Through a FOIA request to the Washington Racing Commission, I have confirmed the following kills at Emerald Downs, the state’s only currently active track, in 2023.
Talkingnonstop, Apr 7, Emerald S
“Flipped in washrack and died – [multiple] skull fractures, significant intracranial hemorrhage.” Talking was five years old.
Crest Drive, Apr 28, Emerald S
“Chronic palmar osteochondral degeneration, worse on the left, with chronic chip fractures of LF P1; chronic pleuritis; acute laminitis with rotation.” Crest Drive was seven years old and had been raced 47 times, most recently in Feb.
Cascade Spirit, May 31, Emerald T
“Broke down during workout: acute, complete, comminuted condylar fracture.” Cascade was two years old and being prepped for her first race.
Amazing Money, Jun 6, Emerald S
“Being treated for pneumonia – died.” Also: “gastric ulceration.” Amazing was two years old and being prepped for his first race.
Rocky Tough, Jun 9, Emerald T (euth Jun 13)
“Fractured pastern, sent to hospital, euthanized [several days] later.” Rocky was nine years old and had been raced 61 times.
Breakaway Bud, Jun 21, Emerald T
“Broke down during workout: right humeral fracture.” Breakaway was three years old and being prepped for his first race.
Let It Reign, Jul 5, Emerald S
“Small intestinal volvulus with mural perforation and peritonitis.” Also: “chronic chip fractures and arthritis of both radiocarpal joints.” Let It Reign was four years old and had been raced just four days prior.
Gold Rush Junior, Jul 29, Emerald S
“Hemorrhagic colitis, severe; subcutaneous and meningeal hemorrhage, head and brain; gastric ulcers, chronic; hoof wall cleft with irregular laminar hyperplasia and P3 atrophy, chronic, focally extensive; chip fractures in both front fetlocks.” Gold Rush was just three years old. Now go back and read that list of maladies again.
He’s a Flyin, Aug 11, Emerald R
“Broke down during race: compound fracture of left MCIII, some segments of bone missing; multiple small chip fractures in the right carpus.” That’s both front legs. Also: “palmar osteochondral disease [both front limbs].” He’s a Flyin was three years old.
Seattle Bold, Aug 13, Emerald R
“Broke down during race: [multiple: at least 3] fractures, multiple acute tears of [multiple] tendons.” Also: “chronic arthritis [same leg that broke].” Seattle was five years old.
Freestone, Aug 25, Emerald R (died Aug 26)
“Found dead in stall morning after race: severe, acute hemothorax.” Freestone was seven years old, and this was his 37th time under the whip.
Take Charge Deputy, Aug 29, Emerald S
“Severe laminitis with severe rotation and sinking of P3 in both front feet – P3 has nearly pierced the solar surface in both feet.” Also: “several [bone] fragments in the carpal joints of both limbs; left carpometacarpal joint nearly completely collapsed; marked osteochondral disease, both fetlocks; chronic arthritis; degenerative joint disease.” Take Charge was eight years old and had been raced 57 times. That poor, poor boy.
Malibu Dreams, Sep 10, Emerald R
“[Multiple] acute, severe fractures with joint hemorrhage.” Also: “chronic, focally extensive sclerosis in left carpus.” Malibu was two years old, and this was her first race.
Cape Union, Sep 15, Emerald S
“Significant fracture of the skull with extensive, acute, severe intracranial hemorrhage. The cerebellum has a macerated appearance.” Also: “chronic cartilage erosions and avulsions [both front] fetlocks.” Cape was four years old and coming off her first race.
Poppy’s C Note, Sep 15, Emerald S
“Septic arthritis – severe, chronic – with focal sequestrum [necrotic bone detached from healthy tissue] in LF fetlock.” Also: “osteochondral disease, both forelimbs; multiple stomach ulcers.” Poppy’s was seven years old and had been raced 56 times.
The guy sounds nuts. I think he mistook his horse for a truck, and what a way to ruin a truck. I’ve met similar so-called trainers who attribute human motives onto the horse. I knew one trainer who believed horses conspired against her. As a result, her training methods were abusive. The way a person interacts with a horse tells you a lot about that person. Psychological projection onto another person is dangerous. Onto a horse it’s cruel and dangerous.
Yeah, whenever I hear someone say they don’t like Arabians because they’re flighty or hot tempered, I always ask them if they’ve ever actually been around an Arabian. Most say no, it’s just what they’ve heard. You can tell a lot about a person with an Arab by the way the horse acts around them – if the horse is spooky and jumpy it’s because there’s no trust or bond with their human. My Arabian watched a large hot pink wading pool roll across the lawn like a wheel three feet in front of him and all he did was look at me, like “are we supposed to be worried about this?” When I didn’t tense up or react to it he just went back to grazing without even an ear flick in the pool’s direction.
Rebecca, I once saw a particular horse, an Arabian gelding, that walked up to the fence with some other horses of other breeds at a place where horses were being boarded. He put one front hoof so close into the wire of the fence, which was made of large squares, that I thought he could have been hung up. I thought he might have trouble getting his hoof out and I was very concerned!!! I just stood there on the outside of the fence to his right side and looked at him and looked at his hoof. I was very concerned. After a bit, he pulled his hoof out of the wire square very smoothly and very carefully like nothing was wrong. He had his eye on me and his expression changed as he showed me he wasn’t hung up in the wire fence at all. He was such a clever horse. 🤣🤩
He trotted away with the rest of the horses but he was bouncing on all fours in the air — bouncing in the air as Arabians are known for. His one conformational fault was he had “rafter hips” but he had so much going for him!!!! That was so cool.
That specific jockey might not have done anything, but the previous rider or riders must have done something to make the horse object to anyone getting on his back. Some horses are long-suffering and will deal with abuse for years, for others it only takes one a**hole to make them defensive toward anyone of the human persuasion. Arabians are like that, and that’s why they have the bad reputation of being flighty and obnoxious to work with – in reality, they’re just smarter than 90% of the humans they get stuck dealing with and they don’t respond well to the “do this or else” mentality that most horse people have.
He let me ride his horse before he ruined him. He gave me some tips on how to sit and do a rollback as in Western reining. It was a much appreciated riding lesson actually at the time. The horse was awesome to ride and handled with a light touch. Fantastic!
My point being that the owner of this horse knew quite a bit about horses but he got this really screwed up idea in his head. I don’t know where that came from… He also got this idea in his weird head that to break in a brand new pick up truck that you have to just drive it 60+ mph which is completely contradictory to what any owners manual would advise to break-in the engine of a new motor vehicle.
There was a video a few years ago that showed a horse flipping every time the jockey attempted to mount. It didn’t look like the jockey did anything abusive openly or sneaky to make the horses flip. I really couldn’t say why the horse was flipping. Not enough information.
In the late 1970s in Wyoming, I was acquainted with this certain person who owned some horses that were not racehorses. One was an extremely gentle, well-trained American Quarter Horse gelding. He was well-trained to ride under Western saddle and neck-rein and he was fantastic.
At some point, the owner started acting like a real stupid redneck tough guy and started telling us that when the horse stood there all quiet and well-behaved like that, “That’s all fake.”
Unbelievable, but he absolutely started feeding us this bullshit that the horse was all fake. The horse is standing there like a well-behaved, well-trained horse and the owner is telling us, “That’s all fake” and then he would get on him and ride him and he would do something to the horse to get him to buck. I couldn’t really tell what he was doing to him exactly to explain it. He was trying on purpose to get the horse to buck with normal riding equipment, no flank cinch like they use in rodeos.
He was telling us that you have to get all the bucks out of a horse… Just totally bass-ackwards from anything that makes any sense at all. Long story short, he eventually caused the horse to get azoturia. It was so sickening I can’t even find the words.
To tell you the truth, the redneck so-and-so owner was the fake. He ruined a beautiful horse.
Flipped in the wash rack and died – I can guarantee there was some serious abuse going on at the time, cause the only reason a horse throws themselves backwards is because they feel they have no other avenue or option of escape. There isn’t a single person in the racing industry, from owners and trainers to stable staff, that has any business being around horses: they have no clue on God’s earth how to work with horses and they are completely devoid of any sort of empathy or even morality, as evidenced by the fact they can scoop a disemboweled horse’s guts into a wheelbarrow and then just continue on training as though nothing happened, or see a horse burn to death in her stall and just walk away so they don’t have to hear the pitiful cries she must have been making in her agony.
Absolutely disgusting examples of human beings. Every. Single. One.
These horses would not have suffered all of this abuse if the people who owned them believed in and practiced genuine horsemanship (which includes all genders).