At Churchill Sunday, Sgt. Garcia, said the chart, “suffered an injury and dislodged his rider, then was transported off the track in an equine ambulance.” This “spill” was covered extensively by the racing press because (and only because) the “dislodged rider” was also injured, leading his wife to post things like this: “Jockey life isn’t for the faint of heart. Physically and mentally draining. Thank you for the prayers. Please keep them coming.” And: “Hug your loved ones tight.” The horse? Oh (afterthought), he’s dead. Vile.
In its coverage, the Thoroughbred Daily News, in a 6-paragraph article, didn’t get around to Sgt.’s death until #5, leading instead with the big races jockey Hernandez was going to miss. They then closed with this from Hernandez: “[A]t one point you’re saying I don’t ever want to ever do this again. The next second, you’re thinking ‘When can I come back? I have all these good horses to ride.'” Vile, once more. Sgt. was two years old.
The foreign connections are getting better in thoroughbtrf aftercare. The Japanese and some Koreans have returned retired stallions back to Kentucky
Raced too hard too young. Poor baby. RIP Sgt Garcia.
A prime example of how a horse can be forgotten if not involving a famous jockey happened on Saturday at parx. Yes Sir Colonel wasn’t in any of the big stakes races of the day, and he didn’t have a famous jockey on his back when he “collapsed in the stretch and vanned off”. No mention of him, or his outcome, in any of the racing stories of that big day, instead it was all the famous horses winning the stakes races with their famous jockeys, while Yes Sir Colonel faded unrecognized into obscurity.
Wanda..the old adage Business is business and love is BS so applies to this industry. Run was such a sweetheart in his day and now he’ll travel far far away to live out his legacy. Sickening.
RIP
There won’t be enough young and underdeveloped colts and fillies to gallop under the weight of a rider carrying a whip and possibly a buzzer to potentially fill the race cards one of these years. Until then, the morally depraved people will INTENTIONALLY keep on abusing horses to literal death. It’s disgusting and despicable.
Mattress Mack sold his horse, RUNHAPPY, to South Korea; so it is a no-brainer that the horse will be sent to the slaughterhouse in South Korea after they are done with him as a stud.
This business is so creepy because of the mindset of the people who participate in this inhumane so-called sport.
After 20 years of riding without a license on MANY tracks in Oregon both public & private we finally were granted a legal license to ride. When we felt the condition of those poor horses we rode & saw what was done to them & the illegal med. treatments done, we left the track in the fall of 2004. Most people in the general public have no idea how bad the horse care is! Especially at 2nd or 3rd tier tracks such as here in the NW. We saw things that are against the laws passed several years ago here in Oregon. The catch to the laws are if the horse is owned by the individual, they can do anything they want as long as the horses have adequate food & water. Vile industry is putting it mildly.
That’s such a gut punch to read. It’s always the rider’s story that gets amplified while the horse, the actual one who paid with his life, gets reduced to a footnote, if mentioned at all. The way it’s framed makes it clear how disposable these animals are in the industry. Calling it out as vile is exactly right.