Through a FOIA request to the Minnesota Racing Commission, I have confirmed that six horses were killed at Canterbury last year and one horse was killed at Running Aces. As always, the response came with this: “Veterinary records of a client that are maintained by a state agency…are private data…contents must be kept private and not released to third parties unless authorized by the client or required by law.” (Minnesota is the only state in the country that refuses to identify its dead horses.)
The above said, we do know (through another source) the identity of one:
House Wrecker, Jun 15, Canterbury R – “fell…euthanized” (see this)
And, it’s likely that at least one of the other Canterbury kills came from this group:
Stud Bubba, Jul 3 – “transported off track via ambulance following the gallop out”
Gfr Im Dun Gone, Aug 7 – “stumbled after the finish and was vanned off”
Lucky Smile, Aug 17 – “vanned off the track after this race was run”
I can’t believe the killing stopped at seven horses in Minnesota in one calendar year. I don’t believe any state that has ever exploited horses for racing and gambling has ever given 100% Full Disclosure of all horses crippled, maimed, killed on their racetracks and training tracks. Of course, they will never disclose how many horses are shipped to slaughterhouses because the horse began to show signs of too much wear and tear from the every day cruelty and abuse of racing and being used as a gambling chip.
This is the nature of the beast; the “beast” in this case being the vile use of horses for entertainment for some, “a living” for some, a tax write-off for some, and overall sheer greed for morally depraved people.