experience with placing bets on racehorses and through your experience, Joe, you may have a much different perception than I do. Or, maybe your perception is not all that much different, but I did read about certain types of lying and cheating in horseracing in magazines and books that were written before 1990. The book was about stuff that was done to horses in the earlier part of the 20th Century.
There was also a report on television of an actual case of a racehorse victimized by one type of cheating that I read about in a book that discussed some of the things that were done to fix the outcome of horse races.
The type of cheating was blatant cruelty to horses. Someone would put sponges up a horse’s nostrils, so naturally that horse would not run so well. I can’t even imagine doing such a horrible thing to a horse!
John Walsh profiled a specific horse that was a victim of this hideous cruelty and cheating and race fixing on his TV program, AMERICA’S MOST WANTED.
I don’t know if they ever found out who did that to the horse.
Wanda,
Not that it ever was a squeaky-clean, 100% all ‘above-board’ sport, and yes, most folks always had an inkling of its dark underbelly, but I firmly believe it’s gotten worse [yes, if that’s possible] over the past several years.
Certainly, I am not naïve enough to think that up until recently horse-racing was a wonderful, clean, up-and-up, all-American pastime. Far from it. But I must admit that when I was betting I knew of some of the “tricks” that were being carried on behind the scenes, and since I was making money I often chose to look the other way.
No, I’m not proud of everything I’ve done in my past, but I am man enough to admit when I’ve made mistakes.
However, this first-to-last payoff is simply an incentive for owners, trainers and other “connections’ to run infirm, unsound horses knowing that they’ll pick up a check no matter what, when previously, one’s horses actually had to compete to earn any purse money. Trainers would take better care of their horses, because let’s face it, a sick, unsound horse running in a race knowing it can’t possibly even get 3rd place is a complete waste of time.
Obviously, not any more.
Drugs have become more effective of late, as well. And I mean ‘effective’ in that some are much harder to trace from a post-race urinalysis. If at all.
But yeah, it’s worse now. The only upside is that race tracks are shuttering more quickly than ever before, a good sign, for sure, but certainly not for the horse racing industry.
-Joe
Ewww. The creepy racing officials at Grants Pass apparently decided to rephrase their wording of the crash. Guess they figured “broke down” was a little too, um, direct a descriptor for at least one of their victims’ injuries. So they just altered the chart. Brilliant.
Nothing like horse racing “transparency” in the age of the absurdly-named HISA — whose most important endeavor is to hide each and every killed Thoroughbred from the public. (See how super-SAFE we’ve made racing for its equine victims? Really. It’s a big improvement!)
Grants Pass, Oct. 2, 2023, Race 3: Out of 6 horses entered, 1 was scratched by a Veterinarian, 1 was scratched by Stewards, 2 horses Did Not Finish, and 1 was claimed. What a train wreck!