According to the chartwriter at Aqueduct Thursday, The Golden Gorilla (quite a name, huh?) “suffered an injury to the left front leg near the half-mile pole and was placed to a protective hold…before being expertly pulled up…and transported off the course via ambulance.” One man’s hero – “protective hold,” “expertly pulled up” – is another’s (our) villain. Why? Well, because the 4-year-old colt is dead.
In other news:
Tampa Bay Downs is (no surprise) a racino, subsisting, as it does, on taxpayer handouts. And those handouts are so lucrative they make it possible for the track to pay first-last, which often leads to results like this: In the 4th Wednesday, Papa Katz “got rank and uncontrollable after leaving the gate, quickly became detached from the rest then lagged behind throughout.” Think the jockey, Victor Lara, had any thought of not racing this “rank and uncontrollable” horse? Not a chance. For in completing the race – albeit 51+ lengths back – he and his fellow exploiters divvied up $175.
This is horseracing.
RIP, The Golden Gorilla and Papa Katz!
What is meant by the racing industry speak of saying the horse was put in a “protective hold” and “expertly pulled up” is that they abused the horse to the maximum they could possibly abuse the horse. The horse’s body could not tolerate or withstand any more abuse. But, in the racing industry world, the abuse could and would be continued as long as these “expert” horse killers want to, which could be hours to months depending on the situation.
Race #3 replay. The bobbling started very soon after coming out of the gate and the horse veered over to the right. Just speaking of names in the same race #1 horse who came in 4th of the 5 racing is Toxic Gray. The only thing that should be named TOXIC is this whole lousy business.