Ounce, says the CHRB, died training at Santa Anita yesterday. While the Board did not specify an immediate cause (that will have to wait till our FOIA), it did note the kill was “non-musculoskeletal.” Which means, it was probably a sudden death (typically cardiac/pulmonary). Now consider that Ounce was but two years old.
This death comes just one day after Santa Anita (and the racing press) celebrated its “safety rate” in the just-concluded meet. In fact, SA is being billed as the “safest track in North America,” and one of the safest in the world. And yet. Ounce’s is the track’s 14th kill this year, and 42nd over the past 18 months. Safe? Not for those poor victims.
Yes, it’s cruel that they take foals away from their mothers as young as 4 months old. That’s way too young and stresses both the mother and her baby. If anyone says foals 4 to 7 months of age are not babies, they are liars.
This is one of the lies the group calling themselves “Light Up Racing” are saying — that foals from 4 to 7 months old are not babies anymore because they are starting to eat solid food. They completely ignore the fact that horses are gregarious herd animals and that baby horses need their mothers for more than just milk. They also are completely ignoring the fact that the Thoroughbred racing industry itself defines a “Baby race” as a race for 2-year-olds.
The industry itself admits by definition that 2-year-old Thoroughbreds are babies.
It’s so incredibly stupid that this Light Up Racing group are spreading the blatant lie that babies 4 to 7 months old aren’t babies anymore when they start eating grass or any solid food.
The poor horse taken from his mother and after that not an Ounce of TLC.
The intense training, the confinement in a tiny stall, and the mental torture these very young horses are subjected to absolutely contributes to their sad premature deaths. There is no way around the fact that the treatment of these colts and fillies kills many of them.
And for those that survive these cruel and highly detrimental demands, they are raced with damaged joints, full blown arthritis, digestive systems riddled with painful ulcers before they they too succumb to this inexcusable abuse.
In Thoroughbred racing, they abuse the bodies and minds of colts and fillies at a very, very, very young age.
It is not normal for YEARLINGS (18 months of age) to be started out under saddle and forced to carry the weight of a whip-wielding rider and forced to gallop and gallop fast day after day until their bodies, minds and joints can’t take the abuse anymore.
This cruel practice isn’t done by people who care about the health, well-being and longevity of their horses. But it is common practice in racing.
When millionaires and billionaires exploit horses for a so-called sport, you can always expect things to go horribly wrong and yet these morally depraved people are claiming that it is a “joy” to them.
You can teach young colts and fillies certain things at the age of 18 months but then you don’t ride them into the ground! At this age, you turn them out to pasture and let their bodies and minds grow and develop into more mature horses.
Racehorses are deprived of a normal life; they are enslaved by degenerate minds (like Repole and Soros for example). These people have millions and billions of dollars in other things and yet they want the public to fund their depraved greed and abuse of horses.
I agree that it is mind boggling how such young horses are riddled with problems that even some elderly horses never have. Cardio-pulmonary problems? You might see that if a young horse had a birth defect, but it would be extremely rare. It seems pretty common in racing.
Ugh! They truly are crazy.
Agree 100%. The actions of people are greater factors on how a horse survives without injury & as to how long they will live. We have had most of our horses here at our farm live until their late 20`s & one Arabian live until 30 despite his having kidney function limitations just like we do! We had Turk from the time he was 3 until he passed at 30. He & I were meant for each other! When he became thirsty so did we & when he had to urinate so did we. We were a perfect match as rider / horseman & horse. He taught us how to ride. He was considered green & I knew NOTHING. Green on green does not always mean black & blue. We rode thousands of miles together & later after he developed back arthritis we taught him how to drive a small cart.
What I would like to know is how many horses did they kill off the track 72 hours or longer after they transported these injured horses off the grounds of Santa Anita Park so they could say they are the safest track…
They could have killed 50 two-year-olds that were not officially raced yet for all we know from their deceptive practice of using various loopholes and mathematics to deceive the not so well informed public. They could have killed a dozen or so horses off-track in a weeks time and not reported them.
On our farm we have a 21 year Seattle Slew horse whose sire was a Kentucky bred stakes winner. He`s never been raced. He still runs real fast & one would never know he is the equal of 63 in human years. Sometimes we wish he was a tad slower! We have witnessed all the crummy med.s & vet procedures used on the horses we used to gallop in the am. Track conditions do effect the longevity of a horses ability to run. The multiple vet interventions are even worse. No young horse should ever die so young never having a decent life in herd of there own kind in a natural herd environment!
According to the live racing schedule for Finger Lakes, post time is listed as being 11:15 a.m. for Tuesday, June 18 & Wednesday, June 19.
Factually, yes, Santa Anita may very well be the safest race track in North America!
That much IS true.
But in reality, this is true Orwellian “double-speak”, and nothing but bulls**t hype, twisting the facts – as the racing press loves to – no, NEEDS to – do to make it all sound so wonderful.
All it means is that EVERY OTHER SINGLE RACE TRACK IN THE COUNTRY has logged in MORE than 14 deaths this year. Safest in the U.S.? Yes. Safe? For the horses? Absolutely not.
One might also ask why a two year old – a baby, in all respects, has cardio-pulmonary problems, among other possible health issues that regularly strike race horses such as, like colic, ulcers, joint problems, and any number of different ailments which abound in the breed.
A truly sad state of affairs, of which I am proud to say I no longer take any part in at all.
-Joe
It seems the racing industry likes to pretend that it’s the conditions of the track surfaces that determine the “safety” of a track. That is perhaps one factor, but it seems many more horses are maimed and killed by human actions , not by track conditions. And can someone please, please, please, tell me that they are not racing horses in this horrible heat wave? It looks like Finger Lakes (ugh) raced on Tuesday. We have heat indices over 100 degrees. That in itself constitutes animal cruelty.
The BloodHorse article is not investigative journalism at all; it’s a public relations piece to dupe an uninformed public and to cater to those people who think it’s okay to use horses for racing and wagering entertainment regardless of what happens to the horses.
The article states a specific number of horses but it doesn’t say how many horses were stabled at Santa Anita Park from the beginning of the meet or how many horses were stabled at the end of the meet. It doesn’t say how many horses were shipped in or shipped out during the meet.
It doesn’t say how many horses were injured and killed on the racetrack during a race or a morning workout. It doesn’t say how many horses were injured during training. It doesn’t say how many horses were “transported” to an off-track location to be “evaluated” for surgery, euthanasia or anything else. It doesn’t give these pertinent facts that reflect the hardcore depravity of this so-called sport.
It’s a public relations piece that promotes racing and gambling on racehorses, especially at Santa Anita Park, as an okay way to spend your money at the track and support this depravity that wastes the lives of thousands of horses. It’s a promotional piece for Santa Anita Park, The Stronach Group and their gambling enterprises.
It’s disgustingly deceptive but that is the Modus Operandi of dishonest horse-killing overlords that just want to keep on doing what they have always done regardless of how wrong it is.