As U.S. tracks go, Mountaineer in West Virginia is about as bad as it gets. But I’ll say this about the chartwriter(s) there: In general, we don’t get the obfuscation we see at most other tracks (especially in the big racing states). When a horse is killed at Mountaineer, most of the time they tell us, albeit coldly and tersely. This from the 6th last night: “Somebodylovesyou took a bad step in upper stretch having to be euthanized on track.” And that’s that. Gone, at five. Somebody’s loving caretakers – Marvin Austin, Donald Blankenship – also had her “For Sale” (cheap: $4,000) the day she died.
This is horseracing.
If you could or would write letters to the editors of various news publications as a voice for the horses, Tracey Lynn Golden, your personal witness would be much appreciated!
The public at large needs to be educated/ more aware of the various abuses inflicted on horses at Mountaineer and all racetracks that are subsidized with money that should be going to basic necessities/ services to the general public.
The legislators need to rethink their choice of subsidizing Animal Cruelty.
The legislative branch of government must stop the public funding of horseracing and gambling, which is Animal Cruelty.
Animal Cruelty should be punished!
Horseracing, which is Animal Cruelty, should not be rewarded with public funding in the form of subsidies.
Tracy ,we`re the same. We could write & tell of 1st hand experiences at tracks both private & public that would shock anyone. All we can really do is relate to others of our experiences & talk / write to our legislatures about stopping all subsidies to racing. Have to advocate for the horse & not the ” Crooked, Crummy, Gamboling Game” that racing is, as we found out the hard way in 2004 after wondering & thinking about it for quite some time.
why do people allow this type of thing to keep on going,, you write stories about it, but names of the people doing it never reach the public eye…WHY? I have been there and have witnessed it myself, but, I am only one person, , where is everyone to make this stop all ready? I could tell you true stories that would make you sick to your stomach to what these people do there!!
Marie, that is standard operating procedure here in Oregon at the county fair 1\2 mile bull ring meets, running horses within a 3 or 4 day period. Just awful! When our 1 mile track was operational sometimes it would be almost a week before the rendering truck from Sherwood could pickup the euthanized that had broken down. This state does not even abide by HISA`s rules! Too costly for the racing people here & they don`t want to be interfered with in their private little game during the summer dry season.
Smoove Over won the first race. That is the second time in 3 days that poor horse was raced, and the 3rd in the last month.
It had to add one more fatality to closing night .mountaineer that’s good no more breakdown s til spring
Reading this reminded me of what Mountaineer felt like decades ago, back when its reputation lived in a kind of whispered-about gray zone. Long before Horseracing Wrongs started publishing ledgers of casualties, you didn’t need a watchdog group to tell you something wasn’t right. You could smell it in the barns. The cocktail of liniments tried (and failed) to cover whatever was being syringed behind tack-room doors.
Back then the public never heard those stories. There were no databases tallying the dead, no advocates like Patrick calling out the lies. The record stayed clean because the truth stayed in the mud. So when a track like Mountaineer at least admits a horse died, it only highlights how much has been hidden everywhere else. Somebodylovesyou deserved far more than a single sentence and a $4,000 price tag on the day she died. But that’s the “sport” . . . Brilliant animals treated as disposable, the truth spoken only when it’s too obvious to bury.
Replay for race 6 horse #8. She made it over the finish line or should I say hobbled. Guess they made a few bucks.
The way the chart reads, it looks like she finished the race in 9th place out of nine horses in the race. There are no details of what her injuries were and I would be shocked if they do a necropsy and disclose the results of what a necropsy would reveal about the ongoing internal injuries she had to suffer, such as ULCERS and DEGENERATIVE JOINT DISEASE, for example.
I feel certain that the people involved do not care about the fact that she suffered at their hands due to the BAD DECISION they made to abuse, brutalize, and force undue suffering on her body and her mind for her very short life.
I would not be surprised at all if they dump her body in the public landfill/ garbage dump. I expect they will have her remains picked up by a rendering company truck. This is horseracing in West Virginia, however depraved it may be! And it definitely is morally depraved to mistreat horses in this inhumane way. The subsidies definitely keep this heinous abuse of horses going for these die-hard horse killing people. It is not bad luck when the inevitable happens; it is a logical part of the daily routine mistreatment of horses for racing and gambling.