This year:
At Churchill May 6 – that would be Kentucky Derby Day – two horses were killed: Chloe’s Dream, Freezing Point.
At Pimlico May 20 – that would be Preakness Day – one horse was killed: Havnameltdown.
At Belmont Jun 10 – that would be Belmont Stakes Day – one horse was killed: Excursionniste (and another was killed there in the 1st race the very next day).
At Monmouth Jul 22 – that would be Haskell Stakes Day – one horse was killed: Dreaming of Toga. (The winner of the Haskell, Geaux Rocket Ride, himself just died.)
At Saratoga Aug 26 – that would be Travers Day – two horses were killed: Nobel, New York Thunder.
These, ladies and gentlemen, are U.S. Horseracing’s biggest days of the year. Which brings us to its two final biggest days – the Breeders’ Cup, being held at Santa Anita this weekend. In back-to-back races yesterday, two horses were ambulanced off: Mountain Bear and Bus Buzz (his note also included the usually-fatal “went wrong”). With the above as backdrop, what do you suppose the odds were of either being euthanized at the track? Yeah, pretty slim. And indeed, BloodHorse is reporting that both are “being evaluated,” with at least one – Bus Buzz- already scheduled for surgery (you can just go ahead and click on the Geaux link to see how those things typically work out).
Here is my bottom-line message to the media and the public: If they can’t prevent kills on their most-celebrated days, at their most-prestigious tracks, of their most-prized horses, they can’t prevent kills. Period.
Yes, Patrick, it is a “given” that horses will be fatally injured when exploited in such abusive ways as this industry abuses horses for racing and wagering.
The industry insiders know this, of course. The veterinarians and the other people in racing have been knowing that horses breakdown for literally centuries. As an example of what has been known for centuries, I read from what I believe is a reliable source that the practice of “pin-firing” was done as early as the 1500s (Fifteen-Hundreds).
I also read that certain barbarians would put a red-hot something in a horse’s anus to make the horse run faster (in centuries past). Who knows what these modern-day barbarians are doing to the horses besides what we can see out in the open…?!
Since the history books and the racing publications are not going to publish (feel-good) stories about the thousands of Thoroughbred racehorses that didn’t make the Grade I, II & III Levels of horseracing, your efforts to get the information out to the public at large is extremely necessary and also much appreciated especially because what happens in horse racing is nothing to feel good about!
The barbarism to horses must be stopped and people must not be ignorant of what is done to the horses to get them to perform.
Unless their hand is forced, they will gladly continue the killing. WE bear the responsibility to educate the public and pressure legislators so that they will see it for what it is. Wholesale slaughter.
Bus Buzz left foreleg injured. Surgery scheduled for Sunday. Bus is a gelding.
Mountain Bear came in second in race 9.