At Aqueduct yesterday, Belle of the Ball “was transported from the course via ambulance.” The update from the Commission: “Horse experienced a full carpus to fetlock spiraling cannon fracture…due to injury, euthanasia was elected.” Belle was five years old; ’twas her 20th time under the whip. The responsible: WinStar Farm, Linda Rice, Eric Cancel, and all who support – betting, attending, watching, working in – the U.S. horseracing industry. This, by the way, is the 6th kill at Aqueduct/Belmont this year – which is only 23 days old.
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I am stunned that the death count seems not to matter to the people who profess their love of horses and yet by their acceptance of executioner trainers, jockeys who are merely fined for not riding out their mounts to the wire, savage whipping of horses, vets that de-nerve horses, the list of crimes is too lengthy to number on a single letter size page – people who defend the industry are proving to be deaf, dumb and blind in heart, mind and soul.
In today’s Paulick Report a letter to the editor concerns a correspondent who laments the tragedy of families losing their jobs. He remembers the good years when race trackers literally put their lives in jeopardy by running into burning barns to save horses, but these not in these contemporary times. One groom last year watched a horse burn to death. The writer probably did meet some wonderful people on the backstretch (I did in the 1980s), but the writer mentions ball games and family type occasions, where was this person when grooms and others who did no wrong at Calder were blacklisted at all tracks in the state of Florida. Where was this person when a female groom was coerced into giving her body to save her dorm room at Gulfstream? Where was this person when a horse was shot dead at the blind by a gun wielding trainer also at Calder. Where was this person when horses were blackballed from entering the track (Calder) because they didn’t have their blood and Coggins test on file in the Racing Secretary’s office? Ship-ins were allowed to have blood drawn at the stable gate and thus gain clearance to enter and race. However, some horses were turned back without valid right or reason. Some horses could race and some couldn’t (equine blacklisting). A certain Security Official was infamous for his crimes against horses and backstretch personnel yet nobody had the intestinal fortitude to face him down because Daddy had a high position and authority in racing nationwide. The stench that is coming out of the horse racing industry these days is not from manure bins it is from those who profit from the legalized murder of race horses.
The writer deserves gratitude for thinking about the hardships that are ahead for some families, but they will survive, race trackers are tough…they will leap thorough all challenges life might present to them. The horses though 10,930 of them suffered dreadfully: mistreated at the barn, the drug reactions that wracked their bodies and minds, the serious lameness that caused multiple fractures of legs, broken necks, gate accidents (?). This is not horse racing – call it what it is legalized abuse and destruction of horses. 10,930 died and more fatalities are to be expected when will the massacres of horses end and when will the courts apologize for their negligence in not protecting the voiceless and the defenseless?
Anyone who supports horse racing the way is it conducted these days is repugnant and deserves the punishments of being shunned and avoided.
Do you have no SHAME new york? It’s long past time for YOU to be shut the f**k down! How many more have to be KILLED by YOU? Not to mention ….you’ve notoriously done some of the most talked about KILLS …(Maple Leaf Mel, New York Thunder) ETC. Your ass needs to be shut down.NOW. I will NEVER forgive you New York…I’ve seen too much from you.
Cruelest way to die…. In agony, with the humans who’ve abused you since birth , feeling completely terrified and abandoned…..I can only hope that this precious soul was euthanized on the track and not made to withstand the horrors of transport and decision making by the savages in the racing industry 😡
Can only imagine the tremendous pain that mare went through being hauled to the backside! She should have been put down right on the track or better yet never raced. We feel great sorrow for all these horses suffering in this “Crooked,Crummy, Gamboling Game.”
The chart says this poor mare “was vetted” then loaded into the trailer. Wonder if they made her hop in on 3 legs also like the poor horse a few weeks ago.
Linda Rice cares about winning races more than ethics, honesty, common decency or anything resembling true horsemanship. This is a travesty. She was not suspended for bribing people for inside information. She paid money in envelopes to people for information that enabled her to enter her horses in races that would give her a better chance of being the trainer of the horse that crossed the finish line first.
This industry is full of greedy, depraved people. Horses suffer for it. Horses die for it. This is sick.