Through a FOIA request to the California Horse Racing Board, I have obtained the following details on some of that state’s kills in 2025 (previous ones here).
Goatski, Oct 22, Santa Anita S
“Acute sign of colic at racetrack; horse became agonal and died.” Goatski was three years old and had last been raced – and sold – in August.
Esmeray, Oct 30, Del Mar R
“Multiple open [through the skin], displaced, comminuted fractures; complete ruptures of multiple [I counted at least seven] ligaments; rupture of joint capsule; complete tears of [multiple] tendons.” They added: “Injuries resulted in fetlock failure [obviously], open luxation, and degloving [skin torn away].” In addition: “osteochondral disease [both limbs that were examined]; stomach ulcers.” Esmeray was five years old.
S J Kennedy we have seen & experienced all that you wrote! Agree 100%! Hit these tracks in their pocket books. We remember back in the 1980`s & farms would give their employees Sunday off & every other 1/2 Saturday too. Those days are long gone in the corporate America of today. CDI is kept going because of onsite gamboling at their casino properties. Get rid of the horse gamboling & just have the casino gamboling which we don`t like either. Just to enter the infield area this year for the Oaks & Derby is $170 per day! A complete rip off for people who must be dumb to pay that outrageous ticket price. That is what we read yesterday.
Churchill Downs and all racing plants are not described properly in press releases. Time for truth in reporting….The Downs is the equine version of Auschwitz-Birkenau. All racetracks especially (whether the leaky roof circuit or the playpen of the rich and idle Saratoga), are the same in brutality as the concentration/extermination camps of World War 2.
Evidence: 23 hours of stall confinement 7 days a week…no 30 days of rest on the farm permitted. Every drug currently marketed has been used on horses resulting in the acknowledged deaths of 12,131 race horses. The unwitnessed crimes of ruthless trainers drugging horses with malignant drugs that are lethal to the heart, intestines, and brain patterns. Whip happy jocks who work horses up on the way to the post, incompetent gate crews causing horses to fracture their skulls in the gate, vets who dispense serums made of frog and reptile poisons, the list is longer that the height and width of The Statue of Liberty. And, sadly that is just a miniscule tabulation of crimes that are used against the health and vitality of race horses.
The sufferings of these horses are documented in the autopsy photos. To protect horses it is essential to put the heat on the psychos who torture them. First battle get the money out of their hands. The Downs announced (April 22, 2022) a track handle of 663 million for the 1st quarter of the year. (Reported in the Louisville-Courier Journal).
There has to be legal proceedings to force the tracks to give a substantial amount of funds back to the horses that earned that wealth for the criminals who kill horses for profit and amusement. Exceller earned roughly 2 million for his connections and wound up in a Swedish slaughter house, Ferdinand also died in the terror of being murdered.
Trainers like Baffert who earn 200 million a year let the courts drag him to the bank for all the blood money he has collected off horses. Moreover people most be recruited from law schools to do these cases. The Downs must be forced to give back to the horses and the exploited immigrants compensatory justice. There are no holidays for the horses or their grooms….7 days a week work schedule, horses used to get Sundays off…the greedy and the repugnant changed that compassion by introducing Sunday Racing.
Nobody who has humanity bloodlines would argue with me, however those who want to dispute my assessment of contemporary horse racing – I am ready to establish my assessment of racing…currently researching the effects of drugs on horses and how it destroys them mentally and physically. I am one born to the industry racetracker who will not stay silent or remain quiet when horses are routinely killed for greed and fame.
2026 is the year to take The Downs and all other kill plants into the courts and achieve justice for the abused horses and to give those who love them defense and protection. Time to challenge Pat Day and all who say they are Christian to come and prove their claim. The Lord gave all creatures 1 day of rest and these people who say they love the Lord must be held accountable for their blatant disregard of God’s laws of kindness and compassion send letters on behalf of maltreated horses to the cities and states where racing is sanctioned and also to the church authorities of the Christian denominations that they falsely represent.
In Summary, the tracks should be held lawfully accountable for not giving horses (first priority – back pay for not getting at least thirty days of pasture rest), then they should have to divvy up funds for those who work 7 days a week, 365 days a year without paid holidays. Hit these devils where it hurts in the bank accounts.
These two horses were victims of daily routine mistreatment and sadism. Anyone who says racehorses are well treated are blatantly lying. Racehorses are exploited. Being exploited by greedy people is a recipe for disaster for the horses.
Esmeray’s chart says she was vanned off.
Hopefully she was not vanned off alive, looking at all that horrific destruction. Her leg looks like it exploded. But I wouldn’t put it past them to have done the vanning off alive in the attempt to preserve optics, as it was a big stakes day at the track.