How is Horse Racing Still a Thing?

Seriously. Horse racing is a thing still. I don’t know how that is, but the yearly hat festival that is the Kentucky Derby still exists, and the Triple Crown annually makes its cultural appearance with that event. Mercifully, it largely fades out after either the Derby winner loses, or the Belmont Stakes, whichever comes first.

Which brings us to the track at Santa Anita. Over the course of the past year, forty-two (yes, FORTY-FUCKING-TWO) horses have met their deaths there. That is absurd, nearly averaging one a week, and in this most current case, three in three days have had to be euthanized.

What the actual fuck.

A horse named Tikkun Olam collided with another horse yesterday and had to be euthanized. The other horse was not hurt. Friday and Saturday, horses suffered ankle injuries that were similar to each other and both wound up having to be fatal.

I’m not going to sit here at my keyboard, in my nice comfy chair and pretend that I am somehow greater than the people that train horses for a living. I’m sure PETA would do a fine job if called upon, and really it’s strange that for all these deaths I can’t recall hearing from them even once. PETA is full of lunatics, so that’s really strange. But that said, horse racing has a long history in this country. No matter the ethics, it is going to be really hard to end it outright. The money, of course, is the primary reason for such an issue. And many people do not have the morality to care about this sort of thing.

But the fact is, whatever is going on at Santa Anita cannot be allowed to continue as is. That there apparently hasn’t been sufficient pressure to fix the problems that plague the track is ridiculous. The words from the people that run the place seem like little more than lip service. Yes, a certain danger will always exist in horse racing, just ask Barbaro, but when your track is causing more than double the deaths of any other track in a year, maybe the status quo isn’t working.

I researched the amount of dead horses in the past year-plus, and according to this list it is 592 across America. Disclaimer: That site is dedicated to ending horse racing.

It seems unfathomable that this can continue as is, but there’s no sign of anything slowing down. While we have a congressman calling for hearings on Capitol Hill over the Astros sign stealing, the glue factories are getting busy cuz the season is going to be underway soon, and it is entirely possible that 600 more horses will perish for their sport by this time next year. Nobody’s speaking up for the horses.

Sport of kings, indeed.

More on this past weekend’s deaths here:

https://www.cbssports.com/general/news/third-horse-euthanized-in-three-days-at-santa-anita-park-death-toll-now-42-since-2018/

avataravataravataravataravatar
About Constantine 46 Articles
Drinking our finest bourbon.

6 Comments

  1. Ugh, this is depressing. I mean, I had no delusions that horse racing was humane, but I really thought a little harder about it this year. We have opening day at the track on Thanksgiving every year, and it’s a super fun event (most people don’t bother with the racing element haha), but some people I know tried to make an alternative to that event which is pretty hilarious: human horse racing. I went to neither this year.

    https://www.nola.com/multimedia/photos/collection_a59d658e-1243-11ea-985d-3b7d704df87d.html

    (You have to scroll down for the photos, despite the fact that stupidly designed site is beckoning you to hit arrows to the right and left)

  2. Why won’t horse racing end? I think you answered your own question: money.

    Horse racing is the sport of champions, of the idle rich, and the occasional dead beat middle aged person. Because every year the press will coo about the Kentucky Derby and report on how the animals are treated better than people, that the loss of an animal devastates ownership but isn’t that the thrill of the chase?

    I think the number of deaths is a little mind blowing for how much money is poured into each horse. But I’ve read in the past that all of the modern horses have effed up ankles and bodies due to bad breeding and breeders chasing certain traits.

    They ended greyhound racing in Florida and it’s almost extinct in other states. So what would it take to get the public to care about horses? I’m guessing more contact with horses. Our ancestors ~100 years ago spent plenty of time around horses and offhand probably knew more about them than someone you would meet on the street today. But when all of the horses are either working horses of farmers or the toys of the rich, both types being on distant, private lands, it’s hard to get people in touch with horses.

  3. “Mercifully, it largely fades out after either the Derby winner loses, or the Belmont Stakes, whichever comes first.”

    It really doesn’t. There are 6 major tracks that each take 2 months of each year to run races. Churchill Downs for instance has May, and November. And while the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes are the best known races there are many other big purse events. And the tracks are packed every day that the horses run. They simulcast the races from the other tracks on their off months and a surprising number of people go to place bets then as well. In addition to those 6 major tracks there are many smaller tracks. Horse racing as a sport is growing. I’m sure there is some connection there to the increase in horse deaths. Like everything else in America it’s all about greed, and the owners don’t give a shit about their athletes, equine or human.
    I’ve stopped going to the track as I’ve learned about a lot of the abuses. I confess that I miss the party and still watch the Derby on TV. But I’m not comfortable supporting it anymore.

  4. …it’s a staggering thing on its face but the roots of horse racing certainly go back to a point that enshrines it in the dubious vestments of tradition – in the UK the best known events are probably Royal Ascot (which is arguably more famous for the Hats the ladies wear) & the Grand National which has been running since the 1800s

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1839_Grand_National

    …that said, I think less than 85 horses have died in that race in all that time

    …as others have said it’s hard to grasp in a lot of ways the reasons it hasn’t faded out the way that the use of horses for personal transport has but a generation or so back I had a relative who worked with horses (& who spent their retirement nursing racehorses that had been run into the ground back to health) along with a few others who rode pretty regularly one way or another – there is no denying that the sight of a horse really running flat out is a frankly breathtaking spectacle – & to the extent that I understand it there are legitimate arguments to be made that euthanasia is the humane option for horses under some circumstances, which might explain why it isn’t one of the fights PETA tends to pick?

    …the whole business is a poster-child for being literally stuck in the past, though – traditionally (at least in the UK) the prices are literally an anachronism

    http://www.thegamehunter.co.uk/guidestips/whyhorsesareboughtfor-guineas/

  5. …that seems true about the dog tracks – to go with the UK again I think there’s only one left in London & that’s due to become a football stadium, I think…there’s still a couple dozen tracks elsewhere on the island, though?

    …never thought to look for a dog track stateside so either there aren’t any or I simply wouldn’t know?

Leave a Reply