The 1st race at Gulfstream yesterday, in the words of the chartwriter: “A Gillion Points chased in the four path, sustained an injury to her left front leg, stumbled, and lost the rider midway around the far turn, then had to be euthanized.”
“Then had to be euthanized.”
There was also this addendum: “No changes were made after the stewards held an inquiry to look at the actions of A Gillion Points around the far turn.” Is there a reader among you who still thinks that horseracing is anything more than a (callous, archaic) gambling business? A Gillion was three years old; this was her third time under the whip.
Meanwhile…
Woodbine Racetrack is, supposedly, the class of Canadian racing. Think of it as their Churchill or Santa Anita. Yesterday, the track released a statement that read in part:
“Woodbine Entertainment announced today that it has cancelled the scheduled race card for Sunday as a precautionary measure to prioritize the safety and well-being of the horses and jockeys. … This follows the cancellation of the final two races of Saturday’s card due to safety concerns with the All-Weather Main Track. Additionally, training on the All-Weather Main Track was suspended this morning.
“‘The safety of our horses and jockeys is always our highest priority,’ said Bill Ford, Executive Vice President of Racing at Woodbine. ‘In consultation with our industry partners, we have decided to take these precautionary steps to ensure that the track conditions meet the highest safety standards. Woodbine has long been recognized as one of the safest racetracks in North America, and we are committed to maintaining that reputation by thoroughly assessing and addressing any issues.'”
Left unsaid was the why: Three horses were killed there Saturday, one unidentified while training and two – 3-year-old Social Dancer and 6-year-old Owen’s Tour Guide – while racing. Three dead, in a matter of hours, at “one of the safest racetracks in North America.” All three kills, by the way, came on Woodbine’s synthetic (“All-Weather”) track, which, say the increasingly-desperate apologists, is the safest surface.
To illustrate how indifferent contemporary management is toward horse and rider safety was pitifully demonstrated three days ago in England when a stalled tractor could not remove the starting gate from the race track. Firstly, France has sirens and flashing red lights to alert riders to pull up when the track is dangerous. The English do not. They relied on a flag man to avert catastrophe! Why are the English not using outriders for this purpose?
In the my early years, I remember two incidents where outriders were responsible for averting tragedies. At Cranwood, (a track outside of Cleveland), the outrider grabbed a a loose horse whose bridle had broken by grabbing the loose horse by the ear. In the 1950s the Calder outrider couldn’t catch a horse until the 5th attempt. The second time I witnessed one of the most courageous acts of an outrider at Woodbine who galloped into the race to warn riders to pull up thus averting major injuries and possible deaths. Today, the industry either hires incompetents or doesn’t recognize the importance of having experienced riders who know how to react in emergencies. But, sadly, the ones who really loved horses have passed on and their adult children do not seem to recognize how criminal the game has become. They don’t speak up to protect or defend horses preferring to ignore the viciousness of doping and drugging horses, horses being subjected to cruel drug withdrawals, fractures that involve broken spines, fractured heads, multiple lameness, but sent to the post anyway, and making feeble statements how shattered they are to lose such a good horse! The only way to heal a heart broken by grief is to do something to protect other horses from dying while in the care and custody of the vicious and the vile. Silence is cowardice!
I grieve every day when I realize how contemptible horse racing has become since the 1920s. But the biggest and cruelest disappointment I face daily is the heirs of the horsemen and women who keep silent and do nothing to protect horses from the vicious gangsters who do criminal felonies against horses and these trainers, jocks, owners, breeders, are celebrated as Hall of Famers when they should be doing serious time behind bars for race fixing, abuse and torture of animals, etc.
Thank you again, Joe.
Joe, thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience. I’m glad you had the good sense to stop that certain way of life of gambling on racehorses! It’s good to know that after so many years you made the conscious choice to go to a different type of gambling where no horses have to be silently tortured and die.
There are those people who stand to gain financially from the manufacturing, sales and installation of those synthetic surfaces and the same is true for starting gates. They are dangerous for horses as well. (The article I read made it sound like starting gates were the best thing since sliced bread and, of course, certain people made a bunch of money off of starting gates.)
When I was still gambling on horse racing, both myself and and my betting buddies avoided wagering on any type of ‘synthetic’ surface like the plague.
Why?
More often than not, horses performed erratically, poorly, or not at all on synthetics and it was difficult to gauge a predictable performance indicating to us (as bettors) that making logical and profitable bets on these surfaces was, in the long run, impossible.
What I didn’t realize then, and I firmly believe now, is that the horses found these surfaces foreign to them, dangerous and unsteady, particularly when traveling at breakneck speeds. Thus the horses’ confidence, IMHO, was compromised; add to that, the jockeys whipping and coaxing the animals to run faster than they (the horses) innately feel is safe, and you have yourself a very nice little recipe for unmitigated disaster.
While I certianly don’t feel the other surfaces are ‘safe’, I still believe the synthetics are a qualified nightmare. And to any of you out there reading this who many still be, or are considering betting on the horses, a word of advice from this grizzled old veteran – don’t.
It’s a lousy, sh**ty, fixed ‘sport’ that you can’t win. This, is coming from someone who used to bet large sums of money on the races every single day and traveled all over the country, sat in the lofty ‘Turf Clubs”; and mingled with owners, trainers, heavy-hitter bettors and top jockeys. I enjoyed it tremendously and it was my ‘way of life’ for years.
But now? Knowing what I know is absolute fact?
All I can do is try to convince anyone who wants to listen is to – stop. Quit. Take your gambling dollars elsewhere- like I did.
-Joe
It doesn’t take much to read between the lines once you have become savvy to the industry with their high rate of horse kills and their public relations playbook. Woodbine has to “play the horseracing safety card” to keep the public outrage to a dull roar.
This cruelty to horses is a “way of life” for the industry insiders who were born into it and doing this most, if not all, of their lives.
Marie, I saw the same initial report you did. At first, thought maybe it was snow/ice related. They made it sound so kind that the cancellation was happening. In this day and age with social media,it’s hard to keep a secret.
The initial articles on Saturday did not give the fatalities as the cause, just that they were cancelling for safety reasons.
Regardless, according to some insiders, the actually tally is 5 horses, but, unless Patrick is able to confirm this with his meticulous sleuthing, we may never know if it was indeed 5, or 3, as they are admitting to.
The article I read did say why they cancelled the Saturday race card at Woodbine. They gave the names of the horses injured and killed. The article also gave the names of the jockeys involved and ended with the fact that the jockeys were not injured. It reminds me of the fact that drunk drivers usually don’t get hurt when they crash into someone else and cause injuries to others. It’s irresponsible to say the least.
To stay in this ugly business is irresponsible. To continue to injure and kill so many horses and fail on purpose to disclose the whole truth is extremely cruel and deceptive.