Another guest post from longtime HW supporter and frequent contributor Mary Johnson.
“The Den of Despair Known as Camarero Racetrack”
by Mary Johnson
For those of us who follow Horseracing Wrongs, the stories of horseracing deaths due to fractures, degenerative joint disease, torn ligaments, severed spines, and hemorrhages are all too familiar. However, as I have stated for many years, horses can and do survive the horrors of the racetrack only to be euthanized later due to the injuries incurred during their “careers.” Such was the case with Kayseri.
Then there are those horses who are just “dumped” when they are no longer able to produce income and are deemed “unprofitable.” When I say “dumped,” most will assume I’m referring to horses who enter the auction/slaughter pipeline, but in this case I’m referring to those who are literally dumped on the side of the road. Such was the case with La Macacoa.
This story is about two mares who were bled dry by their racing “connections” and, ultimately, gave their lives for betting and entertainment purposes, with both experiencing tragic endings to their young lives.
I grew up around racehorses and galloped TBs at a farm outside Cincinnati as a teenager (before I could even drive). I was familiar with River Downs and Latonia, two flat tracks in my area. Of course, I had heard of the more prestigious tracks such as Belmont, Churchill and Santa Anita, but was unaware that a U.S. territory – Puerto Rico – had a track: Hipodromo Camarero. Over the last few years, I have become more familiar with this track, and it is hard for me to even read how horses are treated there. For me, it has been a real eye-opener, a horror story like something Stephen King would write. As familiar as I am with the racing industry, I thought I could no longer be shocked. But I was wrong.
It is important to understand how horses are/were shipped to that territory. The majority traveled by shipping container over the course of two to three days in cramped conditions with minimal air circulation, as the temperature soared during the warmer months. According to a 2020 Bloodhorse article (“Dark Voyage: Dangers of Cargo Shipping to Puerto Rico”), horses would die at sea due to “heat shock since these containers lacked equipment such as ventilation fans.” When this report made it into the public arena, the rules did change and now horses typically travel by plane to Puerto Rico. Still, boat shipping has not been totally eliminated. No one is sure exactly how many of those horses are Thoroughbreds, but the breed doesn’t/shouldn’t matter.
Kayseri
Kayseri was a 2017 Kentucky-bred TB mare. Her first 15 starts were at two upper-level tracks – Woodbine and Gulfstream – but by the middle of her four-year-old year, she was
sold to a buyer in Puerto Rico. And so began her descent into hell. When Kayseri’s speed figures continued to fall, advocates emailed the Puerto Rico Racing Commission and soon discovered that the mare only weighed 937 pounds (normal weight is 1000-1500 lbs.) – yet the owner had no plans to retire her.
Kayseri’s last race (her 67th) was in December 2024, and by January 2025 she was euthanized due to advanced degenerative joint disease in her left front ankle – the same ankle she was seen favoring on a video six months earlier. The condition had progressed so severely that no joint space remained, leaving her in chronic, untreatable pain. According to Chrissy Laughlin, a horse advocate and former board member of Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare (CTA), “Red flags were raised. We reached out multiple times, but it’s part of a larger systemic failure in racing that starts in the U.S. and ends in Puerto Rico.” Remember that Kayseri (below) was a Kentucky bred.
La Macacoa
La Macacoa was a 2022 Kentucky-bred TB mare. She was purchased by the Puerto Rico Confederation Horse Owners Group out of the 2024 OBS Two-Year-Old Sale and then exported to Puerto Rico shortly thereafter. All of her six races were on the island. She finished a combined 164 lengths back in those races (an average of 27 per), and her speed figure was 0 in five of them.
La Macacoa’s last race was in May of this year, and shortly thereafter La Macacoa was dumped along the side of a road. In August, she was found emaciated and too weak to stand by the CTA. Although she was taken into CTA and immediately received vet care, the damage to her body was too great and she was humanely euthanized at the age of three. However, make no mistake, La Macacoa (below) was “killed” by her racing connections because she was no longer profitable. And she, too, was a Kentucky bred.
According to Chrissy Laughlin, “At Camarero, between 220 and 300 horses are killed every single year. And this has been happening for at least seven years straight. These are not mercy euthanasias. These are horses discarded once they can no longer earn. … I very much believe horses being killed in Puerto Rico IS a Kentucky issue. Over 30% of those killed are KY bred.”
Some horses do survive this hell and are lucky enough to return to the U.S., but let’s be crystal clear that those who send their horses to race in Puerto Rico are fully aware
of the dangers inherent at that track and the cruelty that oftentimes awaits their horses. Cruelty is not a bug in the system; it is a feature of the system.
Here are the numbers for Kentucky-bred horses who were euthanized in Puerto Rico relative to the overall total.
2019: 26 out of 240
2020: 53 out of 235
2021: 73 out of 267
2022: 74 out of 256
2023: 71 out of 267
2024: 61 out of 253
Kentucky boasts that it is “the horse capital of the world.” This implies that those immersed in racing in that state are concerned with the plight of the Thoroughbred. I call that the BIG LIE. There is no other mainstream “sport” where carnage and indifference occur so regularly – and are as tolerated.
The promotional video for the Clinton Phipps Racetrack gives me the impression that the “regulated” horseracing in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, is for them what the Kentucky Derby is for the fans of horseracing in the United States mainland. It is not just about the horses; it is about the “entertainment” and the fashion show.
After being closed temporarily in February 2025, the Clinton Phipps Racetrack was reopened on April 17, 2025. The St. Thomas Carnival Races were held in early May of 2025. The St. John Celebration Races were held on July 5, 2025 and the Labor Day Races were held on August 31, 2025 at the Clinton Phipps Racetrack.
I dread to think of how they treat their horses when they are not profitable because it is bad enough when they do manage to win some money in regulated races.
Just when I think this industry can’t get darker, it does. Years ago PETA exposed the horrors of shipping horses to Puerto Rico, and yet nothing has changed. Many of these horses are Kentucky-bred, so why isn’t HISA stepping in? The silence is telling. This industry survives on cruelty and cover-ups.
Even more troubling is that there are horseracing tracks on other islands in the Caribbean including St. Thomas and St. Croix. On St. Thomas, the track has faced temporary closures related to track conditions and horse fatalities. “Bush racing” is common on St. Croix and we all should know what “bush racing” entails.
That happened in 2022 if we remember correctly Wanda. Fairly recent when those horses were abandoned near our farm early one morning.
Fred & Joan, was that incident in 2014?
Wanda, a few years ago someone did just that, abandoned 2 horses on airport road near our farm! We would not like having 2 strange horses introduced to our closed herd, Rather that, than being struck in the early hours by a local nurse on her way to work at our local hospital. All these abandoned horse people had to do was open our unlocked front gates & place the 2 horses in the safety of our fenced property. Thankfully our local nurse was not harmed. The poor abandoned horses were sadly killed.
It’s amazing they can throw away a animal when it’s no longer profitable but they keep humans alive like football players baseball players golfers things like that after they are no longer profitable wonder why they don’t discard them. Let me tell you why because it’s called inhumane the same words that are used for animals But when it comes to the Rich and the elite, there’s nothing inhumane about it. It’s called business.
Exactly,Wanda. We live in a SICK Fk’n society …where the scum involved in this pure evil,have NO moral compass….and, are lazy S.O.B’s who don’t want to put in the WORK or ambition to go get a real job or education.
Anyone who dumps a horse alongside the road without food or water should be arrested and charged with Animal Cruelty and Abandonment of a domesticated horse.
Anyone who attempts to profit from the cruelty of racing should be forewarned and charged with Animal Cruelty, etc.
Anyone who thinks it is okay to place bets on racehorses are part of the cruelty and choosing to play ignorant is not an option.
Anyone who places a bet or bets on horses are attempting to profit from the cruelty to the horses. It’s wrong that the evil of Pari-mutuel gambling is legal. All of this cruelty and gambling and throwing horses away like garbage is morally depraved.
Thank you, Mary Johnson, for this heartfelt post. It is beyond sad that all horses are so vulnerable to human whims, greed, indifference, and downright cruelty. They are truly an enslaved species. This was gut wrenching to read, but thank you for writing it. Those horses deserve to have their stories told and for all of us to acknowledge their pain. They deserve to be grieved.
Thank you for post, Ms. Johnson!
The time for polite euphemisms is over. What’s happening to Kentucky-bred Thoroughbreds in Puerto Rico is not misfortune. It’s cruelty, and it’s deliberate. Kentucky loves to call itself “the horse capital of the world.” But if that title meant anything more than marketing, the industry’s leaders would not turn a blind eye to their horses being ground up and discarded overseas. Instead, they look away. No other mainstream sport in this country would tolerate so much death, year after year. But in horse racing, the bodies pile up while the money keeps flowing. That’s not tradition. That’s exploitation. And it needs to end. Mary, thank you for writing this eye-opening
post.