According to the chart, Dont Fight the Fed “sustained an injury, fell, and was transported off via ambulance” at Santa Anita yesterday. This being a $200K stakes race, there were (practically unavoidable) followup reports in the racing rags.
Daily Racing Form: “The race was not without mishap. Dont Fight the Fed (45-1) sustained a severe injury on the turn…. Dont Fight the Fed, who was second and third in two stakes for statebreds at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos in 2024, was euthanized….”
Horse Racing Nation: “The race was marred [sic] what proved to be the fatal breakdown of Don’t [sic] Fight the Fed (45-1).” Got to get those odds in.
Even the mainstream press got in on it. The headline in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune: “Katonah wins at Santa Anita, but celebration is muted. A fatal injury to Don’t [sic] Fight the Fed darkens a day of early-season tests in the older-males division.”
As a postscript, the chart, it turns out, was not wholly accurate (honest). Santa Anita released this statement: “Don’t [sic] Fight the Fed was immediately attended to by the official veterinarian. Sadly, his injury did not allow for a surgical option and he was humanely euthanized on the track.” Killed on the track. Poor boy was four years old.
This is horseracing.
Horrifying.
People who find this incessant killing of horses for racing and Pari-mutuel gambling abhorrent may feel emotional. It’s appropriate to ask,
“What is wrong with you if don’t get upset about this horrific abuse of horses that ends up causing death to the horse?”
If the fatalities that occur in horse racing happened in other sports and industries there would be lawsuits filed, prison sentences applied for criminal negligence, etc. How disgraceful that a horrific death resulted in such a phlegmatic statement from the P.R. offices of Santa Anita. As for the other publication, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, where is the editorial that should be blazing with indignation that so many horses are legally murdered at race tracks not only in America, but across the globe? Their summary of the event: “celebration is muted,” “a fatal injury darkens”….exceptionally putrid journalism from SGVT reporters.
It’s really sick to say “older males” when a 4-year-old is only 2/3 of the way to maturity. He is not even fully developed yet.
Gambling chips is what these horses are. It’s inhumane how they are exploited. If it were possible to shut this egregious mistreatment of horses down by sunset today, it would be a miracle.