The Gaming Commission has just disclosed (yesterday) the death of St. Addie while training at Saratoga Saturday: “suffered an injury to its RF fetlock…euthanized on track.” The “it” (yes, they love ’em like their children) in question was three years old. She is kill number 16 this summer at the self-styled “oldest sporting venue in the nation.” That, as those who have been paying attention to this site well know, is one more than Saratoga’s average annual summer toll. If they can’t stop the killing at Saratoga, with the whole country (those who follow racing, that is) watching, they can’t stop the killing – period.
Marie, Our entire state, Oregon is non-HISA! The bullring tracks here do not want to participate or pay the costs of the additional reg.s. Even are state ORC commissioners have said they don`t want HISA reg.s. Horses are not its! They are he`s & she`s & are sentient animals just like us. That rider should have immediately dismounted the horse & walked back to the winners circle for the photo! Sadly many riders are dumb! Having galloped with many in am we know only to well their intelligence is lacking.
I don’t see how anyone can watch horses suffer the torture of being locked up in stalls and say they love horses. For a horse to be locked up in a stall for 23 hours a day is cruelty to the horse. All of the different injuries that happen as a logical consequence of being forced to gallop with a rider whipping the horse starting at a fraction of the age of maturity is more cruelty. There is nothing kind about racing.
Even the pro-racing folks are starting to take notice that Saratoga, one of the premier venues of the year, is starting to rack the deaths up left and right. They’re wondering why HISA hasn’t stepped in to start fussing over them.
Celtic Dawn broke down in the 6th race yesterday, and the stupid jockey couldn’t feel her trip and start to travel unevenly- so he jogged and cantered her back to the winners circle, as she had won the race. By the time she was dragged into the winner’s circle, she was very off. Well yeah, she broke her pastern, and off to surgery she goes! The TDN article on her even has a reader comment questioning why this is happening so frequently, and why HISA isn’t making a big deal of it! And to add insult to injury, they said they watch Mountaineer, (one of the most notoriously dumpy tracks, and non-HISA!) and this isn’t happening there this year. Just proving again that HISA really does nothing and is a smoke-show to try to appease us animal-loving folks to not question racing.