The chart note for American Silver in the 7th at Mahoning yesterday afternoon: “was racing in mid-pack, suffered a catastrophic injury past the 3/4 pole, and was euthanized.” And that’s that. American was six years old, and this was his 25th time under the whip. The agent for one of the complicit, jockey Kevin Gonzalez, said this: “Kevin told me the horse just hit a spot in the track and went down. Physically he [Gonzalez] is fine, but he’s shook up emotionally because he cares so much about these horses.” Vile.
One other note: The track conditions on the chart read, “sloppy”; after the kill, the final three races of the day were canceled. This is horseracing.
Must be really bad- they cancelled again today.
They should just shut the place down. The only reason it ever came to fruition was to rationalize building a casino there. Save the horses, close racing, and keep the casino. It is a horribly stupid set up anyhow.
Here we go..New Year same old excuses. A sloppy track what with ice spots and holes? The replay is unavailable. I guess with the name American Silver he was a gray horse. SAD SAD SAD
Of course, it would take a catastrophic breakdown of a horse during a race on a sloppy racetrack for the people (who have the authority to do so) to cancel the remaining races on the card for that day.
It seems as though it would take massive amounts of rainfall equivalent to flooding for the racetrack management to decide to cancel the race card before a catastrophic fall of a racehorse with a jockey (carrying a whip and possibly an illegal buzzer) on his/her back “mars” the routine cruelty of forcing horses to perform for purse money and gambling revenue. Such was the case at Los Alamitos racecourse in California.