Two horses die in first four races of Preakness Saturday

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Last edited Sat May 21, 2016, 07:58 PM - Edit history (1)

Homeboykris (No. 3, in foreground), noses ahead on the way to winning the first race at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday. It collapsed and died after the race. (Mike Stewart/Associated Press)

The Maryland-bred horse came from behind to win the race as a 9-1 underdog. It collapsed on the way back to the barn after exiting the winner’s circle.

Four-year-old Pramedya collapsed in the middle of the fourth race with a broken left front leg and was euthanized on the track. It was the fifth start of the filly’s career. The horse’s jockey, Daniel Centeno, broke his right collarbone in the fall and was taken to a local hospital.

A cause of death for Homeboykris has not been determined. The horse will be taken to New Bolton Center Hospital in Pennsylvania for a necropsy.

Joe Torre, a Major League Baseball executive and a Hall of Fame manager, was a partial owner of the gelding. Homeboykris finished 16th in the 2010 Kentucky Derby at 50-1 odds. Heading into the weekend, Homeboykris had won 14 of his 63 starts for a total earnings of $567,389. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/05/21/horse-dies-after-winning-first-race-of-preakness-saturday/

The Reagan WAR ON DRUGS, which costs U.S. citizens billions for the arrests, trials and incarceration, of non-violent offenders, who have psychological problems that cause them to do drugs, should apply to horses. These two long-shots appear to have died from drug related issues. Who won big bucks, as these horses lost everything?

[scscholar]

1. Uhhh, posting in isupport of the war on drugs?

Interesting.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. You must have misunderstood my last paragraph; the OP criticizes the War on Drugs

[niyad]

2. a very interesting question indeed.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

18. Now for the really odd part: this earlier OP on the dead horses finally got 5 recs...

Last edited Sun May 22, 2016, 02:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Here is the first mention of dead horse at Democratic Underground. Still, my previous BIGGER news iteml has only four recommendations, after being highly visible for over half of a day. With OPs on someones cat suffering from coughing up an uncomfortably large hairball getting nearly a hundred recommendations, isn't it strange that no one seems to care about beautiful animals, which were born to be abused? There is also very few articles on Climate Change at the new Democratic Underground, although we are living during the largest extinction ever documented.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7846773

[Person 2713]

3. This industry is full of dope and abuse to animals and including abuse of jockeys and track workers

[Jeffersons Ghost]

7. Look at this domain name: https://racehorsemeds.com/

It advertises by saying "Ask a Vet." If you did ask a veterinarian, they would probably tell you drugs, which make horse run faster, in pain-free oblivion, are developed daily, while current drug-screens are unable to detect these dangerous, new compounds.
https://racehorsemeds.com/
Look at the street-names for some of these approved drugs.

[Person 2713]

8. Pre race explosion ...green speed ...ugh I could not go on and seasonal track workers live in 3rd

world conditions far enough out of site of the track so no day at the races tourist see

[Nevernose]

9. Holy fuck.

A lot of those I recognize as various types of steroids, "energy" enhancers, lots of shit from the professional athlete/bodybuilding scene. A couple of those things for sale will, after just a few months, cause the body to entirely cease producing its own red blood cells (without the drug being taken daily, for eternity). Some of those things could cause a heart attack even in a racehorse, and a some of the drugs listed can cause weak bones.

I'm one of the weird people who's generally not opposed to chemical enhancements for human athletes (done with medical supervision, much of it is harmless), but poisoning animals is wrong, period, and some of that shit on that website is too dangerous for humans OR animals.

[enid602]

5. rain

I noticed while watching that it's raining there. Is it safe for horses to run so fast in rainy conditions?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

6. Horse run on extremely muddy tracks without breaking a leg...

This is very uncommon, especially in such a high profile race.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

16. According to a CNN online news article on horse deaths...

2 horses die in races before Preakness
Pramedya, a 4-year-old filly, fractured a cannon bone in her leg, while running on grass [aka Chinese Marijuana] in the fourth race and was euthanized on the track...
By Steve Almasy, CNN

Updated 6:14 PM ET, Sat May 21, 2016
Homeboykris leads Saturday in the race he later won. The horse died on his way back to the barn.

"They're thinking at this point it was some sort of heart attack ... ruptured aorta or something like that," he told the Sun. We won't know until they do a necropsy on him, just to find out exactly what happened."

Pramedya, a 4-year-old filly, fractured a cannon bone in her leg while running on grass in the fourth race and was euthanized on the track. Jockey Daniel Centeno broke his collarbone in the fall.

[Coventina]

10. Fuck horse racing and anyone who has anything to do with it.

For the horses....

[TexasBushwhacker]

11. The more I learn about it the more I hate it

First there was the push back about synthetic tracks. They are far safer for horses, but they favor stamina over raw speed and that's kinda boring. Who cares if it saves dozens of horses a year.

When I learned about nurse mares and throw away foals they totally lost me.

[Coventina]

12. Yeah, it's cruelty from start to finish - if you'll pardon the metaphor.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. ...

Race Horse Industry - Nurse Mare Foals

There are many atrocities stemming from the race horse industry. One of which is the treatment of the foals from “nurse mares”.

It begins with the pregnant mare that is destined to spend a great deal of her time pregnant to produce as many future race horses as possible. Naturally, mares will give birth to a foal every couple years or so. Not in the horse racing industry. For some, once the mare gives birth the foal is taken away from their mother to be raised as a race horse. The mare will then be impregnated again and the cycle goes on and on. The foals that are taken from their mother are often put with a nurse mare in order to get their milk. The problem with that is in order for the nurse mare to lactate and provide milk for the expensive future race horse, she had to have just given birth to her own foal. So what happens to that foal? Well, there is the problem. The foal becomes an orphan. Since it is illegal to send foals under 6 months to the slaughterhouse, the nurse mare foal is often killed or discarded and left to starve to death. All this in the sport of horse racing! Thank goodness for rescues all over the country, including LPFR, that are able to make a difference in the life of a foal that deserves a shot at life in a caring environment. Personally, I have taken in nurse mare foals 30 days old or less. These poor babies deserve a chance to live a full and productive life, free from pain and abuse!

PMU Industry – PMU Foals


The pregnant mare urine industry produces a lot of orphan foals as well. Most of the PMU foals go to auction and eventually go to slaughter. These discarded foals are viewed as a by-product of the mares that are used solely for obtaining high estrogen concentrated urine during their pregnancy for the purpose of producing drugs like Premarin (Pregnant Mares’ Urine). Typically, Premarin is prescribed to reduce the symptoms of menopause in women.

Most of these facilities have gone out of business with the creation of synthetic drugs but there are still some operating farms.

What does this means to us?

Of course there are many reasons that a foal may become an orphan such as rejection from the mother or death of the mother. For whatever the reason, we are dedicated to nurturing, training and providing a safe environment for as many of these foals as we can and ultimately find their “forever home”.

Keep in mind these orphaned foals are not given to the rescues. We pay anywhere from $200-$300 for each foal just to remove them from their terrible fate. Then, of course, the milk replacer that is needed to feed these foals until they are old enough to eat pelleted feed runs about $100 a five gallon bucket. You will probably be shocked at this cost but add on hay, bedding, supplies, training, medical care...

In the end, it is worth it as these foals get constant human contact and nurturing from very early on which makes them easy to handle and very trainable since they already have your trust. In my experience, most foals are leading and picking up their feet to be trimmed by 3 months. For more information on nurse mare foals or orphan foals in general you can find tons of informative articles on the web.

LPFR
Where Orphans Become Family
http://www.lillypond.info/About_Nurse_Mare_Foals.html

[riderinthestorm]

14. I typically take 1 -2 race horses off the track to rehab and sell

I'm no fan of the racing industry and do what I can to save and re-train for useful lives post-racing.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018813317

[Coventina]

21. As I said in the other thread: Thank you for the work that you do for these poor creatures.

[niyad]

22. thank you for all that you do.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

19. The owner of one of the horses has plenty to do with Major League Baseball...

He sounds like a good target for an FBI investigation for racketeering charges.

[cwydro]

15. Horse racing is just about as bad as dog fighting.

Sickening use of animals for profit.

[TrappedInUtah]

20. Yeah

It should be banned in a civilized society.

[niyad]

23. welcome to du, and you are correct.

[Quackers]

17. Poor animals

[niyad]

24. thank you, and everybody who posted information about the horse racing nightmare.

I knew it was bad, but had no idea it was THIS awful (kind of like the truth about the iditarod)

[yellowcanine]

25. Horse racing needs a major overhaul.

They need to quit breeding and training horses which are so fragile they break down under the slightest stress.
They need to reconsider whether it is wise to run the race with the kind of track conditions which were present at the Preakness on Saturday. One has to wonder whether a sloppy muddy track is safe for the health of horses or jockeys. Surely there must be some data on this?
They need to get rid of the dopers and cheaters who are giving horse racing a black eye.
They need a system which offers enough independent checks and balances to keep everyone honest.
Horses should be treated as athletes just like human athletes. That means they are trained but not abused. They need to be rested when needed. And they need to be sidelined when they are injured. And no performance enhancing drugs of any sort should be allowed.
Finally, on the business side of things, horse racing needs to get off the casino and gambling crutch now used to keep horse racing profitable and find a way to get people to the tracks again and watching horse racing on TV.