Magic Chuck, says the Gaming Commission, broke down training at Saratoga yesterday and is dead. This poor boy turned two on May 1 and was being prepped for his debut.
The Commission also relays this for Ignition Time at Saratoga Friday: “contracted laminitis and was euthanized when all medical treatment was exhausted.” Like Magic, Ignition was two and she, too, was being prepped for her first race. Her last timed workout was a month prior; no word on whether an injury then led to the fatal laminitis.
Saratoga Race Course, arguably the preeminent track in America, has hosted over 250 horse kills just since 2009. Over a short summer meet (typically eight weeks), Saratoga averages 15 dead horses. This year, already 6 have perished, 5 of them but two years old:
yet-to-be-named, Apr 24 – “tibia fracture…euthanized” (two years old)
Shiny New Object, May 29 – “fractured humerus…euthanized on track” (two years old)
No Doubt About It, Jun 29 – “flipped over [on track]…euthanized”
yet-to-be-named, Jul 4 – “collapsed and died” (two years old)
Ignition Time, Jul 17 – “contracted laminitis…euthanized” (two years old)
Magic Chuck, Jul 19 – “suffered scapula fracture…euthanized” (two years old)
Mary M., please understand that jockeys don’t pull up the horse they are riding until after the horse is obviously injured and must be “pulled up” to prevent further injury. A jockey can’t continue to push an injured horse to run unless the jockey is seriously deranged, which there are some seriously deranged jockeys/people in the racing industry.
First, the horse being ridden suffers an injury and, second, the rider pulls the horse up. Jockeys or exercise riders do not “pull up” horses for no reason. Many jockeys are so hell-bent on “winning” that they do things that set the stage for injuries to happen at an increased rate.
The industry literature is misleading on purpose because the people of horse racing cause injuries to horses. Many of the injuries to the horses are injuries that would never happen otherwise. I have a book about veterinary type care and in this book, they discuss injuries that are “racing specific” injuries.
But there is no Pari-mutuel gambling on horses that are not being raced for one thing. The racing industry people want you to think they are such great horsemen but even just good horsemen don’t subject their horses to the same type of activity that causes fatal injuries over and over as the so-called horsemen of horse racing do.
It’s all about the money and the ego trips in racing horses even to fatal injuries. So naturally they want you to think they are protecting horses when in reality they are the foxes guarding the hen house.
Why would the horses be trained so harshly? The racing industry literature says “pulling up” a horse is intended to safeguard his well being. All of these horse were injured after being “pulled up” by a rider. The last two were injured on a flat track. This doesn’t make sense