Death and disarray on the racetrack seems to know no bounds.
The numbers in the title of this post are what you find when visiting the UK based Animal Aid’s Race Horse Death Watch page. They describe their mission:
Animal Aid’s Race Horse Death Watch was launched during the 2007 Cheltenham Festival. Its purpose is to expose and record every on-course thoroughbred fatality in Britain.
The horse racing authorities have failed to put clear, unambiguous horse death information into the public domain, preferring to offer complex statistical data rather than specifying, as Death Watch does, the names of killed horses, where the fatality occurred, who was riding the horse and the nature of the injury.
We have good reason to believe that the equine fatalities we are able to list on Death Watch, and which we have verified, fall some 30% short of the true total. Disgruntled industry insiders have, in the past, supplied us with documents to support that view.
Sounds familiar, right? Read on.
Here are Animal Aid’s Race Horse Death Watch’s ten most recent entries. These injuries and deaths happened mostly over jumps. They note where the fatalities have occurred on the flat.
Aussie Showstopper (FR) / Goodwood / Broke Near-Foreleg — Destroyed
Le Maitre Chat (USA) / York / Pulled Up Injured — Destroyed
Prince Ahwahnee / Redcar / Broke Foreleg — Destroyed
Watt Broderick (IRE) / Uttoxeter / Fell, Injured — Destroyed
Altaira / Windsor / Injured Foreleg — Destroyed
Beat The Bank / Ascot Flat / Broke Near-Hind Leg — Destroyed
Swift Emperor (IRE) / Chester / Finished Race Lame — Destroyed
One More Tune (IRE) / Newton Abbot / Fatally Injured
De Good Man Luke (FR) / Pulled Up after Jumping Hurdle, Injured — Destroyed
You Say What (IRE) / Uttoxeter / Fell, Spinal Injury — Destroyed
The Horse Fund have been in contact with the British Jockey Club and the British Horseracing Board over the years, warning them and asking them — begging them actually — to bar the American Thoroughbred from their Stud Book because of their unsoundness which has been bred into them due to egregious and debilitating doping practices and abuses.
In the meantime, does it matter why and how so many racehorses are killed during racing outside of the U.S.? The question it raised for us is — what do they have in common since it’s not excessive, deadly drugging? Does it all start in the shed?
Whatever the answer to that turns out to be, the bottom line for U.S. horse racing is this.
American horse racing has problems which are now virtually insurmountable making its future assuredly doomed. It’s just a matter of time. Our concern is how many racehorses will be drugged, abused, tortured and killed before the final curtain?
There is no doubt whatsoever that the U.S. horse racing industry is on a death watch of its own, but not just in terms of its horses, but of the entire industry itself.
RELATED READING
Forgotten Side of the Salix Debate: The Calcium Connection
• LASIX. In the 1960’s when U.S. Astronauts were going to the moon, American horsemen figured out how to prevent and manage Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH) or bleeding in horses with the use of Furosemide (Lasix/Salix).
• BUTE. Phenylbutazone (Bute) is an analgesic pain reliever and anti-inflammatory medication, commonly used for the treatment of horses.
So, what’s wrong with that?
JANE ALLIN writes:
“So Salix leaches calcium from the bones and bute aids and abets the outcome. Great combination if you are Gumby’s sidekick Pokey, the talking red horse with rubber legs.” Go to Report »
SEE ALSO
Racehorse Memorial Wall
Covering racehorse deaths worldwide since 2005. Detailed account 2014 to present here. See http://racehorsememorialwall.blogspot.com/
Horse Racing Wrongs
Patrick Battuello’s American racehorse death watch. See https://horseracingwrongs.org/ »
See The slow and merciless death of American horse racing by Vivian Farrell, Tuesday’s Horse »
Tuesday's Horse 
Animal Aid’s Race Horse Death Watch for many years has done a fantastic job of exposing racehorsehorse deaths in the UK, especially vigilant of the steeplechase deaths. A retired group 1 jockey friend of mine (who only ever carried the whip but never struck a horse, hung up his boots in disgust with the suffering of the horses in racing, absolutely refuses to step on a racetrack and supports me with his invaluable experience) was invited to ride in England in flat racing and was requested to attend the Aintree carnival, he had never been sickened so much in his life to see how cruel this so called “sport” is. He left in absolute disgust when a horse suffered a horrific death in a steeplechase.
In Australia, the “banjumpsracing” website for many years has tirelessly done an excellent job of exposing the shocking cruelty of jumps racing in Australia – virtually a one-woman show with just over one thousand followers.
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Thank you Carolyn for the important information and testimony of your friend. It is terrible everywhere not just the U.S. which is shockingly tragic. How anyone can ‘enjoy’ it and defend it is beyond comprehension.
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Wow, that’s almost one every two days.
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