In the charts for Parx Tuesday, it was noted that River City Rocker was “scratched” prior to race 5 because, the writer says, she had “injured herself in the starting gate.” In fact, I can confirm, said injury was fatal. Dead. And to think she brought it all on herself. How utterly vile. River was three years old.
River wasn’t the only self-inflicting horse at Parx that day. A few races later, Traders Luck was also scratched after “injuring himself in the gate.” No word yet on his condition.
This is horseracing.
You are so right about how and why these guys handle the loading of the horses the way they do. When they encounter a reluctant loader they use brutal force thus escalating the horse’s fear to the level of sheer terror resulting in his injury and death
This happens over and over again, and as Patrick said, it is blamed on the horse.
Nothing about lack of gate work for the horse and how the horse is terrorized out of his mind by these people.
Only in racing is such obscene cruelty ignored and repeated time and time again. Very sick!!
We must end the sport of horseracing as soon as possible.
This disregard for the poor horses that leads to their injuries and deaths is proof that this evil sport must end as soon as possible!
There were twelve horses entered to run in Race Number 5, a Claiming race, at Parx Casino and Racing on Tuesday, January 2, 2024. Six horses were scratched: RIVER CITY ROCKER, BRAVO REGINA, INCOMPARABLE, LA LA LUCY, TEMPTED TO TOUCH and LIL’ LATE LUCK.
Yes race delayed 25 mins I saw on TV live moving starting gate
Who is the Prosecuting Attorney that would have jurisdiction over the people who are involved with the racing of horses, the abuse of horses and the killing of horses at Parx racetrack?
Who should we be writing letters to regarding this incident and incidents similar to this one?
If nothing else, at least bring attention to the Prosecuting Attorney and others of this atrocious mistreatment, manhandling, mishandling and subsequent killing of horses for racing and wagering; not to mention the government subsidies that prop up horse racing and enable animal abusers to continue to sadistically manhandle the horses and blame it on the victims, the horses when the humans kill the equines.
Wow, that is a far spin on words, forced into a small space but injured self! Total BS. Public awareness definitely has a negative effect on this vile industry.
That is the one thing that my state, Oregon does right. When ever a horse breaks through the gate the horse is not allowed to run & is led back to the paddock until the race is over & then led back to the stable area. Was it not Barbaro that broke through the gate & was allowed to be reloaded & then raced. That did not go well for him! So glad to see racing slowly but surely going away here in the NW.
Very true! It took us awhile to figure that out. That racing was not about the horses at all!
The guys loading just want it done fast since it is a reflection on them on how they “handle” the horses going in. They don’t care one bit unless greedy boss man gets upset. This is slightly off subject but we are outraged at these guys, what about the Vets who went to school and trained to heal horses. The track ones are paid-for-drug-dealers. They also don’t really care for the horses. The whole industry from top to bottom are what Patrick says “Vile.”
These gates are deadly. I remember reading on this site about a horse that literally ripped his entire tail off in the gate – and people on the track said you could see his blood in the dirt for days afterwards.
Horses are claustrophobic but nature, so these gates go against everything they are. Add to this fact these are frightened, overwhelmed babies and you have the perfect recipe for disaster.
Horse racing is NOT about the horses. Never has been. Never will be.
There was also a gate incident at Turfway last night. Race 5 horse #3 Dianthus broke thru the gate. They unloaded all the “baby fillies” out and it took a lengthy amount of time to start the race. The horse did run but it remains to be seen what was the major delay of the race.
Someone on the Thoroughbred Champions site posted that this race was delayed for 30min and that they had to move the gate to get this poor girl out. What these poor horses go through in the starting gates is sickening.
Once again, as I’ve said so many times, the word choice of these track reporters kills me. One would think there was not a human anywhere on the race track grounds. The horses make all of their own choices, choose their “careers,” and injure themselves. Pathetic.
Great point Wanda. Sadly, even if the gate crew acted sadistically or irresponsibly, probably
nothing will be done about it. The racing industry won’t police itself, and that becomes more
obvious all the time. It’s time for public prosecutors to step up and start enforcing animal cruelty
laws. After all, that’s their damn job.
This makes me think about the gate crew and how they could be smacking the horses in the face or whatever other sadistic thing they feel like doing and being rough with these horses.
There should be video cameras focused on the starting gates and the sadistic people who are responsible for loading the horses into the gates as well as the jockeys; and the video tape should be made part of the public record.