This horse should have never been allowed to run
 

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I hate to say this, dilanesp, but some Jurisdictions just don't care. Some are better than others. Until they are forced to care...nothing is changing.

What I don't understand is the total disconnect with these Jurisdictions, and how this affects everything. Even from a purely business standpoint...this is no good. And all it takes to avoid a lot of these incidents is to MAKE THE OTHERS INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS DO THEIR JOBS.

They...just...don't...care.

I recall that a few years back a horse showing SEVERAL recent pull-ups broke down, severely injuring Oz Pereira. Since one of my assigned tasks as ast racing sec, aside from checking wgt and eligibility, is to flag any horse on a vet's, starters, or steward's list..etc..etc, I sprang from my tv chair and made a mad dash for the racing office to double check the original entry. That was the longest 2 minutes of my life. Had the entry listed any reason for me to expel the horse, I would not only have felt partly responsible for the catastrophe, but, in all likelihood, wound up in court.

After decades of checking entries, you develop "hard" eyes that do not miss that kind of detail. Had they failed me in that instance, my whole life would have changed.

I still shudder when I think back on that incident.

It makes a little more sense when you remember that Belterra is owned by Boyd Gaming, which also owns Delta Downs and Evangeline Downs, two tracks that have a history of having their former runners show up in local kill pens.

What if the horse didn't run, but secretly ended up in a slaughterhouse instead? Would that have been a more comforting solution? Don't we all know what continually happens to horses like these in this game...why all the outrage whenever another sad case like this shows up? At least in this particular case...the horse received some sort of care, and lived about 5 more years than it might otherwise have lived, had the circumstances been a little different.

This is the "behind-the-scenes" game, boys and girls...and we approve of this "cruelty" through our participation in the game. We may express feigned outrage whenever we see something like this...but our apathetic actions speak louder than our words.

Yea it's tough.

I was looking up a claimer... liked her,- same names as my pets...
Hasn't raced in 1.5yrs
no works

A shady trainer might run an unsound horse if the horse were insured. Break down, put down, file a claim and collect.

Hum, I dont think there are ANY claimer that have insurance on them.

The evil that people do....

I know the O/T involved here. He's a good guy; he's not some unscrupulous bottom-feeder claiming trainer. His wife is the listed breeder. They run only their Ohio-bred homebreds; they don't claim off others, and I don't think they get claimed off of either. Every year he has one or two that are competitive in Ohio-bred stakes, and a handful of others.

I haven't been at Belterra this summer and don't know the particulars of this situation, but I am confidant that the horse was properly inspected; it has four workouts this summer, none of them sharp, but one could say that about many Belterra runners; and I am sure the stewards and racing office and outriders and Dr. Jackson were extremely careful in their approval of this entry.

All I'm saying is that this was most likely an extremely unfortunate event, devastating to everyone that had a part in it, and not the inevitable result of the actions of shady, lazy, careless bad actors that are ruining the sport. It's easy for critics far from the scene to immediately assume the worst, but in this case I think that that's not the right assumption to make.

But in this day and age there isn't time for more measured responses, it's all "sound and fury."

I'm trying to remember a story where a horse was out of training for five years and came back and the ending was a good one, but I'm coming up empty.

There must be a heck of a backstory, I don't know if anyone will be forthcoming with answers as to why this long and why bring back a horse away this long with so little promise shown initially. I don't have a problem with 8 year old horses racing whatsoever but we can guess there was likely the injury, and then it would be healed several years ago. At that point the horse remains away for ballpark several more years? that's the part I'd like to know some details on.

And by the way, my criticism here was of the track and regulators. They should have said "no, you can't run the horse after 4 years". I have no idea what the owners were thinking and for all I know they are good people following the advice of their vets.

Exactly. Horse shouldn't be banned automatically, but there should have been a lot of due diligence done and that doesn't appear to have been the case.

Absolutely, Mulerider. :ThmbUp: