The NYS Gaming Commission reports kills on back-to-back days at Monticello this week. Monday, it was 10-year-old Meadowbranch Ricky – “broke down at 1/4 pole”; Tuesday, 4-year-old Within The Wild – “broke down prior to race 4.”
While the poor Standardbreds typically endure much longer tenures of abuse than their Thoroughbred cousins, for a couple of reasons – the way they’re bred, the racing itself – death on the track isn’t as common on the harness circuit. That said, these are kills 12 and 13 at NY harness tracks this year. And because harness racing in America is positively moribund, there were probably just a handful of old, wretched “horseplayers” there to witness them. End the subsidies – and the cruelty and killing ends too.
Harness racing is cruelty to Standardbreds. The whole business model of breeding farms producing foals for the purpose of being exploited for racing, gambling, the slaughter pipeline, and eventually the meat-packing plants is a depressing reality. What makes it grotesque is how some people make it sound like a dream come true to be involved in this inhumane exploitation of horses.