Cal Expo officially shuttered its doors after the last race Friday. It – and with it, harness racing in California – is no more. A day to celebrate. Not all, of course, think so, with local news reports replete with talk of “shock,” “sadness,” “devastation,” “lives turned upside down,” etc., etc. Here is one station’s coverage:
Not covered anywhere, however, was one last kill. Yes, on the final day ever at Cal Expo, a dead horse: Julio Lauxmont, in the 4th race. For now (until our FOIA), all we know is that it was “non-musculoskeletal” – which almost invariably means a sudden death of one kind or another (cardiac arrest, heart attack, bleeding out from the lungs). Julio was 13 years old. That poor boy. 13 long years of enslavement and exploitation, and a painful, terrifying death. To all those who wanted to spend one last day at the track – some with children in tow – shame on you. Shame on you.
On a day we add to this glorious list, I think I speak for activists everywhere when I say, Julio, your death will not be in vain. We will not stop until every grandstand, every betting window, and every starting gate is forever razed.
One final note: My favorite comment came from the Cal Expo bugler as he reflected on the horseracing situation in Northern California: “It’s all kind of collapsed very quickly within the span of about four or five months.” Yes, folks, it can happen that fast – especially in states that prop up this evil industry with taxpayer money. We fight on…
The death of any racehorse is a tragedy that could have been prevented by not forcing the horse to perform as a racehorse.
You need to know what the racing industry does to horses is willful and deliberate as well as routine mistreatment of horses. You can’t hide the truth that horseracing is inherently cruel to horses, Mary MacB.
You know nothing about how Julio lived and was cared for! He was well cared for and loved. Julio was a family race horse. Look it up! How dare you make it sound like he was not loved or well cared for! And just raced for the money. I personally knew Julio for many years. And I know his trainer for more than 35 years. Bet you cannot same the same thing. Shame on you for making a tragedy sound like something it was not! Shame on you! shame on you!
We are the only ones with that list, Wanda. It is cited often by others, including media. https://horseracingwrongs.org/shuttered-u-s-tracks-since-2000/.
Whatever kind of business brings in more money per square foot wins regardless of whether a certain demographic likes it or not.
Wanda, 20+ years ago after we did an economic study showing how the costs of operating Portland Meadows would not be able to support the track the horse people all just laughed & said ” We will find some rich person to run the track” We worked for that wealthy parson! 1st he dismantled his families 100 year old farm in 2012 & then in 2019 sold PM to become an Amazon office / distribution center! Many times these horse people just can`t face up to what`s going to happen in the near future. The study we did as part of our final graduation credit from Oregon State University in 1986.
It all happened very quickly???
According to another source (a HARNESS racing press article) several weeks ago, the statement was made that 40 horse racing tracks had closed since the year 2000.
These die-hard horse exploiting people would have had to have their head in the sand to not have seen it coming.
This idea that the lives of humans are turned upside down and all that malarkey is vomit-worthy knowing that horse racing is inherently cruel to the horses and that many horses are killed as a matter of routine and that so many horses are shipped to slaughter. Obviously, the racing commissioners DO NOT keep records on which horses are dumped into the slaughter pipeline or the horses that are shipped directly to a slaughterhouse in Mexico from California.