6-year-old Tough Workout crumpling at Parx yesterday. No update yet on his status, the chart only saying, “clipped heels and fell.” Note the announcer calling it a “spill.” Vile.
7 Comments
Comments are closed.
6-year-old Tough Workout crumpling at Parx yesterday. No update yet on his status, the chart only saying, “clipped heels and fell.” Note the announcer calling it a “spill.” Vile.
Comments are closed.
Kelly, all I’m saying is that we’re NOT all degenerate morons – not all of us! (Remember, I do speak in the past tense because I no longer bet on the races). Yes, a great deal of the horse bettors you see are oblivious to proper equine care, animal cruelty and mistreatment. Some are pure scum who scream at television sets and call the horse every name in the book simply because they selected the wrong one to win.
I can understand your feelings if that’s all you’ve been exposed to. For the record, in my betting time, I avoided those folks like the plague. In fact, on more than one occasion, I would yell at a guy like that and tell him stop blaming the horse, when it’s your handicapping that sucks!
But I would usually sequester myself in the Trustees Room, or the Turf Club with most of the owners, trainers, and high-stakes bettors, which was a lot more civilized, and kept me away from those characters. Although I am now aware of the inherent behind-the-scenes horrors, most of the bettors there (and a lot of the owners too) were deliberately kept in the dark about the true extent of what really goes on in racing. This industry is very good at “deflect and deceive”
There are a lot of us who are true fans of the horses, and not completely despicable individuals. I think that once those bettors (like myself) come to the realization about the true nature of the game – and the rampant cheating – they too, will leave and take their gambling business elsewhere, like I did. Yes, I doubt that many of today’s bettors will ever become animal activists, but let’s just get them to quit the racing business – that’ll surely be enough to accomplish our shared goals,
-Joe
I think you and I have butted heads on this topic before, Joe. Given my personal experience with horseplayers in these exact situations, I think it’s unlikely we’ll ever agree on this one aspect of racing — the “concerns” of bettors about the welfare of racing’s equine victims, both immediate and long-term.
But I’m truly thankful you’re here to focus on winning them over to our side:)
There are numerous organizations, including the American Horse Council, representing various interests within the equine industry AND there are the politicians who support the idea that horses racing provides jobs.
(It is ironic that the American Horse Council representing people in the equine industry represent the people to the detriment of the horse, meaning they turn a blind eye to the abuse, neglect and killing of horses.)
Since wagering handle is down and has been down for awhile, these various groups come up with the line that racing provides so many jobs and you know it would be just terrible to lose all of these jobs.
So, if PARX and many other racetracks were not being subsidized with government funding of any kind, they would not be killing as many horses as they do because there would not be enough gamblers to support this heinous cruelty whether they are aware of the cruelty or not.
IF this form of Animal Cruelty was not being propped up with taxpayer dollars that should be going to food and nutrition assistance programs and such as that, there would not be enough gamblers to support this cruelty to horses on the level it’s being supported at with government subsidies.
“And the bettors don’t care in the least — unless their payouts are affected, in which case they either curse their own bad luck, or celebrate their good fortune at profiting from the “spill.”
Well…… lumping all persons of one particular group into one mindset, and making unproven blanket comments is dangerous, detrimental, hurtful and, frankly, quite uncalled for.
As most regular readers of this site know, I, too, was once a hard-core horse racing bettor, and yeah, sure, a lot of bettors couldn’t give two s**ts about the horses’ safety, humane treatment, (or lack of) and well being, other than cashing a ticket. No question. But not ALL of us.
I was part of many syndicates that placed big bets, and I can tell you, many of us were big fans of the horses themselves – I can remember many instances where some of my pals had huge bets on longshots, but would actually cheer the favorite running down the stretch if the favorite was a big star, and was going for a triple crown win, or maintaining an undefeated record in a big stakes race.
Like myself, they were FANS of the horses. Some of us considered the horses the real ‘rock stars’. But bear in mind, almost every single one of us was completely unaware of lengths that the trainers and insiders would go to in order to eke out a win. Most still are.
Think about it:
Logically, one might surmise (and I did, along with all of my buddies) that when you have a MILLION DOLLAR++ investment – you’re gonna take the utmost care of it – whether that investment is a live, sentient being, or a Lear Jet or a Roll Royce. Sure, everyone wants to cash a ticket. But, in spite of popular opinion, not every single one of us was a nasty, mean, money grubbing, filthy, stupid degenerate who only cared about that $2 bet.
Also – having an adverse opinion formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge, or, maintaining an irrational attitude of hostility wholly directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics – is simply blatant, uncalled for prejudice.
I understand that the raw emotions, particularly anger and ire run deep when faced with the daily atrocities of this ‘game’, but really, above all, it’s the bettors who are the people you want to reach out to, and (hopefully) convince them of the error of their ways. You won’t do that by berating and insulting them.
As Mr. Battuello has succinctly and profoundly stated “ultimately, you (the bettors) hold all the cards: no more bets, no more races; no more races, no more kills.”
I wholeheartedly agree.
-Joe
Don’t know why any of the U.S. Death Tracks bother to write anything at all in the charts regarding racing injuries and their dispensations. After all, HISA hates ’em and hides ’em. And the bettors don’t care in the least — unless their payouts are affected, in which case they either curse their own bad luck, or celebrate their good fortune at profiting from the “spill.”
(I think the four-letter obscenity known as Parx just uses chart omissions to comply with the wishes of the entire Throwaway Thoroughbred industry: “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”)
This business needs to just go away!
Parx being the typical trashy Parx. Looks like they most likely had a death there today, but of course the chart writer would rather not disclose that.