Through a FOIA request to the Colorado Dept. of Revenue, I have confirmed the following kills at Arapahoe Park in 2024.
Pal, Sep 12, stall
“Respiratory/pneumonia – no necropsy performed.”
Ima Hotlips Houlihan, Sep 20, racing
“[Multiple] fractures.” Also: “multiple joints with cartilage erosion and OCD fragments.” Ima was three years old. Here is this baby’s cartilage erosion…
La Bomba, Oct 9, training
“Crashed through fence: Complete open luxation of RH fetlock joint with complete loss of the dorsal joint capsule and soft tissue structures consistent with a high-speed fall injury. Significant contamination of the joint was present. LH: laceration with exposure of underlying tendons and bone.” Also: “Parascaris equorum parasites are present in the small intestine. There is an approximately 1-cm gastric ulcer at the margo plicatus with a raised rim of white squamous epithelial tissue, indicating the ulcer is of some chronicity.” La Bomba was just two years old. Now go back and re-read this paragraph. Her legs:
Jono, Oct 13, training
“Pulled up coming around turn: [multiple] complete, displaced fetlock fractures.” Jono was five years old and had been put to the whip 30 times, most recently one week prior.
Mobileagilehostile, Nov 17, racing
“Went down after finish: complete rupture of the cruciate, short, oblique, and straight sesamoidean ligaments in left forelimb.” Rupture. Rupture. Rupture. Rupture. Mobile was six years old.
Exactly true Wanda it takes great effort to quit doing something you have a natural ability for doing such as riding Thoroughbreds at speed. As naturally small people with good hands & balance it was tremendously difficult for us to quit in the fall of 2004 after after almost 30 years. We still ride our own Thoroughbreds but slower & carefully now that we know how fast they can gallop.
Joe, it never gets old to hear you say that you stopped “beating your head against the wall” figuratively speaking. I say it in those words because that’s what it’s like to keep trying the same thing over and over even when it has become obvious that whatever you’re doing isn’t working and never will ever work again. You have described your experience (in previous posts) at handicapping horses while the trainers and others are cheating like crazy and handicapping is no longer an “exact” science.
When a trainer who cheats so much that he “earned” the nickname “Teflon Bob” because he had others in the “system” enabling him and supporting him to get away with the massive and continuous cheating that no violation of the doping rules would stick to Bob Baffert.
Just seeing that creepy smirk on his dishonest face could be an obvious clue for many on top of everything else.
I suspect to stop gambling, at least on horses, is a little bit like to stop smoking; it is a choice and it takes a certain amount of effort to stick to that choice.
Joe these old greying horse people quit the racing game in 2004 after one of our farms horses told us the truth as to their abilities on May 10th, 2004. We found out the hard way how good our horses were in a very personal way in the middle of a now long gone homestretch! All of the breeders omitted the truth as to the abilities of our horses. The horse did not lie to us!! The majority of the breeders,vets, trainers are all dishonest omitting the truth about horses that are not of their own sires or breeding stock. They all are just in the industry for the $$. We don`t think it will be too many years before racing is only in a few states such as Kentucky, New York, Maryland & perhaps other mid-western tracks. We read extensively many of the racing newsletters & many of the commenters are admitting the coastal tracks lands are worth too much $$ to operate as tracks alone. Always like seeing your comments on this declining industry. We never gamboled or played the horses. We just like handle & ride them & teach them to be ridden.
“It’s all about the Benjamins, baby,” and nowhere does this particular motto hold true more so than in horse racing – the horses be damned!
Unfortunately, for the racing industry, this “perfect storm” of events is snowballing and will come crashing to an end – maybe not in days, weeks, months, or even years – but with the number of tracks closing, and with ‘few to none’ NEW tracks taking their place – coupled with the public’s decided INCREASE in ignoring and the outright snubbing of horse racing -it’s inevitable.
Knowing that their industry ‘s days are numbered, insiders have taken steps to keep it alive and keep grabbing the money for as long as they can. Using their tactics such as government subsidies, racinos, fist-to-last payoffs has all taken its terrible toll on the race horse population.
I still believe that a concerted effort to inform the bettors, yes even the $2 bettors, of not only the awful treatment of the horses, but also the fact they are being cheated daily, will greatly help to accelerate horse racing’s demise. Mr. Battuello is 100% correct in his logical appeal to the bettors elsewhere on this site: “no more betting, no more races; no more races, no more kills.”
This grizzled old salt quit the game years ago, and given the conditions of horse racing today, which (hard to believe, but true) have actually gotten worse – I’m glad I did.
-Joe
Sherry I remember the bad baby food! I also try to avoid any products made by them or another well known & advertised feed provider! That large feed provider has their tentacles in practically every grain feed out there. I try to purchase feeds made by somewhat smaller companies.
Yes, you’re right, Nancy; immoral, illegal, insane injustice of horses being exploited for racing with or without Pari-mutuel gambling. Even though Pari-mutuel gambling was legalized, the things that are done to horses for this business of callously exploiting horses is insanity. It never gets better for the horses.
Illegal and immoral. The two I’s in this industry.
Patrick, Wanda, Fred & Joan & all who oppose the abominable crimes against race horses: These CT images need to be forwarded to Ray Paulick, Ferrin Peterson, and Steve Cauthen for a follow-up interview as to why they believe the felonious abuse of race horses should be ignored in the United States of America, Canada, Japan, the U.K. Australia etc. etc.? The first broadcast of Ms. Peterson’s podcast featured an interview with Steve Cauthen. The Podcast is featured in today’s edition of the Paulick Report.
The hour long interview was of course a sentimental trip down the May days of Cauthen’s youth when horses were not walking pharmacies. Ms. Peterson produced a quote that is enshrined at the Kentucky Derby Museum made by Mr. Cauthen – “To be involved with a great race horse is a special blessing.” To be in the company of horse not just the renowned ones does prove indeed to be a special blessing from God.
The interview offered one significant irony when Mr. Cauthen mentioned how he was injured by a horse named Little Miracle. The thought immediately flew aloft in my brain, nowadays, it is indeed a major miracle if the horse returns back to the barn. The death count attests to the reality that horse racing has degenerated into the legal torture and public execution of horses.
Old timers know that one of the most famous horses in American history was in all probability drugged. The horse in question came out of his stall on hind legs and rearing (just as Man O’ War used to do when he was doped on race days). A statement by the groom was recorded for posterity but was quickly forgotten – he told the trainer, Boss, he could beat the world today – he is so high. It is hoped that the connections who are still living will do right by the Champ and tell the world the truth so that the crime sprees against innocent horses will be counted and justice finally served! To die with a moldy heart that protects injustice and thereby supports and sustains the death camps of Santa Anita, Gulfstream, Saratoga, is treason that cannot be measured in human history, but will eventually and most certainly be adjudged at God’s Throne of Justice.
Not only are race track vets unscrupulous but the entire profession has a lot to answer for. Vet clinics that sell cat and dog food manufactured by Nestle’s…a corporation that manufactures pet foods that give animals diabetes and of course this is the company that manufactures specialized dog and cat food to combat the diseases they pick up from the cheaper brands also manufactured by Nestle’s. Remember when there was outrage when Nestle’s sent bad baby food to impoverished nations which imperiled the lives of undernourished babies?
I can only imagine what pain those injuries cause to those poor, defenseless, horses who, through no fault of their own, have landed in the hands of sick individuals. How this blatant abuse is tolerated is baffling to any sane person.
That has been very true from our experiences galloping horses at the track Wanda. The vets only do what the trainers / owners want to be done to keep the horses galloping & racing. The oath that racing & performance horse vets have taken is violated everyday!
That oath about “do no harm” that veterinarians allegedly take is completely contradictory to the racing of horses.
I don’t think the veterinarians take the oath to do no harm. They are not the only ones doing the harm of course but they get paid to do what they are told to do by someone else that intends to do what causes harm to the horses. The trainers tell the vets to inject the horses with whatever substance keeps the horse running and the track vets are paid to pass horses to race whether the horses are fit to run or not. It’s all hideous cruelty and mistreatment of horses.
#HorseracingIsAnimalCruelty
#EndHorseracingNOW