I just saw an article about these tracks. There’s a video as well. Undercover operation from PETA (I know they can be nuts). Unregulated tracks look like a LOT of quick money and drugs used on horses extensively. They focused on a big one outside of Atlanta. Are bush tracks really cartel run? Or just opportunists?
I dunno if they are cartel run or not, but last I heard they are pretty common. Totally unregulated and lots of doping so I heard.
I wonder how many of these horses end up at auctions? I remember some people who adopted a few really strange needle phobic QH horse types with some serious lameness issues. No papers, of course. Hmm…
There is one close to me and no one here does anything about it. I’m too white and don’t speak Spanish. Nothing I think I can do about it. I have complained to the county about the noise and they stake out the intersection for drunks but that’s about it. Yea alabama.
Most are going to be off the track quarter horses. Tattooed on the lip like TBs.
I heard they die more often than get sold 
That just sucks. Those poor horses. I don’t often agree with PETA and their goofy ideas (remember the “sea kitten” campaign? 
), but they got this right.
These bush tracks and Big Lick horses make us all look bad. More fuel for people who hate all horse sports and shows.
Mhmm. It’s pretty awful.
This is the one I’m “familiar” with. Sad isn’t it
OMG they are everywhere in Texas. I watched them build one right on a main road where I lived, no attempt to hide it. Not sure if that one in particular is still there because no surprise, not long after it opened there was a huge bust on cartel activity there. The bust wasn’t because of the racing itself, but because it was one place out of many where the cartel was laundering their money.
Not to derail the conversation, but at one point when I lived in Tennessee, I went to a Big Lick show. I wanted to see it with my own eyes, since as a racing person, I know what it’s like to be considered evil. I wanted to objectively judge what was going on.
I lasted less than 30 minutes at the show. I left in tears. I went home and just stood in the pasture hugging my horses and sobbing (and I’m not a sap). That has to be the most awful thing I have ever seen horses endure.
Wow! I’m sorry you have to live near that.
(((hugs))). You were brave for seeing it firsthand.
Oh, I’ve been gone a long, long time…
We don’t have bush tracks where I live now. We have farms where horses like Northern Dancer stood, talk about opposite end of the spectrum. 
Over 40 years ago I heard about caffeine adminstered to these horses. It would appear they have moved on to more sophisticated medications.
The only thing that will stop them is honest horsemen waging a legal campaign against them
Actually went to one in So Texas looking for horses, left after one race. Sort of an Equine version of cock or dog fighting. That was decades ago, little has changed. IIRC the track was on private property.
These things have thrived since way before cartels. Unfortunately. They represent everything thats wrong with Racing. PETA is right on this one. The unregulated gambling should attract more attention from taxing authorities then it does but, then again, lot of money openly floating around, who knows whose pockets it goes into.
That’s a good point about the gambling. No one loves the IRS, but they’re getting a budget boost soon. Maybe some of those tax cheaters associated with these operations will get investigated. Sometimes the government doesn’t respond to welfare issues, especially animal welfare, which seems to be a low priority, but try to withhold money and they’ll come after you, lol.
My stomach is knotted watching the video. And I’m sorry, I don’t feel even a lick of sympathy for the jockeys. You knew what you were getting into.
Wouldn’t you think Trump My Record’s breeders and/or former connections would be making a huge stink about this?
These are AQHA registered animals, but they don’t seem too worried about it. Would the JC do anything differently if TBs were raced on a bush track? Can registries do anything to discourage it? These were once legit racers, from what it sounds like. Can the jockeys be suspended for racing at bush tracks? Many professional athletes are forbidden from playing at unsanctioned events.
The AQHA and horse welfare are not acquainted with each other. That’s not to say there aren’t good QH people who do right by their horses, not at all. But the only welfare the Association cares about is its own.
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