In our post on My Trooper’s death at Mahoning Saturday, I noted that with Stage Name’s “bad step/vanned off” three races later, there was perhaps a second that day. We now know there was. Stage Name was six. Chief exploiter: Nestor Rivera.
This now makes three racing kills – Tuned to the Moon was the first, on Opening Day – in Mahoning’s first four days of action. Again, that’s three racing (there may have also been training and/or stall) kills in four days. For perspective, in the combined 419-year history of America’s four major sports – baseball, basketball, football, and hockey – there have been three in-game deaths. That 419-year total was matched by horseracing at a single track over just four days. A “sport”? Only to the willfully ignorant.
In a CBS Youngstown article on the deaths, a track spokesperson said:
“We are working with local veterinarians as well as representatives from the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority to fully understand the contributing factors that led to three breakdowns during our opening week of racing….”
Please allow me to save you some time in your quest to “fully understand”: There is but one “contributing factor” – horseracing itself.
Of course, they have to pretend like it’s a big mystery because they are expert horse killers. You can’t openly admit that you are guilty of doing all the things that caused the catastrophic breakdowns and deaths of these three horses and still pretend to be innocent.
Maybe some veterinarians should lose their license to operate in this abuse and killing of horses…