In the 3rd at Delta Friday, says the chart, Relentless Bar “fell…and was transported by equine ambulance.” Here is that fall, and how ugly it was. While confirmation will have to wait till our FOIA, I can’t imagine the two-year-old – yes, two-year-old – survived.
Also: Yesterday, the Thoroughbred Daily News ran an article on Irad Ortiz’s success at Saratoga earlier in the day. It began: “Five-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. won six races at Saratoga Saturday to tie the Spa’s record of six victories on a single card.” And it closed: “After track announcer Frank Mirahmadi called him a future Hall of Famer, Ortiz, Jr. said, ‘That’s the goal, make it there. If we make it there that would be great. I try to keep my feet on the ground and keep doing the grind and getting better.'”
Yes, that’s right, the person currently be extolled by the TDN and NYRA – here – has been credibly linked to cockfighting in his native Puerto Rico. This blog practically writes itself.
Fred and Joan, it sounds like this Teri Beckner could see the writing on the wall, so to speak. Now for the people at Hawthorne to exit, stage left, by August 31, according to the latest headline I just saw in my news feed. They have had plenty of time to see the writing on the wall, so I don’t feel sorry for the adults. I do have concerns for their children; I don’t know their ages or education level, but they most likely deserve better than being stuck on the backside of a rundown racetrack.
The only individuals doing the” Grind” Mr. Ortiz are the horses day in & day out. That poor filly not having the probable 25 years to live with other horses. We can hardly wait for the day when Economics of operating a casino will prove to be & are more profitable than operating a horse racing track. The public will eventually wise up to their tax $$ being wasted on a business that most are not interested in. No amount of “special” events like teacher & groom races are going to prevent the collapse of this industry. Here in Oregon a mid-sized breeder & race trainer has sold her farm last month & is quitting racing due to among other things” Lack of Purses”. Teri Beckner is her name.
In addition to my previous remarks regarding Race #2 that is highly significant and creepy is that normally when horses are scratched, Horse Racing Nation makes a very obvious notation that a particular horse was Scratched (SCR). In Race #2 where eight horses are listed, none of them are designated as Scratched. Also, these four horses: #4 SABBY SUNSET, #5 LADY DELILAH, #6 SPIRIT OF ESTHER, #7 TIMIA are not listed as ‘Also Rans’ therefore it looks like something is even more rotten “in Denmark” than usual.
It appears that Equibase and Horse Racing Nation are in cahoots with Saratoga and the NYRA to cover up an extremely sadistic and not aesthetically-pleasing-to-some-racing-fans incident involving half of the horses entered in Race #2 at Saratoga on July 25 being violently traumatized in the starting gates. That just doesn’t fit in with the lie that “horseracing is safe”, does it?!
So far, it is starting to appear as though we live in “the twilight zone” since the Saratoga replay on YouTube cut everything that would suggest that RACE #2 at Saratoga on July 25 was anything other than a four horse race and Equibase has not updated the horse profile for SPIRIT OF ESTHER. It looks like she was never entered in Race #2 at Saratoga on July 25 if you look at her Equibase profile. Very creepy!!!!!
Wanda, they were scratched at the gate after Sprit of Esther quite literally flipped out in gate. She beat up the one horse right next to her, and I am guessing made the 4 horse also start acting up in the gate. They were all scratched after they pulled them out. Not sure about the 4th horse scratched, I think it was before the race. Poor Spirit of Esther has to be awfully sore today. There is a very scary video of the whole ordeal on twitter.
Sue, thank you for sharing. I didn’t see anything about Race 2 at Saratoga on July 25, but Horse Racing Nation has eight (8) horses listed as entrants and four (4) horses placing with zero (0) horses listed as ‘Also Rans’.
My question is: What happened to the other four (4) horses entered in the race that didn’t come in First, Second, Third, and Fourth that would “cause” Horse Racing Nation to not list their names as ‘Also Rans’???
RELENTESS BAR, the 2-year-old Quarter Horse filly, went down and couldn’t get up so there is no way they are going to save her. If anything they would keep her alive long enough to get whichever veterinarian does the evaluations for insurance purposes and then euthanize the poor doomed young and underdeveloped-severely-injured-by-intentional-abuse filly.
And I wonder why- when his horse was dramatically winning the 2nd race yesterday- he had to beat the shit out of her when there were no “safety” issues, the horse wasn’t weaving or swerving, and there were no other horses around her? But he just kept wailing away on her!
Mind you, this was after 3 horses were injured in the starting gate after one completely freaked out and started thrashing.