Hola! A few years back I had a coworker who had just turned 21.
Like all just turned 21 year old, he wanted to do two things immediately. 1.
Buy alcohol legally and 2. Gamble. So, he decided to take his girlfriend to Hot
Springs, AR to go to the horse races. After he got back I asked him how he did
and he told me that he pretty much lost all his money. Then he turned to me
with a very confused look on his face and said “You know, several times when it
looked like someone was cruising to victory, they would actually pull up and
end up finishing out of the money.”
twilight years in Horse Heaven.
They get put out to stud and just run free in the bluegrass fields and have sex
all day every day. But for every retired racehorse that is living that life
hundreds, if not thousands are simply run until they completely breakdown and
are then shipped off to the glue factory.
Imagine that. Horseracing … FIXED!? Say it isn’t so! Next
you’ll tell me that boxing is fixed too.
I have been to the horse races several times. I’ve never
really won any money at them because I don’t know
dick about it. I always buy
the advice sheets, check the racing report in the paper and then take wild
guesses as to which horse might win. But, I made a day of it, ate nachos, hot
dogs, corned beef sandwiches and drank lots of beer to make up for the lack of
winning. I enjoyed the races but there was always something about the whole
thing that was kind of … unseemly.
Anyone who knows me knows that when it comes to vices like
drinking, smoking, sex and gambling, my libertarian side comes out. Do I know
that gambling preys on the poor and that horse tracks (and especially dog
tracks) attract a “bad element?” And do I know that in so many places horse
tracks (and especially dog tracks) are surrounded by drug houses, strip clubs
and adult “theaters?” Yes, and I don’t care.
The problem with horse racing is its level of corruption and
the treatment of the horses. Anytime you have a sport that is mostly rich
people competing and there is enormous amounts of money at stake, you’re gonna
have a lot of cheating and corruption. I think as a society we’ve just accepted
this kind of thing, but we really shouldn’t because it’s the greed and
corruption that causes the abuse of the animals.
Owners and trainers shoot the horses up with all kinds ofdrugs and growth hormones so they can race them earlier and more often than
they should. You might claim NFL, MLB and NBA guys are shooting up with HGH too
and that’s true. But, humans have the ability to decide for themselves to take
the risk of HGH and the oppoeable thumbs to give themselves the shot. Horses
don’t have that. They have to just take it. Hundreds of racehorses are severely
injured or killed while racing each year.
When you watch the Kentucky Derby you’ll see all kinds of
video of retired racehorses living out their
“These horses are born to run?” True, but they’re not born
to race. They’re trained to race and that training is brutal. They start them
before their bones have fully formed, shoot them full of drugs and run them
hard very early and often. Once they are no longer any use to the owners, the
horses are then disposed of. The lucky ones are placed at a retired horse park
and do live good lives. But, the vast majority of them are sold off to other
people who continue to try to make money off racing them (either legally or in
illegal match races) or are sold off to people who will transport them to
Canada, Mexico or Asia to be slaughtered.
It’s possible for someone to go to the races and enjoy the
sport and the betting all that great stuff, but we all need to remember what
we’re also supporting when we do so.
*On Thursday good friend of IWS Radio, Justin in Lexington
will guest post here in support of horseracing.
