The very moment I heard there was a proposal to bring a thoroughbred racetrack to beautiful Hardwick, my stomach dropped through my shoes. This is my experience with the racing world:
As an owner of an approved Sport Horse stallion (warmblood) I had the unfortunate opportunity to meet a lot of sweet thoroughbred mares that came in for breeding. Several from off the racing circuit. ALL were crippled up from the track, not through conformation, but through wear and tear. One young mare was crippled to the point where one of her front legs no longer could be bent to walk. She had already been bred previously for a race baby, then when no longer needed, she was thrown away. Slaughter auction is where she ended up and was saved by some nice people.
Another sweet thoroughbred mare came to me covered in scars, big scars, the kind that comes from a major collision on the track. Crippled and thrown away, again to the slaughter auction.
There were “opportunities“ that arose where I would go to the track to pick up mares for people. Absolutely disgusting. Crippled and broken down horses being forced to run races as “fillers”. To add additional horses so that more people could bet on more horses. I picked one horse up who had just raced the day before and was so broken down she could barely walk to the horse trailer. She was hustled on by 3-4 people who had to practically pick her up and get her on the trailer!
PLUS, I came into ownership of the sweetest mare. Off the track. Was 3 generations out from Secretariat (most people know of him). Beautiful mare - and sound! She was sound because she threw 60 jockeys/breakers/trainers and never stepped foot on to the track. Why did she do that? An affliction called Kissing Spine. After the first few potential riders came off, instead of finding out why, they just kept piling them on. Again she was thrown away and eventually found her way to me.
Now, there are many very nice off track thoroughbreds out there that excel in all types of sport. They are the lucky ones! They have hearts of gold! I guess the bottom line of my long rant is that these horses are disposable. Period. My sincerest and deepest sympathy goes to the few and far between ethical and equine considerate owners, trainers and jockeys that do care and are lumped into the same pot with the majority.
Now these are MY personal experiences with racetrack dealings and the people and horses that I personally had dealings with.
I hope there is an overwhelming NO vote from the townspeople. I would hate to hear that people had to witness a death of a majestic animal on the track, in front of everyone.
Thank you for reading .
Sue Bradley
For more information about Kissing Spine, please visit https://ceh.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/health-topics/kissing-spines
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