If horseracing is a sport, then that word must be redefined, for “The Sport of Kings” resembles no other accepted sport on the planet. In what other sport are the athletes:
condemned to a life as literal chattel?
kept in intensive, solitary confinement?
led around by lip chains and controlled with chunks of metal in their mouths?
whipped – beaten – for motivation?
afflicted with osteoarthritis as adolescents?
routinely dying on the playing field?
bled-out and butchered upon retirement?
A sport? If not for the gravity involved, ‘twould be absurd. No, horseracing is but exploitation of a weaker species for among the most shameful of reasons – $2 bets. To those who sustain this sordid business, we say: Slake those gambling urges with decidedly inanimate slots and scratch-offs; leave the horses out of it. To those who trade in equines in the pursuit of cash and fleeting glory, we say: Find a commodity that doesn’t bleed; take up a hobby that can’t cry out in pain. Enough. Enough.