“They’re like our children.”

“We see them as members of the family.”

“They’re treated better than you and I.”

“When one dies, we grieve.”

Vulgar lies, all. The racehorse, in truth, is but an asset, a resource to be mined, a means to an end – simple chattel. Although you readers surely don’t need more evidence, here is a posting from the notorious Unadilla Livestock Auction in NY:

To repeat: “If a horse is called ‘as is’ or ‘sold right here in the dust’ there is no guarantee. ALL LEAD-INS, REGARDLESS OF PRICE, ARE SOLD AS-IS!”

Just things.

Then there’s a 2020 BloodHorse article on the “tax benefits for charitable donations of horses.” Here is a sampling:

“A horse owned less than two years does not qualify for capital-gain treatment, so a donation of such a horse would be deductible only to the extent of the lesser of (i) the horse’s fair market value or (ii) its cost basis—ordinarily none, if a homebred. For an appreciated horse held more than two years, the owner must consider depreciation recapture rules. If a horse that would have produced a gain if sold has been depreciated, the recapture rules treat the gain as ordinary to the extent of depreciation taken while held by the owner.”

So many more wonderful tips follow, including info on “donating annual breeding rights,” and a reminder to get “written acknowledgment from the charity [with] a description of the donated property.” At once repugnant and so profoundly sad.

Laoban was a Grade 1-level horse whose last race was the prestigious Travers Stakes in 2016. “Retired” after only nine starts (and a half million in earnings), he was then, of course, moved on to stud duty. Last May, The Louisville Courier-Journal reports, Laoban died minutes after being injected with “Black Shot,” a “vitamin cocktail” intended to help “performance” (apparently Laoban was struggling to “cover”). The matter is in litigation – the insurance company, in denying the claim, says Laoban was administered expired drugs, and at multiple times the recommended dosage – but that’s not what’s important here.

Ignorant jokes aside, the breeding shed is its own kind of servitude, creating its own kind of suffering. With zero control over his own wants and needs, Laoban was but a machine, and when that machine began breaking down, the humane course – real retirement – was denied, with the prescribed fix destroying the machine outright. All so that a few more widgets – new racehorses, that is – could be produced. Disgusting.

Because his was not an on- or at-track kill, Laoban (below) will not make our list. But make no mistake about it, Horseracing, the industry, is wholly and unequivocally responsible for the death of this poor animal. Full stop.

The lede in a Rock Hill Herald article yesterday says it all: “A retired race horse worth thousands of dollars was found shot to death Sunday at a boarding farm near York [South Carolina], officials said.” That a sentient being was murdered is clearly not the primary concern here. Rather, it’s those “thousands of dollars” in property loss. Vile.