The following LTE was published in the Thoroughbred Daily News Tuesday. Over the years, I have worked closely with the writer, Chrissy Laughlin, on the hellhole that is Camarero Race Track in Puerto Rico. Well done, Chrissy.
“On Jan. 9, 2025, a Thoroughbred mare named Kayseri was euthanized in Puerto Rico. She had no joint space left in her fetlocks. Her body was broken down from overuse, her mind likely exhausted from pain and confinement. Her death is not only a tragedy – it is the subject of three formal complaints now filed against the Puerto Rico Racing Commission, the track veterinarians, and her final owner.
“Kayseri was not a forgotten horse. She was bred by the University of Kentucky. She raced under Hall of Famer Mark Casse. She competed at Gulfstream Park. But in 2021, after a decline in performance, she was sold off privately and shipped via cargo container to Puerto Rico – where she was raced over 50 times in three years, with minimal oversight, on a dangerous surface, while her condition clearly deteriorated.
“I personally flagged Kayseri in July 2024 and submitted an official intervention request to the Puerto Rico Racing Commission. I provided race history, declining speed figures, and an offer to retire her to a safe home. My formal complaints cite:
“Regulatory failure by the Puerto Rico Racing Commission for allowing Kayseri to be repeatedly raced after being placed on the vets’ list multiple times (for lameness, medication violations, and appetite loss), and for failing to respond to a written intervention request made six months before her death.
“Veterinary misconduct by Equine Practitioners & Associates and Veterinary Clinic de Confederación for the continued administration of joint injections and pain-masking treatments rather than recommending rest or retirement, in direct violation of veterinary ethics and welfare standards.
“Owner negligence by Establo Anajalin PR, for knowingly exploiting a declining, unsound mare until she collapsed under the weight of their indifference.
“These complaints are not symbolic. They are a plea for justice – not just for Kayseri, but for the 1,000+ horses euthanized at Camarero between 2021 and 2024. The data speaks volumes:
2021: 268 horses euthanized, 32.3% within 7 days of last race
2022: 257 euthanized, 34.8% within 7 days
2023: 270+ euthanized, 41.4% within 7 days
2024: 254 euthanized, 36% within 7 days
“Many of these horses were Kentucky bred. Many were only three or four years old. This is not ‘retirement’ racing. This is a disposal system in disguise.
“Now, with the Ocala Breeders’ Sales (OBS) approaching, the American Thoroughbred industry – breeders, consignors, trainers – must take responsibility for where these horses are ending up. If we continue to sell to bad-faith buyers who ship to Puerto Rico, we are enabling cruelty.
“Puerto Rico is U.S. soil. These are U.S.-bred horses. And the suffering happening at Hipódromo Camarero is happening on our watch. … Until…protections are in place, U.S. sales companies and racetracks should blacklist any buyer known to ship horses to Puerto Rico, where there is currently no reliable oversight or enforceable safeguards. If Puerto Rico refuses to accept external accountability, the industry must act by cutting off its supply of horses. And the public and press must continue to shine a light on these regulatory failures until meaningful reform is no longer optional, but inevitable.
“Kayseri ran in 60-plus races. She tried every time. She did not deserve to be discarded, ignored, and raced to death in silence. Her death must mean something. The letters have been filed. The facts are documented. Now it is time for accountability.”
Yeah! Shut it down!
This is a never ending neglect, abuse and death issue. This horses’ lives matter. Just close this horse track forever!
The Thoroughbred racing industry in the US knows full well what misery and outrageous exploitation the doomed horses in PR suffer. It was not even enough that 8 horses suffocated to death in a box aboard a container ship bound for PR and those are the deaths we know about.
Yet nothing is done and this outrage continues.
There is no effort to prevent immense suffering and death. Why do we have animal cruelty laws and then exempt racing, one of the biggest and obvious offenders??
Where are The Humane Society, The SPCA et al, on this sickening cruelty?! These organizations have deep pockets and influence but do nothing.
Racing is not going to voluntarily stop this cruelty they have to be forced to..
Pat, thank you for always looking out for the horses and for continuing to shine the light on Puerto Rico. Marie, I’d love to connect, you can find me on twitter @Chrissy_Ottb
Calling it Hell Hole ….is being too kind
Shipping horses to Puerto Rico in a cargo container is one more thing that puts the horse’s life at extreme risk of physical and mental suffering including death! I’m surprised that any horse arrives in Puerto Rico alive when shipped by sea in a cargo container.
In April of 2019, eight (8) horses shipped from the United States (Jacksonville, Florida) to San Juan, Puerto Rico in a cargo container were Dead On Arrival. These eight Thoroughbred horses died during transit. A ninth horse was so severely injured upon arrival that this ninth horse had to be euthanized.
If you have read, or choose to read, the story of this egregious cruelty to horses shipped by sea in a cargo container and have any empathy at all, you can’t honestly say that these horses were ‘loved’ by the people who sold them or the people who bought them or the shipping company nor any agent involved in this dark story of a real life event. These horses were utterly commodified; treated as nothing more than a commodity. Or, as one person I knew of in the 1960s said, “Alpo on the hoof” when he was referring to someone else’s horse.
Shipping horses by sea in cargo containers should be made totally against the law! The regulation checks and balances are frightfully lacking as most people of average intelligence can detect with some knowledge of what actually happens to these horses that are bred-to-be-exploited by cold and callous human beings.
It’s high time to stop playing Russian Roulette with the lives of Thoroughbred horses (as well as the Quarter Horses and the Standardbred harness horses) AND MAKE all of these acts of sanctioned ANIMAL ABUSE ILLEGAL.
I saw this article in TDN, and was impressed that there were quite a few reader responses to it, and all of them positive! I wish I could reach out to Chrissy to be an advocate with her to push this as strongly as possible! Many kudos to her to be looking out to these poor slave horses in PR!!