HW has now documented – with names, dates, locations, and details – 10,448 kills at U.S. tracks since Jan 1, 2014. Again, that’s 10,448 dead horses – for $2 bets. Recently, our team created this video listing, by state, all the victims from 2023. Please share.
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Bonnie, while racing has never really been ‘squeaky-clean’, I do firmly believe it is now worse than ever. Unfortunately, this industry does a pretty amazing job of effectively hiding its many sins.
-Joe
You’re certainly welcome. I will, of course, continue to post any updates I hear from the racing world.
-Joe
I attributed it to you because I first read it in your posts. No offense or disrespect intended.
-Joe
Excellent, Joe. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Joe for writing. It really is as simple as Good vs evil.
Thank you for passing the phrase that horse racing is a crooked, crummy gambling game along from the jockey you heard it from to the rest of us.
It’s the way life is that we can’t or won’t always take someone else’s word for something. Unfortunately, many of us have to find out the hard way on a lot of things.
A certain man from the Pennsylvania Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association was saying, whining, complaining about how the system that was set up to benefit horse breeders in Pennsylvania isn’t working the way it was expected to work and that they are going from a foal crop of 1,700 to 500.
That would be 1,200 fewer foals that have to used and abused for racing, wagering and government subsidies.
That’s 1,200 fewer young and underdeveloped colts and fillies that will be born only to be abused to death so some narcissistic sociopaths can say that they are living the dream.
If these so-called horsemen don’t kill their beloved family members at the racetracks and/or training tracks, they will ship these innocent horses to slaughterhouses in Mexico or Canada.
This is the reality of their so-called living the dream. It’s totally vomit-worthy.
The quote you have attributed to us is not ours. That quote of the “Crooked , Crummy, Gamboling Game was related to us in 1986 at Lone Oak park by an English born & trained jockey we used to gallop horses with in the mornings in Salem Oregon at tour now gone 5/8 mile dirt track that was demolished in 2000. Martin Sanders related that to us when we told him we wanted to ride race horses after my graduation from Oregon State University. I later did both, Graduate & gallop race horses legally after finally receiving a license by the state in 2004. After seeing all the abuse of all the horses & many injuries to horses as well as hard working people & yes several deaths, we allowed our long & hard earned license to expire without renewal. It would have been so easy to renew & continue as we`re a natural light weight at 4`10” & can fairly easily maintain riders weight without all the extreme measures many riders engage in. When actively galloping horses we we`re well able to eat a normal diet without extremes.
As a former horse racing bettor, I will say – whether it’s $2 or $200 bets – and I often engaged in the latter- the result is the same – abuse and death of these equine heroes. As most regular readers here know, I quit the “crooked, crummy, gambling game” – yes, thank you fredjoan – because of not only the horror and treatment of the animals but the rampant cheating that has only gotten worse since the industry can a) no longer support itself, relying on government handouts and b) the idiotic first-to-last payouts that only encourages cheating, abuse and the running of lame, infirm and sick animals knowing that a $$$ paycheck is guaranteed.
But I’d like to report some good news – slow, but sure progress.
On a recent gambling junket to Atlantic City, New Jersey – yes I still gamble, I still enjoy it, but I will never again bet on a horse race – I visited all the casinos. Now, every single casino there has a sports book – where one can bet on just about any sporting event in the USA – but – surprise, surprise – the RACE BOOK – once a staple at all the casinos there – are all noticeably GONE. Other than the Borgata Casino, you cannot bet on a horse race at the Atlantic City Casinos!
I inquired about it at the Borgata, who once had a very large and elegantly appointed race book room. My host told me “Joe, we closed it down. No one would ever come there!”
She said that they integrated the race book into the large sports book room, which now consisted of only two machines to bet the races. When pressed, she also said “Yeah, they’ll be gone soon, too”.
Mixed emotions? Sure. I loved betting on the races. I would often sit at the race books in Vegas, AC, the Seminole Hard Rock and many others. But racing’s time has come, and it’s long past time to shut it all down.
But, more and more, I see the writing on the wall. And, if that ‘ain’t’ progress, I don’t know what is.
-Joe