The following video was put out last week by Canadian nonprofit Animal Justice. It speaks for itself. (Although the incident took place in Jul 2023, a whistleblower just recently came forward.) At the time, the victim, Scarlett’s Flower, was but four years old. She has not been raced since Sep 2024; who knows where she landed.
Note the foaming at the mouth…
Animal Justice explains what happened next:
“While Animal Justice confirmed the video led to animal cruelty charges for the jockey, court documents show his charges were stayed, and that he entered into a one-year peace bond in March 2025, which recently expired. While the peace bond placed temporary limits on his contact with animals, it provided an explicit and broad exception allowing him to continue working with animals, which is especially alarming, considering this abuse occurred while he was on the job.”
Says Kaitlyn Mitchell, Animal Justice’s director of legal advocacy: “It’s extremely worrying that Assiniboia Downs appears to have swept this under the rug. A horse was violently abused inside the barns, resulting in criminal charges, and yet the public was never informed. It’s also concerning that this individual could work with horses again in a position of trust, potentially even at Assiniboia Downs.”
Animal Justice is calling for closed-circuit cameras at Assiniboia.
I just watched the video with Jen speaking on the handheld Megaphone. I don’t blame her for using the ‘f’ word out loud in public because the killing of horses at Maryland racetracks as well as all over the United States and the world never stops!
For the taxpayer funded abuse and killing to the tune of $95 Million in taxpayer subsidies every year in Maryland supporting the abuse and killing of innocent horses to continue is an egregious miscarriage of justice!
The diehard criminals of horse racing should be subject to punishment, not the horses.
This is soul crushing for the horse and me. Once seen, I can’t unsee it.
I hope people who thought that the horse racing industry consisted of “horsemen” know a fraud when they see one abusing a horse! This is NOT horsemanship; this IS abuse!
So I hope that more people who gamble on horseracing figure it out that they are getting screwed. Betting on abused and doped horses is not a smart thing to do.
We have become not friends with many so called horse people because of seeing abuse just like this! Once saw an ex-friend jockey strike a horse we galloped at the track as hard as she could in the face with her whip as she was riding him! Later the same horse together with us achieved the fastest workout time of the day without carrying let alone using any whip. Have given up on many past friends because of abuse such as this. Have this riders name found out & be shown everywhere! He should never be allowed to work around horses again! Lately have noticed this track being promoted for viewing on U-Tube. Wonder why?!
Karen, I agree completely? Why is protected? I see the faces of convicted criminals every day on the news. Why would they protect him? Except maybe because they intended to let him continue on in racing…
This is just so hard to watch! That poor, poor, horse falling into the hands of that monster. And the jockey’s light punishment confirms that racing has little to no regard for horses. It’s criminal.
Why was the jockey’s face blurred? Why isn’t his name known to the public? He’s not a minor, he was charged, tried, and convicted. The public has a right to know who this ignorant idiot is, and see his face.