The Remington chartwriter is notorious for giving nothing away, with the latest case in point Sunday’s 5th race. Corazon de Oro, according to the chart, “stumbled halfway” – that’s it. Here is the video of that “stumble.” Note also that the announcer said nary a word. (I won’t know if the 3-year-old survived until our FOIA.)
Also: It’s been very difficult to get steeplechase kills over the past couple of years. Beyond the fact that many of the state commissions don’t track steeplechase deaths, the National Steeplechase Association has seemingly stopped posting race reports, reports that often included death notices. Personally, I think that’s because of us – you know, bringing all that unwanted exposure. So, all that’s left is to speculate.
Here are some of the results at the Grand National Steeplechase in Maryland Saturday:
race 1: “STORM TEAM rider steered horse severely to stay inside a beacon slamming into UCO VALLEY. HUYANA was then forced off course by a loose horse and pulled up. UCO VALLEY was slammed into by STORM TEAM.”
race 2: “MAKE A STAND eased and pulled up two fences out. SAMUI SUNSET eased and pulled up before two out. ITSKNOWNASTHEBERN hit a rail…then pulled up mid race.”
race 3: “ETERNAL STORY clipped the top rail of the final fence and fell. THE BALLYBREEN FOX crashed through the final fence. VADAVVERO fell jumping a fence on the backstretch. OLD STYLE HUMOR fell over a tall post and rail fence. JEREMY PASS fell over a tall post and rail fence. SWALLOW BEACH hit a rail and fell early in the race.”
That’s five falls and a crash in one race.
race 4: “THE RED FOX hit a rail unseating the rider.”
How many of these beautiful horses are dead? We may never know.
It is definitely not natural for horses to gallop for three miles to three and one-quarter miles, medicated with Lasix, and jump hurdles while being whipped by a jockey on their back.
This is about as entertaining as watching horses being whipped through the livestock auction ring and bid on by kill buyers when you get right down to it.