Bodexpress throws jockey,
steals the show at Preakness Stakes
Fox News,
by
Dom Calicchio
Original Article
Posted By: MissMolly,
5/19/2019 4:20:14 AM
War of Will may have won Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, but it was Bodexpress -- a horse that finished out of the money – that seemed to steal the spotlight.
That’s because Bodexpress threw its jockey immediately after leaving the gate – and ran riderless the rest of the way during the big event at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course.
At one point he even seemed a threat to cross the finish line first. “You've got to be careful because some of them try to win,” legendary trainer Bob Baffert told the Associated Press about such runaway horses.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
udanja99 5/19/2019 7:18:23 AM (No. 67117)
We once rescued a horse which had jumped sideways out of the starting gate - he took a V shaped chunk out of his pelvis and his racing days were over. It’s a wonder that he wasn’t put down immediately. When we got him he was a bag of bones and covered in ticks because he had been left in a field to fend for himself. We returned him to health and then donated him to the DC Metropolitan Mounted Police Force and he is now doing crowd control because he is 18 hands high.
Both jockey and Bodexpress are lucky to have not been injured but it is no surprise that the horse finished the race - they are brainwashed to run whether there is a jockey on their backs or not.
Terrible sport.
8 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
franq 5/19/2019 8:07:55 AM (No. 67132)
I can only imagine the jockey chasing the horse. That would be comical. #1 is correct; from what I read since the Kentucky Derby, horse racing appears to be only a few notches above dog or chicken fighting...
4 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 5/19/2019 8:33:44 AM (No. 67144)
Poster above is right. The Sport of Kings is merely rooster fighting, with the watchers in silks and fancy hats. I've watched my last promoted race.
7 people like this.
All sport is terrible, a notch above chicken fighting. Whether animal or human, injury and death happen as a body strives to prepare and compete with others similarly trained and focused. It's personal. These aren't games with ribbons for all, they are competitions identifying winners, sometimes paying riches. To the participants, it is serious business because there are losers who make gallant efforts and fail, that "agony of defeat". As George Patton said, "I wouldn't give a hoot and hell for a man who lost and laughed." Those heroes of the past did not.
So, where to draw the line? At little leaguers and youth basketballers, many breaking bones or even dying on the court? Football and soccer (a sport which produces the greatest number of concussions)? Rodeos? Auto racing? Running of any sort? Animal racing in any form? Let's just turn off scoreboards and timing devices and enjoy an exhibition of excellent play.
No one advocates or excuses cruelty in any form under any circumstances. And now where to draw that line...
2 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Nevadadad46 5/19/2019 9:55:15 AM (No. 67185)
#4~I agree. I guess I don’t like horse racing because the animals don’t have a choice in it. I’d feel different if they were better treated after their careers were over.
3 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Wilko 5/19/2019 10:06:42 AM (No. 67191)
What's the problem? Open the gates and let them loose....Who needs jockey's?
3 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Chuzzles 5/19/2019 12:23:04 PM (No. 67252)
I think that is hilarious in a way. Actually I don't believe horses are brainwashed to run. They love to run, and somebody figured that out centuries ago and created the sport around that love of running. I do hope the jockey is okay though.
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
red1066 5/19/2019 1:05:46 PM (No. 67267)
#4. Horses at this level of racing are treated like kings. Raising a horse is a very expensive enterprise, and horse racing in general is very expensive. One doesn't go into racing without either being very rich, or having a load of backers with bucks. I've taken a tour of some of the horse farms in Kentucky, and let me tell you, I wish I lived that well. The stables were spotless, and the horses had their own large stalls with their names on them. They were treated like the investments they were, and I'm quite sure none of them were ever mistreated.
6 people like this.
#8 - I apparently made my point inartfully. You may read posts 1-3 to lead into my #4.
That said, there's a difference between Stakes horses and oaters running at some bullring. For every Churchill Downs or Arlington Park, there are a number of lesser venues where you'll not find Bob Baffert sending his string. For every Calumet Farms there is some sportsman with one horse. Nonetheless, few of these lower tier horses are abused or misused, I believe. I've not seen it. Virtually all around the stables are horse people who wouldn't stand for it. It's their livelihood. The exceptions prove the rule.
Some of this is also in response to the number of mounts injured at Santa Anita earlier this year. It was two dozen or so that had to be put down for injury. I don't know that any conclusions have been drawn about the causes.
My point is simple: All competition is cruel on many levels, physical and mental. One trains endlessly, has high hopes and confidence built, and then the test. Anyone who has been in the arena knows the sting of not winning, with most returning time and again to try. And it is likely that one having been in the arena has suffered injury through the sport, many never to compete again.
Ironically, we celebrate the heroic run of the soldier Pheidippides to Athens in 490 B.C. He delivered the momentous message “Niki!” (“victory”), then collapsed and died. Marathon runs should have been prohibited from that point, deadly as it proved to be. Today it is regularly run by amateurs as personal tests. BTW, check out the number of deaths associated with marathon running...
1 person likes this.
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