Saturday, May 3, 2008

Down the stretch they come!

Horse racing is a very silly thing if you think about it.  You have a 3 year old horse getting whipped so that it can run faster for the pleasure of the people watching it and gambling on it.  If the Horse gets a broken foot, then it has to be killed.  Gee maybe you can stop all of these horses from getting killed by not racing them!  And you have the jockeys, these guys are free to do whatever they want and the rewards can be great, but there is a dark underbelly.  At all racetracks there is a special toilet that is just for purging so that the jockeys can throw up their food in order to make weight.  I think they have to be less than 110 pounds or something like that.  

So today in Kentucky, everybody dresses up in their silly hats and drinks their mint juleps and watches the big fast horseys race past then for 2 minutes with men riding them and whipping them so that they will run faster.  I'll probaby tune in as well, but I don't know of any other "sport" where the "athletes" who don't quite make the cut have a bolt put through their head and then are hacked up and put in dog food.  Well maybe NASCAR.




>>>>>>UPDATE!!!!  One of the horses "Eight Belles" broke both of its' front legs after coming in second place and they immediately killed the horse.....that's it folks, that is the last one of these stupid races I am ever going to watch....I am sick of these idiots racing these beautiful animals and every freakin time one of them dies.  It is cruel, it is assinine and it is flat out stupid, I don't care how "exciting" it is.  

4 comments:

Tasha Riley said...

Here's a little behind the scenes at the Riley house:
20 minutes before the race: "Tash, are you gonna watch the race with me"
10 minutes before .... Kevin comes outside to find me, "Dad wants to know if you want to watch the race"
1 minute before: "Tasha!!!"
I come inside and Gar says, "The race just started"
I stand and watch.....

1 minute following we see the horse down and Garrett starts in on his ranting about how he "is never going to watch these stupid races again!"

And, scene

Anonymous said...

I'd have to agree with the misses. I saw him 2 minutes before the race

"you wanna watch the big race?!!!"

"No, my mom is across the street doing MY yardwork, I 'd better go help her"

Three minutes later,

"THAT"S THE LAST RACE I'M EVER WATCHING!! WHAT A LAME 'SPORT'"

I have never seen a faster flip-flop! Well maybe last Presidential election from the Heinz guy.

Grandma Dee said...

Garrett,
You know how much I love horses. Today, it was a little hard to watch the race. I turned it on just before the race started. I love watching them round the last 1/2 mile of the race. But, it was soooo heartbreaking seeing the filly down with two broken ankles. Of course, it was necessary to euthanize her as there was no way they could set both ankles and have the horse survive. Just breaks my heart and gives me pause about watching other horseraces. I just wanted to bawl when I thought of how quickly she was second place in the Kentucky Derby and then dead. I am so grateful that "Diamond Leaguer" is retired and the personality of the barn up in Las Vegas area. Thanks for commenting on this difficult issue.
Love you,
Denise

Sailing Vessel Serenity NOW said...

Wow, this is a tough one. Being that the sport of horse racing has been around for over 300 hundred years it makes one wonder why if it is cruel to these beautiful horses why would it have continued to be such a popular sport. I agree that seeing a horse go down like Eight Belles did at the Kentucky Derby last Sat. was tragic and so, so sad. But it isn't like dog racing and other so called sports that animals are involved in. As we know from the NFL player Vick story these horses are not abused or tortured or killed like other animal races are if they don't win or perform well. The horses are treated like Kings and Queens and their owners and trainers become extremely attached to them. I have read this and of course have had first hand knowledge of how these horses are treated from Bob and Beverly Lewis who had 2 horses that won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and just missed winning the Triple Crown at Belmont. So I guess what I am saying is that some horses are born to run. While the distance that they run at times and the jockeys using the whip may seem harsh I really don't think that it is abusive to the horses to the point that horse racing has to pull back the reins. Just one persons opinion. Love ya, Susan