Thirty-one dead horses at Santa Anita

FairWarning

Bells Beer Connoisseur
This would be looked at with greater urgency if the state wasn’t getting money from this. Has foul play been ruled out in some of these cases?
 

railbird

EOG Master
Instead of raising money for horse charity, cancel these races.
 
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John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Of course, animals should be treated fairly.

And they have been treated fairly for years without going to the extreme of banning the sport of horse racing.

Classic overreaction to and exploitation of a miserable run of luck for horses at Santa Anita.

Californians wanting to ban horse racing (read PETA) at Santa Anita need to get a life.
 

railbird

EOG Master
Of course, animals should be treated fairly.

And they have been treated fairly for years without going to the extreme of banning the sport of horse racing.

Classic overreaction to and exploitation of a miserable run of luck for horses at Santa Anita.

Californians wanting to ban horse racing (read PETA) at Santa Anita need to get a life.
I dont think they got unlucky 31 times, instead the track conditions are suspect and trainers are running vulnerable horses for hopes of insurance claims
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Racehorses die.

Nearly 10 horses a week, on average, died at American racetracks in 2018.

Unlucky sequencing at Santa Anita.
 

Valuist

EOG Master
Here's a good post from Mike, the owner of PaceAdvantage.com:

I listed a whole bunch of other reasons in addition to employment.

It's all about the benjamins. And the people involved in the sport who have a LOT of benjamins...and a lot of influential friends in politics.

I remain unconvinced that racing is in danger of disappearing in California or anywhere else.

All the talk from any of the serious players (like Senators) has been "fix the problem." Not "eliminate racing." That kind of talk is coming from wackadoodle extremists who nobody pays serious attention to in the first place.

JK, I think you can add "wackadoodle extremists" to the EOG Glossary. And it 100% describes PETA and those who want racing shut down.
 

richsox24

EOG Master
Anyone with HBO should watch that show Real Sports with Bryant Gumble this past week. They did like a 20 minute long segment on race horse deaths (both on the track and off). Its a pretty eye opening piece.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
The Los Angeles Times and its editorial board yesterday called for Santa Anita to cancel the remainder of the meet.

Here's an excerpt:

“There are only 12 days of racing left at Santa Anita before it closes out the season in late June. The most important and lucrative races of the season have been run. And new tools to measure a thoroughbred's fitness to race are becoming available. Why risk a 27th death? While this investigation continues, Santa Anita should stop risking horses' lives and halt the racing season now.”
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Santa Anita probably thought its new measures were working when the racetrack saw no racetrack deaths in racing or training over a six-week period.

And then suddenly, three horses died over a nine-day period.

I saw the following statistic: 493 horses died last year from racing from the 49,000 thoroughbreds who raced.
 

Valuist

EOG Master
Most of the deaths were surface related. They had unusually heavy rain this past winter and weren't equipped to handle it.
 

Heim

EOG Master
One of the biggest arguments PETA et al makes is look at European racing and their low incidents of death......Yes the incidents
are lower because they predominately run on grass. Big difference.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
One of the biggest arguments PETA et al makes is look at European racing and their low incidents of death......Yes the incidents
are lower because they predominately run on grass. Big difference.


And their (European) horses are bred for distance, not speed.
 

Foresthill

EOG Addicted
And their (European) horses are bred for distance, not speed.

Are European Horses in-bred like American thoroughbreds?

Used to be American thoroughbreds were bred for soundness -- for example: Cigar.

Take a look sometime at his pedigree at equibase. No inbreeding whatsoever going back five generations.
 

ComptrBob

EOG Master
From the LA Times:
In an unprecedented move, the California Horse Racing Board asked Santa Anita to cancel the remainder of its season — now six days — in the wake of more horse deaths over the last few weeks, but the track’s management said no.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Governor Gavin Newsom of California called on Tuesday for a moratorium on racing at Santa Anita Park.

Uh oh.
 
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