Always Dreaming, the 2017 Kentucky Derby “winner,” died Thursday at a farm in Oklahoma. The details from “Bloodstock Agent” Chad Schumer (in the TDN): “The horse was sick. He was [at a clinic] for four days. They didn’t do any surgery on him. Everything was fine. He seemed to be okay. He turned the corner. They sent him back to the farm, and I think it was the cecum in his stomach, it just burst.”
“Retired” from racing in 2018, Always was (of course) immediately sent to the breeding shed for further subjugation and exploitation. He proceeded to produce five “crops” for WinStar Farm in Kentucky before being sold off to River Oaks Farm for more of the same (an undoubtedly stressful interstate move that just may have been a factor in his death). In a statement, WinStar said, in part: “Our thoughts go out to everyone at River Oaks Farm.” How very magnanimous of them. Then again, easy to be when you’ve already made your money off the horse.
It’s obvious where their priorities are.
Wanda it took us 10 years to find a vet that was not associated with either racing or “performance” horses. We had to literally wait until a recent graduate of our local universities vet program had completed her training! All the others in our area overcharge & over treat many horses that really would not benefit from all the med.s & invasive procedures. Many rescues in our area unwittingly are supporting racing with their donors $$ by utilizing a vet that supports racing & pays to have horses in training. One has to do great research & diligence to avoid supporting racing even in an indirect way. Thankfully our present vet treats horse as extra large pets which to us they are!
Wanda, you said it perfectly.
Nancy, This also begs the question: “IF I had a sick horse that needed veterinary care, would it be safe to take him or her to the same veterinary clinic that released ALWAYS DREAMING to be returned to the breeding farm only to die of a “burst cecum”????? I think not.
Don’t these people at the clinic realize the damage that their decision does to their reputation for “quality” of care???
If the current owners of ALWAYS DREAMING signed paperwork releasing the veterinary clinic of any and all liability in the event he dies, then they can’t file a lawsuit against the veterinary clinic for malpractice or financial compensation, etc.
It’s a huge can of worms, in my opinion. I am familiar with the policy of Veterinary clinics in small animals. If you can’t come up with the evidence that you can pay, they will refuse to accept you as a client. The animal will die a slow and agonizingly painful death without surgery. “It’s a business” is what I was told. So I had to prove that I could pay the bill before I knew how much it was going to be. The animal was the neighbor’s cat and he had to have one eye removed after all was said and done. It was a situation where I was able to pay the full amount of the veterinary clinic bill. Otherwise, it would have been horrendously depressing, because the cat would have died a slow and agonizingly painful death. Why? Because “it’s a business”!!!
Wanda, years ago my mentor taught me the adage “business is business and love is BS”. There are very few examples more dominant in this wisdom than the horseracing industry.
Obviously, everything was NOT fine. How many people would be stupid enough to believe that if a horse is sick and at a veterinary clinic for four days and surgery is NOT done, that “everything was fine”??? How do these people think saying “everything was fine” is going to add credibility to their reputation??? That’s just idiotic, but typical of people who exploit horses for money.
I had read somewhere that this poor horse struggled with ulcers (go figure) during his racing career. I would bet to guess that WinStar, being the sloppy caretakers of their breeding machines, probably never continued treatment for this, and some hokey farm in OK, where said unimpressive breeding machine was dumped off to, could have cared less. I think I read he was standing for a mere 2,500. That horse had to have been exhibiting signs of discomfort before his cecum “burst”, but they probably already dumped thousands of dollars into him to be at a vet clinic for 4 days, even opting not to do surgery, so they weren’t about to dump more into a stallion only standing for 2,500 in crappy OK.
Let us pray: may all their colons “just burst”.
The reward for earning a large sum of money and going down in the history books for winning the “prestigious Derby”. Having seen this explanation the other day and thinking how could the horrendous end coming be missed?? If saying how I thought about this was printed it would have to be deleted. The regulars here would agree.