Joe Drape, NY Times:
"New York Thunder, who suffered a catastrophic injury during the stretch run of the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens at Saratoga, had a history of joint injections.
He received a joint injection exactly two weeks before his final start."Horses must wait 14 days after being injected to run. He took his last step and met his death exactly 14 days after he got injected.
The story gets worse.
Again, Drape:
"This was not the first time New York Thunder has gotten a joint injection exactly two weeks before a race." New York Thunder's prior race was a huge 8 length win in the Amsterdam Stakes on July 28th.
Guess what happened on July 14th, exactly 14 days prior... the same joint was injected.
I'm not one who cries when horses break down. They're bred to do what we have them do.
But when it happens and people scream "close Saratoga," or "get rid of all dirt tracks and put in synthetic," it's just pathetic.
We could have horses run on cotton balls and marshmallows but if we allow horses like this to run they will still die on the track. And people will act surprised.
Fucking greedy cheating people. Fucking bad medication rules. Those are the problems that need solving.
-- Link to the NYTimes article info reprinted in horseracingnation
.com:
https://www.horseracingnation.com/news/Report_New_York_Thunder_was_injected_14_days_before_fatal_injury_123
