The TU’s Tim Wilkin reports that Saratoga suffered its first casualty of the season Saturday “when Rockette’s Escapade broke down at the top of the stretch” and had to be euthanized. She was four.
In 2008, the Associated Press reported that an average of three horses die each day from injuries sustained on American racetracks. And that figure is almost certainly too low: Several horseracing states claim that fatalities are not tracked, some (Kentucky) do not include training-related deaths, and only one of Florida’s three largest tracks submitted numbers. California and NY alone “combine to average more than one thoroughbred death for every day of the year.” California’s equine medical director: “Nobody really knows how big of a problem it is.”
Tim Wilkin is a sports writer, and his blog appears in the sports section. Horseracing may be many things, but one it most assuredly is not, is sport. With freakish track breakdowns, neglected and forgotten throwaways, and the surreal shackle and slash of the once celebrated, can we at least dispense with this most inappropriate euphemism? Barbaro was no athlete. And neither was Eight Belles (who shattered both front ankles, prompting Derby vet Larry Bramlage to say, “She didn’t have a front leg to stand on to be splinted and hauled off in the ambulance, so she was euthanized.”).
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas once remarked: (AP) “I’ll guarantee you that if any one of those purists who feel like it’s an abusive sport would spend two weeks in my barn, they’d walk away a different person and have a greater appreciation for the care. Animals don’t have a say in it, but when they get to this level, they have a pretty good deal going.” Yes, exactly. The horses are incapable of giving informed consent to their participation. In what other sport does this apply? And yes, they may be pampered while earning, but at least 1,000 will not even finish their careers this year, and many thousands more will end up on the scrap heap. Can you, Mr. Lukas, guarantee their well-being after the cheering has stopped?
