There is abuse, then there is egregious abuse. 9-year-old Threewisemen has been toiling away in $4,000-$5,000 claiming races at cheap racino tracks Thistledown and Mountaineer for a very long time – since August 2008, covering 94 races, all under either…
After six years – 64 races – of gross exploitation and abuse, 9-year-old Coaltown Legend (original post here) has finally been retired, owing in large part to exposure from advocate Deborah Jones. On July 28th, Susan Salk, she with the…
Two athletes in trouble: 6-year-old Wolverton’s last six starts (all under either Stephanie or Cody Beattie): October 24th at Penn, last, 24 3/4 lengths back October 31st at Charles Town, last, 53 3/4 lengths back November 13th at Laurel, 10th…
Sometimes, even I am left virtually speechless. Yesterday at Ellis Park, a mare named Texas Gold Digger was entered to run in the 6th race. Although she was ultimately scratched (reason unknown), her longtime trainer/owner, Robert Winstead, appeared ready to…
Killer Diller is a 6-year-old career claimer currently doing time at Finger Lakes. According to the website “Finger Lakes Finest Thoroughbreds” (“helping former racehorses gallop into your heart”), the bay gelding (below) is “for sale” – and has been since…
Abuse in racing comes in various forms, not the least of which is running a horse into the ground. Consider a gelding named Coaltown Legend, nine years old and 63 races into a career that began before Barack Obama was…
Today, California Chrome will be lavishly feted in NBC’s pre-Belmont coverage as he (ludicrously) “chases immortality.” On the other side of this odious spectrum lies a horse named Call Tiger, a 9-year-old gelding with 87 career starts. Nine years old,…
On racing’s egregious meter, steeplechasing is practically unsurpassed. These are the kinds of races you watch with an expectation of horses falling – and breaking. This past Saturday saw the 118th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup, a 4-mile race…
In horseracing, there is abuse – you know, the everyday stuff – and then there is extraordinary abuse. The “career” of a horse named Porfido (below) would fall into the latter. 11-year-old Porfido began racing before Barack Obama was sworn…
Last Friday, a nondescript horse named Cooper River ran a $5,000 claiming race at Laurel Park. (In fact, he was claimed.) The chart had the 6-year-old “very rank leaving the starting gate,” showing “poor action,” unseating his rider, and falling.…
Horses, the apologists say, are born to run, love to run; the modern Thoroughbred is the most exquisite of athletes, sleek and powerful, with, most importantly, an instinctive will to compete. Ignore, they continue, the diminutive humans perched atop, for…
Yesterday afternoon at slippery Freehold Raceway in New Jersey, the pace car lost control soon after the start of the 5th race and swerved, gate extended, into six horses, the last flipping onto the vehicle. Though an “initial inspection,” according…
