In the 8th at Los Alamitos Saturday, Stanley Cartel “took a bad step and fell.” While the chartwriter claims the 4-year-old was transported off in an ambulance, in fact he was euthanized where he lay.
In the wake of a killing spree in November (at least 6 dead horses), Los Alamitos put out this statement:
“As early as Sunday night, November 23, Los Alamitos Race Course management began working with our medical and racing teams on installing even more strict measures and enhanced safety protocols to decrease equine injuries. Animal safety has always been our top priority, and it has become an even greater priority today.
“Changes have been made, and further changes will be made to improve the safety of horses training and racing at Los Alamitos. We thank the California Horse Racing Board for its leadership, and we are prepared to work with their staff as we face this very important moment at Los Alamitos Race Course.”
After all these years, and after all our work documenting that nothing regarding the cruelty and killing in the U.S. horseracing industry ever changes, anyone who still falls for their lies is being willfully ignorant. Full stop.
By the way, while some outlets are reporting the kill number at Los Al this year as 18 or 19, the true toll is 32. For comparison, in 2021 and 2022 combined it was 33.
I first saw something like the PETA video in person at Los Alamitos over 40 years ago!
This has been happening on a regular basis for decades.
They will sweep this one under the rug too. That’s what California does.
Supposedly, Los Alamitos is under the threat of losing their license unless they reduce the number of horse fatalities and supposedly a prominent owner is going to be banned from racing at Los Alamitos. So far, the name of this prominent owner has not been disclosed but I think it could be the Dunn Ranch. Their previous two trainers have been banned.
Ramiro Castillo was the previous trainer of STANLEY CARTEL until Los Alamitos banned him earlier this week for having five horses die in his care since May. You would think the Dunn Ranch people would have been a tad bit concerned about their colt’s chances of surviving this much exploitation. He won 9 races out of 12 starts. He certainly did not win this last race.
Unfortunately I just saw a video put out by PETA showing the aftermath of his fall and the minutes before the vet administered the drug. They pointed out the horse was in major distress. It was so sickening it’s breaking my heart right now. As Emily said, it was pointed out this was his last race before retirement. They just had to get one more dime from the horse didn’t they…
RIP, Stanley Cartel.
People who believe or project the image of believeing that racing horses could ever be made safe enough to stop horses from being made lame and unsound, crippled, mangled, all of it, have to be extremely gullible and naive or they are just being like wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Saw a Facebook post which was posted by Dunn Ranch four days ago. Has video of him working out on the track with this description: “The “STANLEY CARTEL” Morning work at the beautiful Los Alamitos Race Track. Watch him Saturday night in his final race of his career in the Champion Of Champions.” Final race indeed. Heartbreaking!
Terrible thing to write, but the day old doc Allred passes is the day L.A. passes too. Too many horses suffering & dying to early at his crummy track. 1 of the worst tracks we have seen via Google maps! Not a blade of grass anywhere for the horses to eat & relax having some small amount of time being a horse. Even at our Portland Meadows there was some grassy areas 1 could have a horse eat to relax & be outside a stall without galloping or tied to a mechanical walker.
As the population of horses produced for racing declines each year, they are more desperate to fill the race card the way I see it.
They will take anything that “qualifies” as a “racehorse” regardless of the soundness or health of the individual horse and by horse, I mean baby for the most part.
Forcing underdeveloped colts and fillies that are only ONE-THIRD (or less) of the way to maturity to gallop carrying the weight of a rider and that rider CARRYING AND USING A WHIP (and most likely an ELECTRICAL SHOCKING DEVICE that, of course, is ILLEGAL) is at least one of the major fundamental wrongs of this inherently cruel industry.
For anyone who did not already know this, the younger you start a baby horse under saddle and doing heavy work (galloping and working towards top speed) the more their LONGEVITY IS REDUCED. This is the fundamental reason why there are breakdowns and deaths in so many young and underdeveloped fillies and colts under the age of MATURITY which is SIX YEARS of age.
Keep in mind that the so-called veterinarian/medical director (JEFF BLEA) of the California Horse Racing Board was found guilty of violations of the laws regarding the legal practice of veterinary medicine because, in part, he “prescribed” drugs to horses without an examination of the individual horses in question. Therefore, anything the people at Los Alamitos racecourse say about working with the California Horse Racing Board to reduce the number of horses/babies breaking down on the racetrack is an extremely blatant lie and cruel joke!!!!!
(IF they were serious about reducing the number of catastrophic breakdowns and deaths in racehorses, they would CANCEL THE RACE CARD and send the remaining horses to a clean and healthy place where the horses would be allowed to live in a normal way inherent to health wellness, and longevity for horses.)
There are a myriad of fundamentally wrong things that are practiced in the DAILY ROUTINE MISTREATMENT of baby horses for racing and gambling. Having an ongoing race card to accommodate the breeders, the owners, the trainers, the racetrack management and staff, the gamblers and anyone else who exercises diabolical moral depravity for personal gain will always put the health and wellness of the horses on the back burner.
I’m so ” relieved ” to know that equine safety is now an even greater priority at Los Al. I guess my question is why equine safety was not their TOP priority in the first place. This just shows that even the top PR firms can’t hide the fact that the welfare of these wonderful animals never has been, nor ever will be a priority, unless of course it affects their bottom line.
The replay is unavailable on their site. However it can be found on Warhorse in its entirety. He made it over the finish line before collapsing. Another beautiful horse sacrificed at Los Alamitos for what?