All American Futurity Spectacle
 

I have been watching races for over 40 years, and I have never witnessed a spectacle like I just watched post race. JM Miracle, the winner, looked to be in bad shape after concluding the race, and was basically not moving until a lead pony started to drag him. jock was waving the whip at him, was moving like a 20 year old riding horse at a dude ranch. At some point,it looked like the horse ambulance showed up for a look. Eventually, and I mean a long while later, he reappears at the start of the clubhouse turn being dragged by two guys and literally pushed along by several others. It took him a long time to make it back to the finish line, and they dumped some buckets of water on him, but the jock eventually bailed and they unsaddled him surrounded by about 20 people....I am guessing they gave up on the photo.

I am not going to rush to judgement on what his issue is, although it is hard to believe a 1/4 mile race could have led to overheating, but in any case that horse was in absolutely no condition to travel once he turned back at the end of the pull up. Everything that happened later was animal abuse plain and simple. If he was a 2k claimer he would have been ambulanced off to the barn immediately, but in one of the richest races in America, he gets literally dragged back to the winners circle.

Still waiting to hear about his condition...the live feed from Ruidoso did not have any post race interviews that I heard.

Sorry for the long rant, it was just very very disturbing.

Had not heard the post race was that brutal, very amateur sounding to me in what is supposed to be one of QH's biggest races.

https://twitter.com/raypaulick/statu...04717557166080

Lots of stuff on Twitter right now...

sounds like the horse didnt make it

heat exhaustion?

Snipit:
He was distressed after the race and given a ride to the barn in a van as a precautionary measure after being cooled with water. “He’s tired, he’s exhausted,” said Belloc. -

See more and race replay at: http://stallionesearch.com/default.a...howstory=15596

and it didn't help
 

that the 100 people who seemingly were celebrating the win did not seem to have one ounce of concern for the horse. did the jockey or trainer even mention the situation?

can you imagine if Baffert won the Derby and he was celebrating in the winners circle while his horse was obviously injured? PETA would be staging protests the next morning. And Baffert, Pletcher, Lukas, Assmussen, etc, I guarantee you would not be celebrating. they would be sick to their freaking stomachs no matter who was at fault.

Ruidoso Downs management should deeply ashamed about what went on....and the connections, well, there is no fresh heck deep enough for them.

of course, just like the Ruidoso Futurity winner last year, "exhausted" after the race, dead the next day of kidney failure. modern horses are not durable, but most can run for 22 seconds and not keel over.

all they care about is they got the money. that horse could race to be a 100 and he would never earn as much as he did today. injured, exhausted, whatever, he should have been vanned off immediately.

Check this story out on Ray Paulick's site. Stablemate had similar symptoms after winning earlier on card. Both had blood drawn, were treated and are now ok.

http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ra...ss-after-wins/

Horse in question did make it and is now okay, thankfully.

Funny you go by the name Hambletonian where a horse sometimes has to race 3 times in one day.

That has been done away with for a few years.

Actually they brought it back this year but did not have enough horses for multiple heats due to the presence of an overwhelming favorite who ironically broke in the final.

said horse was born within 50 yards of where i sit right now :)

Kidney failure....I wonder if these trainers are withholding fluids from these quarter horses to make them lighter?...just a thought?

I think Lasix takes care of that, no?

i believe what we are seeing is trainers and vets using horses as chemistry projects. they are using regulated and or unregulated medicines in various ways to enhance performances. the problem is they are not getting the rite aid sheet of interactions, and we are having more and more deaths due to medical and not structural issues.