Over the course of just 5 days (Apr 3-10) at Keeneland, 16 horses were scratched by the regulatory vet – i.e., their exploiters had every intention of racing them – for being “injured” or “unsound,” another 11 by private vets for being “injured” or “ill,” and 1 horse who was “claimed” (bought) prior to his race was subsequently returned to his seller because he finished said race physically compromised in one way or another.
In addition, say the stewards:
“Street Beast returned lame and was placed on Vet List.”
“Accost returned lame and required the horse ambulance; placed on Vet List.” (The chart said nothing of the ambulance.)
“C K Wonder returned lame and was placed on Vet List.”
“High Go was humanely euthanized on the racetrack due to catastrophic injuries.” (We previously reported this one.)
“Sapphire Beach bled [pulmonary hemorrhage] and was placed on Vet List.”
One of the realities of the social and health services system is that grocery stores can get rid of their “fresh produce” when it is too rotten to sell in the store by giving it to the food banks and writing it off.
The social workers then give themselves credit for referring low income people to get this so-called “fresh produce” from the food bank. Oh, boy, black bananas and bunches of grapes so rotten that the gnats have made their home in them.
It’s an insult but the fresh produce was never processed into canned or frozen but has passed the window of time to be actually fresh anymore. But saying “Fresh Produce” looks good on paper and that really seems to be all the higher income bracket people and the Department of Social and Health social workers care about when they get paid to do this disgusting thing.
Breaking News from the World of Horse Racing – News from Paulick Report – April 23, 2026
Emergency Order: Oklahoma Commission Places 171 Horses Quarter Horses on Stewards’ List over Welfare Concerns – Order was issued for horses that appeared to be in extreme distress after racing.
It took the sufferings of 171 horses to get recognition of the abuse of horses in that state to go into action when the entire industry is carcinogenic and dying due to the demented and vicious use of race horses…murdered by the criminal actions of trainers, jocks, grooms, et al.? Deferred action and then sudden recognition will not remove the viciousness of the sport. Crime like cancer cannot be arrested once the danger has entered the system.
Thankfully, Oklahoma is doing some action, but the other tracks are not! The only way to eliminate the criminalities is to shut down racing. When criminals are elected into the Hall of Fame at Saratoga that was the time to kick Baffert, Pletcher and partners into the manure pile and put a sign on the front Lawn of Saratoga – Closed Forever Due to Felonious Abuse of Horses. Instead they allowed drug sellers to take over the industry with their savage crimes against helpless horses.
The Blood Horse – April 23, 2026 edition – featured a Sponsored Opinion Viewpoint from Joe Moore who describes his excitement for the industry – massive redevelopment of Belmont, Pimlico (1 billion expenditure)…..no mention of the disabled riders and their families suffering due to the crippling injuries suffered by the breadwinner of the family…they receive a meagre 1,000 per month stipend from the Jock’s Guild!
He describes his excitement of horse racing- thrilling is it to witness horses trembling in agony and fear due to a broken leg? And, what he fails to mention is the exploitation of migrants working the farms and the backstretch…The Race Track Chaplaincy buys a few bikes for the kids, take the grooms and their families to cruel places like Marineland or charter boats to teach them spear fishing (another brutal sport), and cutely overlook the despairs of grooms who cannot stay on the farm during the winter. They are forced to go to Florida for 6 months and leave their families in Kentucky. When they make the request to stay up north they are told, “No, you have to go to Florida, you are too experienced to stay on the farm.” One gentleman told me the worst months of the year are when he ships out for Gulfstream – how he misses his family…the unbearable separation of being parted from wife and kids.
Mr. Moore didn’t consider the tragedy of migrant workers at the track or on the farm. The gentry and the good citizens of Kentucky visit the renowned farms with donations of Kraft Dinner, bread, Jell-O, and miscellaneous toiletries. Indeed it is impressive the generosity of pillars of society who reward stable help with low wages, extended hours of labor, the constant threat of sponsorship being withdrawn. Oh good folks of Lexington and Louisville you are not good citizens according to God’s standards as disclosed in the Bible. Slave labor still exists on the lavish farms of Lexington and Louisville only nowadays it is approved by state legislators, and irresponsible social workers who collect impressive salaries to keep migrant workers in misery and poverty! I wonder how much Mr. Moore was paid for his personal viewpoint?
Elizabeth agree 100% We always rode claimers. 90% of them were compromised in some way or another. Scratch the entire industry.
Scratches at that scale over just a few days point to many issues and individual bad actors. What you’re seeing is the result of cumulative stress, high-speed training on still-developing musculoskeletal systems, repetitive loading, and the masking of early warning signs. By the time a regulatory vet steps in, problems are already significant. The split between regulatory scratches and private vet scratches is also telling. Regulatory vets act as a last line of defense. Private vets operate within the trainer/owner system, where there can be competing incentives. When both groups are pulling horses at that rate, it suggests the underlying population of race-ready horses includes a substantial number that are compromised at best. The claimed horse being returned after finishing highlights another issue: the claiming system itself. It incentivizes running horses who may not be fully sound because a sale opportunity exists at the moment of entry. Once the transaction happens, the new owner inherits whatever physical liabilities were present but not fully visible. Put together, this is about the corrupt economic pressure to run horses frequently and recoup costs. Rather than relying on race day scratches as the primary safeguard, scratch the entire, cruel, evil horseracing enterprise altogether.
As if forcing horses to carry the weight of a rider and saddle at a fraction of the age of maturity and forcing them to gallop everyday or almost every day wasn’t inherently cruel enough, these morally depraved owners and trainers make this Animal Cruelty even more cruel by forcing them to gallop under the weight of a saddle and whip wielding rider when they are physically compromised with lameness and unsoundness and/or some type of sickness.
It is barbaric to subject horses to this cruelty and call it a sport. It is absolutely depraved to say that unsound horses are sound in order to attempt to cover up the disgusting and despicable crimes committed against the horses. This barbarism is inherently cruel.