A report is filed with the state vet and the stewards and the racing commission every time a horse breaks down and has to be euthanized. A necroscopy is performed. They keep track of this stuff. They call the trainer in and frequently the vet has to go before the stewards as well. 2 yos are NOT breaking down and being euthanized as you insinuate. Where in the god blessed world do you get your FACTS??? Oh wait, they aren’t fact, they are the opinions of your neighbor and your vet. Who is your neighbor that knows all this stuff from race tracks all over the country???
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So what licenses have you held and who did you work for? If you don’t want to name names, fine, but just let us know the number of horses that person had in training and how many training titles he or she won, or came close to winning.
@PTFsemperfi this thread is proving you wrong that you don’t talk about things you know nothing about. That’s the thing about COTH. You think you know, but if you come and just read you realize how much you don’t know.
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My humble, or at least trying to be, opinion… this forum (Racing) is full of many contributors who are very knowledgeable and experienced in the TB (and STB) racing industry and more than one aspect of the industry.
When I first jumped in, I tried to read only and tried not to contribute unless I had either a personal observation about a race or a horse, for example, or a question. I’ve watched and followed racing since I was a little girl. Didn’t make me an expert though.
I know I have learned much from the other contributors and it has made me more knowledgeable about the industry.
I think I’m struggling with what your (a few the new posters) actual credentials are other than rescuing TBs from lower tier tracks or other rescue/placement organizations. It sounds like from your single POV (rescue/rehab) you’re making comments, assumptions and statements that may not be totally accurate with respect to the industry as a whole.
It’s fair to have an issue with the condition of a specific rescued TB. It isn’t fair to make what sound like sweeping statements about the entire industry. That may not be what you meant, but, to me, that is what it has sounded like.
No area of the equine industry is immune from problems. Until you know the pond, be careful about jumping in 
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@Where’sMyWhite Thank you for saying it better.
Quoting simply because it’s a great post.
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So if I may ask a question, the two OTTBs that I have actually owned, not just ridden for other people. Can y’all give me your opinion on good idea bad idea for purchase based on the race record?
Or should I start a thread?
This thread is so off track (pun intended) it probably doesn’t matter so go ahead and ask here. Are you asking if it was a good idea for you to purchase them?
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I’m asking for opinions hind sight. Really appreciate the race record input, blood line input. Marry Me Do, well he was special to me… second horse is my current horse so any information on both of them is appreciated
First one Marry Me Do
Second I Don’t Get No
im trying to learn more
Denali, I’d first ask purchase for what purpose?
To save them off the track? Yeah, good purchase
Resale?
For some sort of performance horse? ie, Dressage, jumping, eventing, ?? I’m not a pedigree person
Companion, trail horse? Did they do a good job? Steady Eddy? Love 'em to pieces? Then yup
IMO, especially for the OTTB, buy the horse front of you more than just the pedigree unless you are looking at perhaps a high level eventer where pedigree might have somewhat a play in ability but still, buy the horse in front of you (IMO, including some sort of PPE ).
Both have nice pedigrees, but I especially like the gelding. I assume he had a pretty significant injury since he only raced once and won that race. None of that matters much now though, glad they found their way to you.
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It depends. What you look for are few starts per year and gaps of 6+ months between races as red flags. Most sound horses will run at least once a month, sometimes more. Horses that have over a month between races may be sore or have some kind of issue that needs time before they race again. Giving a horse 90 days off can be a great idea if he’s been running a lot, and then you have to give him 6ish weeks to get racing fit again, so a gap of 6 or fewer months is not a big deal.
However, there is a horse shortage right now, and sometimes races don’t fill. So a trainer may have a horse ready to roll, and he or she enters the horse in a race, but there are not enough entries so the race doesn’t go. You can’t read too much into how often the horse races. Turf horses that don’t go south for the winter don’t race up north in the winter.
A horse that runs 10ish times a year for several years in a row is probably pretty sound. You will most likely have some wear and tear, but it just doesn’t bother some horses and they are fine to move onto a second career. The more you intend to do with them, the cleaner they need to be (ie upper level eventing). Most of them can handle popping over 3’ jumps at shows etc even if they have an ankle or old bow. All my show horses had screws or bows or ankles or all of the above and they showed for years and retired sound. I had one race horse with a really wonky ankle that eventually went to a dressage rider (with full disclosure) and he is doing great 7 years later. I don’t think I was much help!
@Palm Beach You have been a great help. Please don’t hesitate to give your opinion on these two specific horses!
The mare would have to be very good looking since she did not demonstrate any athletic ability on the track. On the plus side, she probably does not have a lot of wear and tear.
The gelding - one start, one win, no more racing. Obviously had a career ending injury. Again he’d have to be really good looking and the nature of the injury would be important.
I place more emphasis on conformation than pp’s. Generally a horse that ran a lot and stayed sound has really good conformation, as form follow function.
I would imagine there are more breakdowns in training than racing, but of course horses train more than they race…anyhow, you can look up fatalities that occur at New York State racetracks …I dont know the link to the database off hand, I havent looked at it in along time, but its easily googled. It lists horses by name, track, trainer, etc and whether they died during racing, training, or other such as colic, disease, whatever.
**
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I don’t think there would be more breakdowns in training, simply because the horses are mostly jogging and galloping, not working. And when they do work, it’s usually no more than half a mile. BUT I’d love to see the data from NY if you can find it.
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https://data.ny.gov/Government-Finance/Equine-Death-and-Breakdown/q6ts-kwhk/data
you can filter it all sorts of way. like for example, so from May-June at Belmont, 2 horses died during racing and 4 in training.
There is no way to filter it for breakdowns while training. They have every little incident in there - reared in gate and unseated rider, stumbled and unseated rider, etc.
No kidding…I think it’s a combination of things: no real experience with the industry, seeing it on TV and reading bad press from several corners. I get that racing is not everyone’s cup of tea and that there are things the industry could do better (although a lot of progress has been made that no one seems to give credit for) but why go on a racing forum to express how much you don’t like racing? Does that happen a lot on the dressage forum? I don’t understand it.
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Yes, you can filter every column- I dont know if you’ve ever worked with databases before…you can filter for “Deaths” only and then see those and filter it even further by Racing, Training and Other. Injuries and Incidents can be filtered separately and there is a description of each incident. I think its good that this stuff is being investigated or at least recorded. Not sure if all tracks do this- I stumbled upon it years ago trying to track down a horse that I was following.
Pronzini, I participate(d) in lots of different horse sports and I’ve seen that the “ugly” side of every sport is very definitely expressed on the Internet and in real life talking. You must not look at the other forums- Eventing has a huge thread about people/horses dying, and the Marilyn Little thread, etc…How is anything ever going to change if we dont acknowledge things? I do still watch racing and go to the track (not as often as I did and I made the choice to just be an occasional spectator and not a participant)- I think its just in my blood and I love the Tbs- but I am not ever going to pretend that its an unusual occurence to see a horse break down. Because it sure isnt.
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