Just a couple days after this picture made the rounds, another example of industry callousness surfaces. The following video is of Irish jockey Rob James mounting a 5-year-old mare who had just collapsed and died while training in 2016:
For his part, James said this to The Irish Field:
“I have become aware of a video circulating of me on social media. I would just like to apologise for my actions which were wholly inappropriate and disrespectful to a lovely five-year-old mare, who unfortunately suffered a sudden cardiac arrest while at exercise earlier that morning, April 30th, 2016.
“To try defending my stupidity at the time would add further insult and hurt to the many loyal people that have supported me during my career. I have caused embarrassment to my employers, my family and most importantly the sport I love. I am heartbroken by the damage I have caused and will do my best to try and make amends to those hurt by my conduct.”
My take: It’s not the specific act here – the horse is already dead; it’s the attitude. The laughing. The indifference. The casual disregard. That’s what enrages. But make no mistake, this is horseracing. For further proof, I refer back to this 2013 undercover video of (Hall of Famer) Steve Asmussen’s barn (at Churchill and Saratoga, no less):
And the transcript:
Trainer Scott Blasi, Asmussen’s top lieutenant:
“Fuck these horses. These motherfuckers. They’ll fucking break your fucking heart every fucking day, these cocksuckers. There’s always something wrong with ’em.”
“You ought to see these limping motherfuckers. I see this son [of] a bitch out here [Saratoga] jogging every day.”
“You could not believe how many [horses] they hurt and kill before they ever even get to the racetrack.”
Farrier working on 5-year-old Nehro, one of Asmussen’s charges:
“That’s all missing! His foot is a little bitty nub. [H]e lost Z-bars on both feet multiple times until he had bloody holes in the bottom of his feet. He doesn’t even have a pulse in this one, and he’s barely got one in the [other]. Stick your thumb in there. Right there in that frog. [I]t’s been like that for three months…it rotted.” Blasi: “Listen…I know the fucker hurts.” Farrier: “Let me show you this hole. This is treacherous. We’ve tried superglue in that hole.”
Blasi, to Nehro:
“Quit being such an asshole…aggravating son of a bitch.” A few days after this exchange, Nehro died of colic. Blasi: “I have seen a lot of shit. That is the most violent fucking death I have ever seen.”
Blasi on “shockwave therapy,” which is used to deaden pain:
“It fucking hurts like hell. I can’t believe them fucking sons a bitches can take it.”
Blasi on electric shockers, which are used to “motivate” horses to run faster:
“I’d tell [jockey Ricardo Santana Jr], ‘You got the maquina [shocker]?’ ‘Boss, I got the maquina.'”
Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens:
“So, long story short, I win the race…and I reach over to pull this off, and I, I shock the shit out of myself [audible laughing around the table].”
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas:
“Well, we used to go behind the gate at Ruidoso. And it was just like it was a full-blown orchestra. Zzz. Zzz. Zzz. Zzz. Everybody had one [shockers]. Everybody had one.”
Blasi, after losing an underperformer – a “rat” – to a claim:
“I could just do a fucking cartwheel right now.”
As I wrote at the time, and certainly remains true today:
From calling them “rats,” to laughing at electric shockers, to casually discussing a horse’s deformed foot, to casually discussing that same horse’s excruciating death, some prominent racing people at some prominent American tracks betray what the racing-horse represents to them – a means to an end. Respect for intelligent, feeling beings with intrinsic worth? Please. In fact, Asmussen says the sole reason Blasi was fired is because he disrespected an owner. (Blasi was, of course, rehired shortly thereafter.) So to me, it matters not a whit what the investigation concludes (no charges were ever brought against either Asmussen or Blasi); horseracing’s true colors have, yet again, been put on full display for all to see.
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