The chart note for Slingshot Engaged at Will Rogers yesterday: “Slingshot Engaged made the early lead, fell midway between the 8th and 16th poles, was euthanized on the track and removed by the equine ambulance.” That’s right, this poor babe, just two, was euthanized then removed by ambulance. It’s so bad it almost sounds like dark humor.
Also: Bandera de Mexico, a “lost hind end, fell, equine ambulanced” at Los Alamitos Sunday, is confirmed dead (CHRB). He also was but two.
Also: The day before at Los Alamitos, Abadon perished – no details yet. He was six and had been put to the whip 51 times, most recently Jul 5 at that same track.
Also: This from the stewards at Kentucky, Sep 10: “Greymoor finished 7th and required the assistance of the ambulance. After diagnostics were performed, it was determined that the horse had suffered a catastrophic injury and he was humanely euthanized.” Greymoor also was two. (The chart, by the way, said nothing of the ambulance.)
Dead horses every day – this is horseracing.
Fred & Joan, thank you for the update on who owns and operates GRANTS PASS DOWNS.
Wanda, Mr. Boersma no longer holds the license to operate Grants Pass & he abandoned the OTB building he built once the tribes fought him over the HRM he had wanted to install. Also once his Dutch Bro.s coffee shop business went with a public stock offering he left racing quick! He did not want racing`s controversies to interfere with the $$ to be had with his stocks offering! Grants Pass is now under a license of a group of southern Oregon horse people & the track itself & grounds are owned by the county there. We believe the above is correct. Any corrections are appreciated.
Lisa Goffstein, regarding the degloving incident in Oregon, the owners’ names are Bill and Roberta Fekkes. The Thoroughbred mare’s name is HEART ON THE RUN.
The starting gate employee responsible for the degloving of her tail is named James Harrell. If you are interested in double checking that, the article is authored by Chelsea Hackbarth in the Paulick Report dated September 11, 2025.
The incident happened on September 3, 2023 and the owners of HEART ON THE RUN filed a lawsuit against the operators of GRANTS PASS DOWNS on September 3, 2025. (I personally am very interested in the outcome of this lawsuit.)
The employee who told James Harrell to unwrap/untie the mare’s tail was the racetrack veterinarian. (I didn’t see the veterinarian’s name printed in the PR article.). After the veterinarian told him to unwrap/untie the mare’s tail, James Harrell “failed” to do so.
RIP
Lisa, I read one article about the horse having the tail de-gloved at Grants Pass, Oregon. The author of the article described the incident in enough detail and gave names of the gate starter crew involved, the names of the injured horse, and the names of the people who own the horse. It also gives the dates relative to this egregious act. The article clearly states the owners of the horse are suing the owner/s of the race track in Grants Pass, Oregon.
Another indicator that it really did happen is the fact that any Racing Press Publication would publish such a horrifically gruesome and criminal act against a racehorse.
This was a heinoudly abusive Act on the part of the gate crew; one gate crew person told the other gate crew person, the vile person responsible, to unwrap or untie the horse’s tail, but he didn’t do what he was told.
Besides that, no person who works around horses should even ever have to be told such a thing.
That gate crew person should have been charged with Animal Cruelty and put in jail at the very least. The Grants Pass racetrack owner deserves to be SUED!!!
If you drink coffee and see a Dutch Bros coffee shop alongside one of the main highways/streets/ thoroughfares of the town you live in or visit, keep on drivin’! The man who owns Dutch Bros also owns GRANTS PASS racetrack in Oregon where horses are subject to this egregious mistreatment.
Lisa – I ABSOLUTELY believe this happened. This was actually the second article in the paulick report regarding an incident like this- the last one happened in PA and the owner sued the track, as the horse had to be euthanized.
I recall when I first working at a racetrack, I heard that there had been a horse that was in the gate, got her tail tied, and when the gates opened, and she took off, her tail didn’t. I had heard her spine shattered. So yes, this is still a practice at some tracks, and here are the gruesome results.
I read an article that popped up on Google about a horse in Oregon whose tail was tied to the starting gate and she pulled the skin off when the gate opened! Can anyone confirm or does any believe this really happened?
These poor unfortunate 2 year olds! They should have been allowed to have long herd lives until at least 25 or 30. We have had Thoroughbreds live to 26 & that was after they had been raced. The small farm we picked our Settle Slew line mare from, the owners had some decency to at least stop racing her once they saw she did not like our Oregon bull ring tracks. They later left racing as we did.
As fate may have it, Greymoor(GB) was AE for race 2. Because of so many scratches it was announced he would run.