Claret Beret collapsed and died from an “apparent cardiac event” following a training session at Palm Meadows yesterday. She was five – “cardiac event.” This one was widely covered in the racing rags because Claret was a million-dollar-plus earner who was coming off a Grade 1 “win” at Oaklawn in April. Said her complicit (in the kill, that is) trainer, Saffie Joseph, in the TDN: “She was an amazing filly who will always be remembered. May she rest in peace.” Vile.
100% agree, Wanda, more & more racing is just another tourist “Attraction” to the county fairs along with rodeos. We hate both! What a crummy way to boost tourism!
Thank you, Karen.
Thank you, Marie. Seriously, I thought WHITE ABARRIO would have broken down some months ago, either fatally or crippled for life. At least, someone did their job to scratch a horse when they should have.
I came here to essentially say the same, Wanda.
I also still think his crying after White Abarrio finished second in the Pegasus after being scratched for being visibly lame in the BC was telling. I think he knew that WA not sound, and had he broken down, he would have probably been the most hated man in racing.
Business is business and love is BS. This horse business ranks right up there. Sad sad sad
Decades ago, my understanding of the age of a horse in its “prime” was about eight or nine years of age. At five years of age, a horse has not even reached full maturity.
I frankly don’t understand why they didn’t retire her from racing after winning so much money. Why did they not start using her as a broodmare? How much money does a filly or mare have to win before they make the decision to exploit her in a different way?
In the racing industry, this killing of horses has been “normalized” as much as the kill buyers filling contracts with meatpacking companies and having horses they bought from a livestock auction and/or a private seller tagged with USDA tags and microchips AND then shipping them to Mexico or Canada.
It is not humane to routinely or randomly have horses drop dead or to treat them like their lives don’t matter.
Every “tourist attraction” that uses and abuses horses for racing and rodeos for “bringing in tourist dollars to boost the economy of a county, city, town, or village” needs a well organized group of Animal Rights Activists to call out the Animal Cruelty. Profiting from cruelty to the horses should be totally unacceptable! This Animal Cruelty SHOULD NOT be celebrated or subsidized!
Congressman Nick Langworthy (r-NY) is currently on a stop animal testing kick, and is blowing his horn about how he got a testing facility that used beagles shut down and the dogs rescued. Well, finally, something I agree with him on!
So, I tried contacting him, but his website informed me that since I don’t live in his district, he has no interest in what I have to say. Legislators need to realize, they represent EVERYONE in their state ( if they’re state legislators), EVERYONE in their country if they’re federal representatives. They write and vote in bills dnd policies that affect all of us. The better be taking our calls and emails!
Ok, off that soapbox.
I got in his Facebook page, which I noticed he never responds to, and put in a few lengthy posts on how racehorses are treated. How our tax dollars are propping up a dead industry-you’d think a politician of any party would respond to that! And, I told him how racehorses are treated. How they live. How they are abused, while the government funds their abuse, with our taxes.
I’m hoping he says or does something, to show he read what I wrote.
“Rest in peace” ???? The irony. The poor horse certainly didn’t live in peace. Sick.
A healthy five-year-old horse doesn’t simply die of old age. Whether the exact cause was a cardiac event or something else, it’s heartbreaking that a horse in the prime of her life collapsed and died immediately after trainin. The industry celebrates earnings and victories while treating these deaths as unfortunate footnotes is vile, indeed!
Regarding Saffie Joseph Jr., I can’t help but wonder if untraceable drugs were involved in the “mysterious” deaths of two horses at Churchill Downs in 2023. I’ve always wondered why they didn’t come up with a reasonable explanation for the deaths of those two horses. He is a high profile trainer with a long family history in Thoroughbred horse racing and has been entrenched in this industry for decades.