3-year-old Goodbye Kai was on our weekly list yesterday for falling and being vanned off at Pleasanton Sunday. Now, we know he is dead, as confirmed by the CHRB.
In other news, the disgusting Shane Spiess raced Slick as Ice again last night at Mountaineer. That would be race 83 and the second after an almost-two-year layoff. How did the 10-year-old fare? Second-to-last, 25+ lengths back (this, after 29+ lengths back Jun 23). Spiess, however, still collected $79.
This is horseracing.
Thank you Marie…that explains it. Also shows how much they know about the horses running at their place.
Initially, one of the fair board members released information, and honestly, it sounds like HE got them mixed up. He said Toppers Wager passed away prior to being euthanized and that Goodbye Kai got up, walked off and was fine when they looked him over in the test barn. Having seen the race, I knew he was messed up on which horse was which.
Thank you Wanda. Hopefully the 2 aren’t passed away. One is bad enough in this nightmare.
We’re having a horrible heatwave in the west, so Goodbye Kai dying at Pleasanton on Sunday would have been during record-breaking temperatures. Compounding cruelty to this poor baby.
Thank you, Nancy, for sharing the news media source. I googled it. That’s the weirdest thing that they reported TOPPERS WAGER died on the track with a broken neck before a veterinarian could get to the horse while the chartwriter reported that he walked off the track under his own power.
I assume this isn’t the last we will hear about this incident.
Wanda, CBS Bay Area reported this. Honestly, do you think they confused the two horses?
Marie, This is so horrific and heartbreaking. Difficult to understand why it is tolerated in a supposedly advanced society.
The chart says TOPPERS WAGER fell over a “rival” unseating his rider and walked off the track. More barbaric entertainment for over 5,000 people in attendance.
Hopefully, some of those people in attendance have a conscience and stop attending this show of deadly cruelty to horses and find some other way to spend their time and money.
TOPPERS WAGER, a California-bred gray/roan Thoroughbred gelding was born April 6, 2020 and was raced at Santa Anita Park and Del Mar prior to being raced at Pleasanton. He was run in maiden races and never won a race.
I just read Toppers Wager who bumped into Kai is passed away as well. News media reporting deaths at this venue.
I anticipated this. Turns out he broke his neck, which, from the jerking he was doing after he fell, doesn’t look like it was instantaneous. The vision of his death will probably haunt me forever.