Through a FOIA request to the New Jersey Racing Commission, I have confirmed the following kills at that state’s tracks thus far this year.
Phenom Seelster, Jan 26, Meadowlands R
“Sudden death: rupture of the right pulmonary artery with severe hemorrhage. Blood and bodily fluid drained from the nostrils and mouth soiling the skin of the muzzle, chin, face, and neck.” Phenom was five years old.
I’ll Do It, May 23, Monmouth T
“Displaced, comminuted fracture of the pelvis with rupture, hemorrhage, and soft tissue damage.” Also: “bilateral osteoarthritis in hind fetlocks.” I’ll Do It was but two years old and being trained for her first race.
My Name’s Jeff, Jun 2, Monmouth R
“[Multiple] fractures with numerous small fragments, severe hemorrhage.” Also: “osteoarthritis of multiple joints in multiple limbs; chronic stomach ulceration.” My Name’s Jeff had just turned three.
Mophilly, Jun 12, Monmouth T
“Complete, displaced tibia fracture with severe hemorrhage and soft tissue damage.” Also: “osteoarthritis [all four limbs].” Mo was two years old and being prepped for his first race.
American Pride, Jun 30, Monmouth T
“Rupture of the thoracic aorta with severe hemothorax.” American was also just two years old and being prepped for his first race.
Thank you, to Mr. Battuello, and all who have responded and shed some much-needed light on this subject. In all my years of betting on the races, I had always assumed that these race horses were awarded only the very best of care, and were meticulously trained and kept healthy, so that they might run their best races. I was even invited by several trainers to visit their backstretch and meet the horses up-close-and-personal, quite a few times. I also knew several owners, who, looking back now, I think, may have also been in the dark about the true conditioning of their ‘investments.’
AS a big bettor, a lot of these trainers knew that without the heavy hitters – note: the casinos called us “whales”, and still do – the industry would be dead. So they afforded us “perks”, like visiting the stalls, going out with them after the races, giving us “inside information” – which, by the way, for the most part was completely useless.
The trainers were always sugar-sweet and acted lovingly and caringly towards their charges – yeah, I know, it’s all an act- but they were quite good at fooling us. One trainer whom I was fairly close with used to nuzzle his favorite horse every time he visited the stall – at least with visitors present, anyway, and feed him apples as a treat. God only knows what went on there during the other times.
I was warned though, “don’t get too close to him, Joe, he bites…”
That should have clued me right in there.
Still, I see good news on the horizon with race tracks closing right and left, and interest in horse racing on a steep decline that I do not see reversing itself anytime soon.
Thanks once again, to all.
-Joe
All activities involving animals for making money or intertainment is just a shield for total animal abuse and torture. Never spend a dollar on animal abuse as you are only perpetuating this despicable cruelty and abuse on innocent voiceless animals
Sorry about the late response, Joe, but I would just second what Marie wrote with this excerpt from “The Killing Is Inevitable” on this site:
The vast majority of racehorses are bought and sold multiple times over the course of their “careers.” So, the earning window for the current “connections” is almost always short-term, meaning, as a rule, the long-term well-being of the horse is of no concern. It’s maximize profits now, by whatever means necessary (think drugs). And because most racehorses are worth less than a low-end used car, and because most purses are jacked up by subsidies – casino cash that also allows many tracks to pay first through last – the horseman’s breakdown-risk to earnings-reward ratio is quite attractive. And because there’s always ample, affordable inventory, when problems do arise, they can simply dump off that risk to the next guy and acquire anew.
Excellent, Rebecca. Thank you.
I’d like to offer a possible explanation – it’s a bit long, so please bear with me.
Twelve university students were asked to take part in experiments using rats. The students would be responsible for caring for the rats and taking them to and from the studies. Six of the students were told that their rats had shown exceptional intelligence in the early trials, and the other six were told that their rats scored below average intelligence. What the students didn’t know was that they were the ones being studied. It was found that those students who were told their rats were above average intelligence treated them gently, kept their cages very clean, and rewarded them generously after each of their trials, while the students who had the lower intelligence rats were prone to rougher handling, less meticulous care, and virtually no rewards. The irony is that those students who were told they had the exceptionally intelligent rats actually had the ones of lower intelligence, and visa versa, yet when the rats were treated with care and rewarded, their test scores improved dramatically, while the other rats who were actually more intelligent but were treated poorly got lower scores than initially recorded.
I guess what I’m trying to say is these trainers and jockeys think of horses as big, stupid animals, and either don’t know or – more than likely – don’t care that they are capable of feelings and emotions. As long as these horses are nothing but a means to a financial or social end, they will always be used, abused, and then discarded.
Joe, What goes on inside the heads of people who are involved in Thoroughbred horse racing is a fair question. I don’t think what goes on inside their heads as far as academic intelligence (or horse knowledge, or what some of us call “common sense”) is the only part of the question. There is also the question of moral conviction as well as emotional intelligence.
How “smart” are people who appear to be in horse racing for the fame and fortune more than for the welfare of the horses…?
Take Bob Baffert for example, who had 75 (seventy-five) dead (DEAD) racehorses on his record the last time I checked on the internet and yet he also commands a training fee of $1.5 million per horse. I don’t know what the details of the contract are or what time frame that includes.
As you know, he works for very rich owners. I could go on and on about that but I would like to point out that when rich people own high-class Grade One, Two & Three level horses, they would obviously have insurance policies on these horses.
In the event that any of these high-class exploited horses get microfractures that are obviously going to break down with further “training” and/or racing, they’re going to have to take time off to heal, which costs the owners money obviously, and the horse might never heal completely for certain and they could possibly drop in class (if they do return to racing) as a result. In cases such as this, it logically appears to be financially more profitable for the owner as well as the trainer to send them out to the racetrack to breakdown catastrophically and die or be euthanized. In these cases, I think that it’s a no-brainer that the owner or owners would and could collect the insurance payout without the extra expenses of a lay-off from racing.
Take MONGOLIAN GROOM for example. I believe that you can look up and find the PDF of the ‘Evaluation of Mongolian Groom’ by the racing “guru” doctor of veterinary medicine himself “Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Bramlage” and you can see the X-rays and how obvious it was that the horse should never have been entered into the race, let alone the Racing Secretary accepting the entry fee for the BREEDERS’ CUP race in November of 2019. (But, of course, the “famous” PRO-RACING DOCTOR of VETERINARY MEDICINE doesn’t ever say that!!!)
As you know, the big races are all about the big money, the fame, the partying, attracting big crowds and people spending money on food, lodging and travel expenses. Of course, these types of things bring in money to local economies.
As you know, the Futurities are for 2-year-olds and the Derbies are for 3-year-olds. So the “Yearling sales” and the so-called “Two-year-olds in training sales” are a big deal to the people who have this so-called “dream” of winning a big race, plus the big money to back up their pursuit of it.
However, the logic of forcing the young and underdeveloped Colts & Fillies that are 18 to 19 to 20 to 21 to 22 to 23 months old to gallop at top speed to entice someone to PAY a big price for the ones that can run a certain distance in a certain time and don’t break down with broken bones and/or heatstroke is certainly driven by the owners and operators of the “sales auction barns” to get higher commissions, I believe, and, in my opinion, attract rich people with more money than brains.
In the horse business, I believe that as long as one can “prove” it is a business and not a hobby, they can always write their losses off on their taxes. It’s a portfolio thing, right?
Honestly, these “connections” know exactly what to say and when to say it. The heartbreak when a horse breaks down, the horse will tell us if he wants to run, my heart bleeds for my favorite that died yesterday(but I went right back out and got a new one in his stall already) etc. So if they’re stupid…no way.
Joe, as someone who was involved in racing, I can tell you that the low level claiming horses, though they may be running for a $3,000-$5,000 tag, isn’t what many of those people paid for them. The majority of the people running at the low tier tracks are fairly desperate, broke, cutting costs where they can, duct taping the horses to get just ONE more race out of them, or not paying their bills at all. So, do I pay for feed, or ?? Plus, if those cheap horses break down, oh well, the racing connections aren’t going to be the ones dealing with the long term arthritic issues, the damage from ulcers, the after effects from the drugs, the tendons, the chips, etc. They ditch them one way or another, and get the next cheap horse.
I read the article yesterday on HRN that trainer Karl Broberg is “getting out of racing” (he’s really not, he just handed his “training” over to his asst trainer and he’s going to be “breaking babies” on the farm). Karl propethically said the foal crops are dropping, and the racing folks better read the writing on the wall, tracks are going to be closing, and there will be less racing. It can’t come soon enough for these poor horses, especially at the mountaineers and turf paradises out there.
Since quitting my pastime of daily wagering on the races, I’ve been reading this site often and have learned a lot more about the care (or to be more accurate, the lack of) and health of the racehorses I had been betting on for many years.
I’d always assumed the horses were extremely well cared for because sick and lame horses don’t run all that fast…..duh!
So, putting aside , for just a moment, the rampant animal abuse, perhaps either Mr. Battuello, or some of the readers here can shed some light on this question for me.
The trainers, conditioners and owners – are they just plain STUPID, as well?
I met many trainers and owners in the years I bet on the races. They all seemed pretty normal, reasonably intelligent and shared a common goal of winning as many races and as much as possible.
Considering the price of even the cheapest of these horses, i.e., $5,000 claimers, for example – wouldn’t it make much more sense to keeps these animals in tip-top condition, because, like, DUH, any one of US here would probably run MUCH FASTER if we weren’t bothered by ulcers, colic, tape worms, bot flies, and a host of other infirmities.
In the simplest of terms, a race car that has flat tires, in need of a motor tune-up, leaking oil, etc., probably wouldn’t be able to hit 95 MPH – certainly not for any extended period of time unless the problems were fixed – so what’s up with these so-called “conditioners’?
Once again, I always thought the horses received the very best of care – after all, they ARE expensive investments -and only after reading here did I discover otherwise.
I welcome any comments or insights on this topic. Many thanks.
-Joe
It’s inconceivable that horses should have such catastrophic injuries just running down a dirt track, but being forced to live in a tiny box 23 hours a day without proper nutrition weakens their developing bodies so much that these poor horses literally disintegrate. This egregious cruelty is built in to the racing industry from top to bottom, and add to it the fact that on top of the damage being done to them while training, these horses have such easily prevented issues like bot flies and tapeworms, speaks volumes about the ‘royal care” shown to these “much loved family members”.
These reports of horses killed by racing are gut-wrenching but must be acknowledged as the Animal Cruelty and Abuse that goes unchecked in this heinously cruel and depraved industry.
These horses deserve to be remembered, not swept under the rug and forgotten.