The “boxscore” of the 1st at Thistledown yesterday: “Inside Stunt chased the pace near the inside into the stretch, suffered an injury at the furlong marker, pulled up in distress and was transported off the track via ambulance. Notorious Sixohtwo close from the start outside, was injured nearing the 1/2 pole, fell before the 7/16 and was euthanized.”
While Notorious’ fall is not shown in the replay, this clip still says a lot: to wit, the announcer nonchalantly relaying that Notorious “has broken down”; the whip strikes – I count at least three – on Inside Stunt immediately before he was “pulled up in distress”; and the announcer’s unbridled excitement at the finish of a race that likely saw two kills.
Jdoe, every word you wrote we have experienced & seen as we started in the industry in 1977 & left in disgust in the fall of 2004. The 1/4 horse people in almost all facets of the equine industry are some of the worst except the ” Big Lick” Tennessee Walkers. Many of the 1/4 horses we rode were VERY poorly trained to ride & were ridden in nasty gag bits because of their ruined mouths from the bad training. They were among some of the most dangerous horses to gallop in the am as 1 never knew exactly when they would explode into a runaway. Those trainers we galloped in the am trained their Thoroughbreds the same way as their 1/4`s! 1 big charge & a runaway you had for a 1/4 mile! Those poor Thoroughbreds trained by the 1/4 trainers did not know how to properly rate let alone gallop correctly for a 1 mile distance.
Low end horses with no recent works should not be running the 1/2 in 45 and change.
When the quarter horse cheats came over to dominate thoroughbreds they changed the game to what you see today.
The gimmick(errrrrr training secret of legendary hall of famers) is to dope the horses with cortisone injections, excessive pain killers, lasix and vasodilators, prod them to get towards the front early in the race by any means possible(including the use of hidden electrical shock devices) then hang on for the win.
They also needed a hard fast track that favors front runners for this scheme to work and they got it.
That combination pushes the horse skeleton way beyond it’s limits and they are literally crumbling on the track.
Those trainers stood out as butchers in the 80’s and 90’s, but today it’s just standard operating procedure.
You’re ABSOLUTELY correct Wanda, it is DEPLORABLE beyond words. Go out and get a REAL job you scumbags who “work” in this pure EVIL killing industry
Their moral depravity is definitely showing here.
It’s sickening that people can be so desensitized to the abuse and brutality against the horses. It’s sickening that they don’t care about what happens to the horses. It’s sickening that depraved people are allowed to profit from the mistreatment and exploitation of horses in this way.
It’s a no-brainer that horses are made to endure horrendously unimaginable pain and suffering by these depraved people for “fun and profit” and it isn’t outlawed altogether. It’s sickening that the abusers are allowed to continue torturing horses.
This so-called sport is deplorable abuse of horses and not horsemanship at all. It is not horsemanship to use drugs, whips, and electric shocking devices on horses in the attempt to profit from this business; it is abuse!
Horseracing is glorified Animal Cruelty.
A friend of mine invited me to Thistledown on Ohio derby day because she had a friend of a friend with a horse racing that day. When we got there, there weren’t many people there. We saw a horse have to leave the track by the trailer, and my friend said the horse was very off and limping. Later on, we saw another horse have to be trailered away right in front of us.
When it came time for the big races, more people showed up. Not a word about the horses that had been hurt prior. It was like they never even existed.
What I found interesting is that there were 2 gentlemen talking near us. The one said something to the affect of a lot of people being there. The other one laughed and said, “only on Ohio derby day. The rest of the time, no one is here”.
I still wonder how those 2 horses are.
The trainer of Inside Stunt won a race later in the day.
Bet this horse was forgotten by then.