How’s this for a chart note at Mountaineer last night: “Jokemeister broke sharply setting the pace faltering in upper stretch, had issues after wire being [sic] euthanized on track.”
“Had issues.” Vile doesn’t quite capture it. Jokemeister was six, and this was his 37th race.
In NY, the Gaming Commission reports that Term Structure was euthanized Saturday at Saratoga for a “training injury” that occurred 10 days prior. She was two and being prepped for her debut. She is now the 5th dead racehorse at this much-celebrated track this month (actually, all within a single week). And get this, Saratoga doesn’t officially kick off its meet till Jul 10. Yet, they’ll say with a straight face, “the safety and welfare of our equine athletes is our highest priority.” They’re lying to you, America.
All this is so f’ed up. Something needs to be done. Its ALL about money and its sickening. Its the same way with all animals…Zoos, Cattle, Pets…if you are not part of the solution then YOU are part of the problem. Its also all the people that bet on this…its disguisting. I went vegan in 1989 and if you are still eating meat and wearing leather than YOU are part of the problem where animals are here for us to use and dont give me any of that bible BS…You are just making excuses.
Many people only think about MONEY!/HOW MUCH DID HE WIN/BET!!!! Nor the living creature (horses)..Horse competition/shows should be banned in all countries…Especially those where the horse suffers and is useless pain…
Horseracing is the most UNNECESSARY F’n EVIL. Get a life you evil scumbags ….and, go get a REAL job.
RIP, Jokemeister and Term Structure.
Thanks Marie for your in depth racing histories of these poor horses. At least a claim is now voided when horse is dead. In our years of participation in racing in all aspects of farms, tracks, sales etc between 1977 & 2004. When a horse was gravely injured or died the new claiming owner was the 1 that had to deal with whatever happened to the horse. We saw several shocked new owners with severely injured or dead horses they had just claimed! Some just took it as a write off as a tax loss. Some genuinely cried for the loss of a horse. After such an experience & seeing the reality of racing most we never saw again at the track.
The issues were caused by the egregious cruelty inflicted on the horse by selfish people who are not true horsemen or true horsewomen.
And, the ones “lucky” enough to return to the barn area get their juglar stabbed for a jugging; stand for hours in knee-deep tubs of ice water; get a nebulizer strapped to their head to infuse their over-exerted, scorched lungs with antibiotics and steroids; get their inflamed fetlock joints drained and injected with steroids; have their groom blow marijuana smoke up their nostrils (just for ya-ya’s)…Ban horseracing now and forever.
I took a little look at Jokemeister’s history to see where he had been, and with whom.
He won a race at Aqueduct. In that particular race, I noted a claim for another horse, Jelly Nougat, which had been voided. The void reasoning? “Deceased”. Jelly Nougat had been injured and euthanized on the track.
He eventually travelled to Mahoning, where he raced against a horse named “Frank N Ducky”. Frank N Ducky would eventually die after dropping dead after the wire at Mahoning.
Then at Thistledown, he raced against a horse named “Onemorandthecheck”.
Onemorandthecheck eventually was euthanized on track in one of his races after being injured catastrophically.
That’s 4 dead horses that all raced against each other, and all 4 dead from racing. That we know of. And that was just a quick dive looking at a few charts.
THIS is horse racing.