There is bad, then there is really bad. Friday at Clonmel Racecourse in Ireland, five, yes five, horses were killed steeplechasing. According to Irish Racing, here’s how it unfolded: “Ballintotty Boy was the first casualty in the opener when the…
Bob Baffert-trained Socialbug, four, is dead after a training breakdown this morning at Churchill Downs. If not for the dinged-up jockey (Rosie Napravnik), it’s unlikely the kill would have made the Paulick Report and DRF. This is horseracing.
6-year-old J.B.’s Marquis, trained and owned by Eric Nelson Jr, is dead after breaking down in yesterday’s 5th race at Louisiana Downs. In his two previous starts, both under Nelson, the gelding was distanced/DNF on April 12th at Oaklawn, and…
3-year-old Graded Stakes winner and 2014 Kentucky Derby entrant Intense Holiday is dead (Thursday) from post-operative laminitis. Apparently, the colt fractured his right foreleg while training for the Belmont on May 25th and underwent surgery two days later. Although he…
Trainer Gary Contessa recorded his second (Open Window) training death of the month when 5-year-old Bear’s Spirit broke down “breezing” at Aqueduct yesterday. The gelding had yet to run for Contessa, having just been claimed for $12,500 in March. In…
This week’s casualties: Monday Score Boyera, Delaware, race 3, vanned off Legendary Ridge, Mountaineer, race 7, bled, vanned off Nic’s First Rainbow, Ruidoso, race 5, broke down Tuesday Dakota’s Court, Indiana, race 2, vanned off Gulf of Aden, Parx, race…
If horseracing is a sport, then that word must be redefined, for the competitive racing of horses resembles no other accepted sport on the planet: Where else are young pre-athletes – children – forever torn from their mothers to begin…
A dam apparently named Open Window (the Gaming Commission seems a bit uncertain) died at Aqueduct on June 4th of an “apparent cardiovascular event…after breezing on the main track.” The State categorized this as a training death – Gary Contessa,…
I’ll say this about the chartwriters (or stewards or whoever is responsible) at Parx: They consistently disclose their dead in the official results, making them virtually unique in the nation. Still, this is not praise, as horses are dying on…
Sunday afternoon at Buffalo Raceway, Faith N Moon was killed after fracturing a leg in the 5th race. As NY and California are the only states to give up their harness dead, it’s hard to say how many Standardbreds are…
As the racing world mourns another dashed Triple Crown dream, we remind that the lives of at least six Thoroughbreds were snuffed out on American tracks this Belmont weekend: 4-year-old Sweet Teri K, Saturday, Belterra, race 4 5-year-old Lemon Sundae,…
This weekend’s casualties: Friday Ferrari One, Calder, race 5, vanned off Terrific Treasure, Churchill, race 6, vanned off Interest Please, Evangeline, race 4, vanned off Nava Nataly, Golden Gate, race 6, vanned off Power Boots, Indiana, race 7, “stumbled badly,”…
