Yesterday at the races:
The chart note for 3-year-old River Mischief in the 6th at Ellis: “River Mischief was reluctant to load, then hit the outer stall door while breaking slow, trailed in the four path, was eased through the final furlong and was taken off the track in an equine ambulance.” Dead? Perhaps (we’ll know soon enough).
Because Ellis is now being propped up by corporate welfare (slot-machine revenue), by crossing the line – albeit 12th and 55 lengths back – River’s exploiters, including jockey Rafael Bejarano, shared $576. Incidentally, this was her very first race. Of course she was “reluctant to load”; the learned helplessness hadn’t set in yet.
At Parx, 5-year-old Ganster Rap “injured herself in the starting gate and was ordered a late scratch.” Yes, she “injured herself.”
And another “rebellious” horse, this one at Thistledown, which is also a subsidized track paying first-last. 3-year-old Wings of Heaven “through her head at the start and trailed throughout.” 27 lengths back; $339 for her exploiters.
Who knows how many jockeys, or which jockeys, are using the illegal electric buzzers in the starting gates?
Even if they are not using the electric shocking devices on the horses, they still have their whips and their spurs to inflict pain on the horses they are paid to ride.
Also, are the members of the gate crew roughing up the horses in the starting gates? How far do they go with forcing the horses to enter the gate and keep them from backing out of it…?
I don’t expect Blood-Horse or the Paulick Report or any other racing industry press publication to do any investigative journalism on these topics because that is not what they are paid to do. Besides a person would have to have a conscience to expose the depths of the darkness of this industry.
Every time I see a racehorse wearing a hood, I think about the story/report I read about the jockey who would hide his electric buzzer in the horse’s hood right after the race and before he has to be in direct contact with other people and be weighed.
All these subsidies should be stopped! We think the horses were trying to tell the gate crew they did not want to participate! Wish the crew listened better.
I just hate that they started paying through last place. It has compounded the abuse problem and allows people to wring every last penny they can scrounge by running horses who should not be raced at all (not that any of them should).