I received the following email Sunday. (I believe the horse in question was Texas Star.)
“Unfortunately, I was present at Lone Star Park on the night of April 19th. It was the second time I had ever attended the horse races. I observed a horse lying down lifeless on the track after it ran in the eighth and final race of the evening. Personnel ran over and began putting up partition-type walls to block the grim view of the incident. One could assume this horse was ‘humanely’ euthanized due to the inhumane performance.
“I had no idea of the cruelty behind horseracing until this occurred, and I began to do some research. Now that I am more aware, I will not be attending or supporting these events. I wish main-stream media would do an investigative story on horseracing to bring attention to the unnecessary harm it causes the horses.” Dianna B. – Dallas, TX
This will make a fine addition to our other stories of change. Thank you, Dianna.
This would be Business As Usual in this industry. The excuse that has been used in the past at Santa Anita Park and I believe other racetracks is that they “trust” the trainers to know that their horse is “sound” or fit to run. So when the unsound horse has a fatal breakdown, the racetrack staff always passes the buck. They want horses to fill out the race card regardless if the horses are truly sound or not. It’s sadistic.
Heartbreaking. This unfortunate horse had wraps on front, a possible indication that the trainer knew there was a possible problem, but ran anyway, maybe he could make a buck!
It’s heartening to read these posts from would-be racing supporters who got (sorry, but literally) a crash course in the horrors of horse racing. We’ve all been there, Dianna B., so thank you for your thoughtful letter to Patrick. The industry works VERY hard to keep these horse-killing events hidden from the public (like Joe said), and from Patrick in particular. Too often, track officials get lucky, when the only witnesses to these daily deaths are the die-hards who’ve seen this kind of thing a thousand times before, and who simply cannot care about the equine victims of their addiction.
Sorry you had to see it, but thankful you have the integrity they lack.
Dianna B.,
The horse racing industry does an absolutely top-notch, A-1 job of “deflect and deceive” when it comes to hiding the horrors that occur on a daily basis. And today, the deaths and injuries are worse than ever.
As regular readers of this site know, I was a horse player and professional handicapper for many years, and it wasn’t until the industry’s insiders started getting a little bolder – case in point, the disqualification of 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, trained by top conditioner Bob Baffert, who was disqualified for illegal drug use, resulting a suspension of Mr. Baffert for several years – that made me finally quit for good..
Further investigation on my own led me to this site and other information I uncovered put out indisputable evidence that this is one of the most vile and corrupt industries on the planet. And if that’s not enough, they are killing horses daily, with relative impunity and no consequence for their actions. Evidenced by information filed by the tracks themselves, Mr. Battuello’s reporting on the deaths and injuries to horse racing’s equine population is, sadly, both truthful and horrific.
It was not easy for me to leave a game that I enjoyed so much, but there are just some things one simply cannot “un-see” – and the accurate information as reported here is one of them.
I quit the game soon after the Medina Spirit debacle and will not be returning anytime soon. I urge others who are still supporting horse racing to follow my lead.
-Joe
Thank you, Dianna B. I agree with you that the mainstream media ought to be doing investigative journalism and reporting/exposing the deadly cruelty. This heinous cruelty to horses definitely needs to be exposed to the public.
The racing industry has been sweeping horse deaths under the rug for decades. In November of 1980, I attended a day at the races at Centennial race track in Colorado. (This same track is now listed among the shuttered racetracks on this site.)
There was one filly/mare that dropped dead suddenly during a race. They had been showing the replays of each race EXCEPT they didn’t show the replay of the race with the one horse dropping dead. They vanned her off the track upside down. All four of her hooves could be seen above the side boards of the trailer. There was no explanation of what happened that caused this sudden death. The whole incident was basically swept under the rug. I had no idea at the time that this could be commonplace in the racing industry. This was long before I had access to the internet and Equibase did not exist yet either at that time.