The (full) chart note for Tomorrow’s Agenda in the 2nd at Gulfstream yesterday: “Tomorrow’s Agenda broke alertly, vied early, stopped turn, lost action and fell then was euthanized on the track.” And that’s that. TA was two, and this was her second ever race. Complicit in the kill: Sequel Thoroughbreds, Lakland Farm, Vincent Harris, Christopher Hall, and Anthony Thomas. Owner Harris also had her “For Sale” the day she died.
While the replay (surprise) doesn’t show the fall/death, I can tell you the track announcer utterly ignored it; instead, he went about his business, excitedly calling the finish. And, of course, the “Winner’s Circle” celebration (below) went off without a hitch – went off, that is, at the exact same time TA lay dying out on the track or was already dead and being carted away. I have no more words for what I think of these people.
Short answer, Steve: HISA is technically not a government agency; it functions more as an arm of the industry. So no help is forthcoming there.
The display of moral depravity and indifference to a horse dying or dead on the racetrack is epitomized in the “winner’s circle” photograph.
This is absolutely disgusting!
Right, Elizabeth. When people say they love horses, I believe they are meaning they love making money with horses which is not the same thing. People who gamble on horses at the track or online are also imposters if they say they love horses.
I have been aware that this phenomenon has existed for years, probably as long as horses have been forced to race. The juxtaposition is mind blowing to anyone with a shred of conscience. FOIA allows information to be accessed by the general public but it seems the information provided is dependent on the information the party has decided to collect in the first place. So if there is no video or incomplete video collected by the industry then there is little or nothing to see via FOIA. The lack of video evidence is obviously intentional on the industry’s part, and conspicuous by its absence. Keeping the public in the dark about the everyday realities of horse racing is critical to the industry because the truth is so dangerous to its existence. Hawthorne racecourse had signs expressly prohibiting videoing, not that it stopped certain people from doing it. Naive question- Can racetracks be legally compelled by government agencies like HISA to video all horses of all races or is that too “big brother”? Funny how there is plenty of video for stewards to review under inquiry and put jockey behavior under a microscope when there’s money on the line. “How many times did he use the whip?”, “Did he cut off or bump the other horse too much?”, etc. But when a horse dies there’s “nothing to see here”.
Everyone who profits from and perpetuates a system that exposes young horses to the risk of catastrophic injury bears moral responsibility for the outcome. That includes breeders, owners, trainers, jockeys, riders and the industry itself. Horseracing doesn’t have and never had what compassion requires.