4-year-old Foreign Influence is dead after “falling heavily” at Aqueduct yesterday – euthanized where he lay. Because it is now the New York Racing Association’s standard operating procedure to whitewash all of their kills, I’m including this still shot sent to me:
With all the money that Lisa Lazarus gets for saying that HISA is here to “clean up” horseracing, she cannot and will not ever stop the daily routine abuse that is inherent to horseracing. Killing horses is part of the game.
David Jacobson back to his horse-killing ways.
An interesting article on David Jacobson’s late father, Howard ‘Buddy’ Jacobson, from the May 17, 1989 edition of the New York Times:
Such great people, eh?
“Howard (Buddy) Jacobson, a leading trainer of thoroughbred race horses who was convicted in 1980 of killing a rival for the affections of a Manhattan model, died of bone cancer early yesterday at the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo. He was 58 years old and had been sent to the medical center on April 19 from the New York State prison at Attica.
“A spokesman for the State Department of Correctional Services, James Flateau, said Mr. Jacobson, who had been in state prisons since 1980, had been in the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility since 1984. Was Serving 25-Year Term
“Mr. Jacobson was serving 25 years to life for murdering a restaurateur, John Tupper, a neighbor in the Manhattan East Side apartment house where Mr. Jacobson had lived for several years with the model, 23-year-old Melanie Cain.
“Miss Cain left Mr. Jacobson and moved into Mr. Tupper’s apartment. Two weeks later Mr. Tupper’s body was found by firefighters in a wooden crate that had been set afire in a Bronx lot on Aug. 6, 1978. The victim had been shot four times, stabbed and bludgeoned before the body was dumped.
“Mr. Jacobson and a man accused as his accomplice, Salvatore Prainito, were arrested shortly after the body was found as the two rode in Mr. Jacobson’s white Cadillac two miles south of the lot. Found Guilty of Murder
“After a sensational 11-week trial that ended in April 1980, Mr. Prainito was acquitted and Mr. Jacobson was found guilty of second-degree murder. While awaiting sentencing, he escaped from the Brooklyn House of Detention through a ruse and fled to California.
“He was seized nearly six weeks later after a transcontinental manhunt and was sentenced to one to seven years of additional time for his escape. He maintained that he was not guilty of the killing, and his lawyers were seeking a new trial at the time.
“Mr. Jacobson, who was born in Brooklyn and dropped out of high school in his early teens, had a lofty career in horse training, though he admitted to being less interested in improving the breed than in increasing his bank account.
”I don’t even like horses,” he once said. ”If they put on kangaroo racing, I’d claim some kangaroos.”
“But after reaching the heights in racing, he was suspended in Maryland for selling a horse in violation of state rules and then barred, in effect, in New York State for five years when the New York Racing Association denied him stall space for his horses.
“He had come to thoroughbred racing naturally. His mother’s three brothers – Hirsch, Eugene and Sidney Jacobs – were trainers. After quitting school, he became a ”hot walker,” a stable hand who walks horses after exercise runs. By his 21st birthday, he was a licensed trainer. Scornful but Successful
“He annoyed the racing establishment by referring to the sport of kings as ”a business, not a sport.” But his horses won more races than any other trainers for three consecutive years in the 1960’s, and he was New York State’s leading trainer for five years.
“Racing stewards in Maryland suspended him for 45 days in 1969 for selling a horse he had claimed in New York before a required 60-day waiting period. Although the New York rules required a wait of only 30 days, which Mr. Jacobson had observed, the New York stewards honored the Maryland suspension.
“When his suspension was up, he found himself unable to obtain stall space in New York. He sued the racing association in 1974 but lost after a jury trial. A year later the association relented and gave him stall space.
”Ever since I began to speak out on behalf of the little people in racing,” he said at the time, ”I have been exposed to increasing attacks from wealthy and powerful men who rule the racing establishment.”
“During the years he was out of racing in New York, he ran a ski lodge in Vermont. And after he and his wife divorced in 1968, he had gone into real estate, buying Manhattan apartment houses. One purchase was the seven-story building on East 84th Street where he lived with Miss Cain.
Mr. Tupper rented the duplex apartment across the hall from Mr. Jacobson in 1978, and in July of that year, Miss Cain moved in with him.
“. . .a star prosecution witness in the trial, [who] is now 33 years old and has a daughter, was quoted earlier this year as saying that she still believed Mr. Jacobson was guilty of the murder, though he denied it during his entire imprisonment.
“There was no immediate information on survivors.”
Just lovely.
-Joe
So, Aqueduct’s infamous favorite son is back at his favorite track!
“Let the games begin” and God help the horses!
I thought he “retired” a few years ago?!
I guess I have not been keeping up.
This is so heartbreaking…beyond words. This poor animal. 💔Racing is not a sport, it is abuse.
The following is from the article “David Jacobson Retires from Racing” by Jeremy Balan from The Bloodhorse, Jan. 2, 2019:
“Jacobson began his racing career in the seventies, then was away from the game for 25 years, in part because in 1982 the NY State Racing And Wagering Board revoked his owner and training licenses citing failure to give proper care to 6-year-old gelding Hugable Tom.”
The situation was also investigated by the ASPCA. But, the main focus of the article is Jacobson’s “successful” career. Big surprise!!!
I read in other reports the horse was starved and some workers tried to feed him. You know It had to be an extreme situation to merit revocation of his licenses by racing!!
Over the yrs. people have brought up many, many names of horses claimed by him and just “disappeared”. He was also known to grossly overwork his horses. He made millions upon millions and had an almost impossible win percentage.
And now he is back!!!!