Ruby was raced before being retired and becoming a broodmare.
This Saturday, May 3rd, the 151st Kentucky Derby will take place.
Don’t watch it. Don’t support it. Let’s be brutally honest: horse racing is killing horses.
850+ Dead in 2024
This number- 850+ deaths, was reported by the organization Horse Racing Wrongs. We wish this weren’t the case, honestly. There is the excitement of watching a horse enjoying doing something he loves: running. Unfortunately, these horses are running too quickly for their undeveloped legs, making all oof these horses at risk of potentially fracturing or even breaking a bone or developing severe bruising. The race could actually kill them, and this is not hyperbole; the 850 cases are only those that are the reported deaths. Louisiana, Florida and Arkansas, for example, doesn’t even share its mortality data, so we don’t really know the actual number of horses who die for someone to place a $2 bet.
There is some positive news: while this number is MUCH too high, the passage of the Horseracing Integrity Act last year helped to greatly reduce the number of horseracing deaths. While more must be done, this was a hard-fought battle and shows that regulations can help to improve the lives of racehorses.
Overbreeding and Underdeveloping
The Thoroughbred Registry is under the perveance of the Jockey Club, and the very fact that it is called the JOCKEY Club will give you a hint as to wherein its loyalty lies. The horses are bred for one purpose, and one purpose only: to be a very fast youngster. After three or four years old, they just don’t care. When they breed horses who have a propensity for exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), for example, they just give the horse Lasix while he’s racing- and who cares what happens to him after his career is over, because he will probably just be dumped at another auction.
The horse is very fast but has a tendency for sesamoid fractures? No problem- if he won the Kentucky Derby, then he will be just fine as a stallion, and continue to breed other horses with similar tendencies. While it is helpful for horses to be trained and exercised when young, being put into stalls on the track at a young age can be detrimental to their long-term bone and tendon health.
Some of these foals will never even be registered, as the breeders will wait until the horse is started in training before registering anything but a live birth: this allows them to quietly sell off those horses who are definitely not going to be contenders for any sort of race and conveniently omitting those defects when putting up their horses for stud.
Horses are not fully grown at three years old; the growth plates are not developed until at least four to five years old. Riding a horse too young can lead to a number of back and hip-related issues, including kissing spine. When a horse is raced in the Derby at three years old, it first has to qualify, meaning he was raced at two years old… this means he had to first be started to ride probably around 18 months old. Putting any weight on a baby like that is asking for long-term issues to occur- BUT, who cares if you’re the racing industry? You only need them to race when they’re young.
The Track to Slaughter Pipeline
When a Thoroughbred racehorse is no longer able to be raced for whatever reason, there are only a few options: he can be retired either to live out his life, or bred, or sold- usually at an auction- or donated to a rescue organization such as the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA).
The TAA and similar programs will work to retrain Thoroughbred racehorses for careers in jumping, dressage, trail, etc. These programs have excellent intentions, but the same health considerations will often prevent these horses from having long-term successful careers. Hanaeleh fields calls from owners of off-the-track-Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) who discover only a year or so after purchasing their “newly trained horse” that the horse has a career-ending injury. Horses can easily live to 30 years old, so they now have an 8 year-old horse who cannot be safely ridden.
Some auctions require a $1,000 minimum bid for Thoroughbreds to be sold in order to prevent these horses from being sent to slaughter. Unfortunately, many of the horses who fail to make the bid for the Derby will not be sold at once of these auctions, and can be at risk for being sent to slaughter, especially if they have suffered an injury on the track.
Nurse Mare Foals
In order to get every single dollar they can from every horse they breed, some members of the Thoroughbred industry will take the newborn foal from his mother (the Thoroughbred) and put him on a “nurse mare”, or a lactating mare that also just gave birth, so the Thoroughbred mare can be immediately bred again. The other horse mother cannot make enough milk for two babies, so her foal is often just killed; sometimes the babies are slowly starved and their skins are sold as prized leather.
That’s right- because the Thoroughbred industry cannot wait for the mare to nurse her foal for four to six months, both mares have to go through the emotional torture of having their babies taken away from them, year after year after year, until they can no longer breed and make any more money for her owners. One baby foal is traumatized and suffers separation issues, whereas the other foal is systematically starved and killed. As is the case in every other aspect of the Thoroughbred industry, the money seems to justify the cruelty.
In order to prevent the unnecessary deaths of these “nurse mare foals,” there are organizations which will take in these “nurse mare foals.” They are not supported by the racing industry, and, unsurprisingly, the Jockey Club and Thoroughbred Registry has zero to say about stopping this horrific practice.
Don’t Support the Torture. Don’t Watch the Kentucky Derby.
The Kentucky Derby is merely one race of hundreds that take place every year, but putting on a silly hat and going to watch only gives credence to the entire Thoroughbred industry that treats these animals as if they were merely machines, rather than sensitive, sentient beings who can and do break down. Supporting even one day of horse racing tells the industry that on some level you are willing to overlook all of the bad deeds in order to enjoy one afternoon.
So don’t. Don’t watch it. Don’t support this industry. One day, maybe there will be enough regulation to make horse racing safe for horses, but that day is not today.
A very simple way to send a clear message to the Thoroughbred industry is to refuse to participate.
Don’t watch the Kentucky Derby.