When we heard about third horse to die during the production of HBO‘s horse racing series called Luck, it seemed statistically high for three horses do die from accidents during the production of a single show.
But the HBO publicity machine stated that horse tragedies are not that uncommon within the industry. Subsequently, HBO cancelled Luck that same week because they felt the horse deaths were an unnecessary risk to produce a drama.
But to me it seemed crazy that three horses died in less then two seasons worth of filming of a show. But it seems that The New York Times reporters Walt WALT BOGDANICH, JOE DRAPE, DARA L. MILES and GRIFFIN PALMER dug up some information that not only sustained HBO’s perspective on the number of horse deaths being the standard, but that only three passing away seemed golden and the reporters paint an ugly picture of the horse racing industry as a whole!
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When we think horse racing, or as it’s put, the sport of kings, the general fan only thinks of the pinnacle events of the industry of horse racing… The Kentucky Derby and the other two races that make up the trifecta of champions, the Triple Crown.
Or if you live near a large enough city you’d be exposed to the places like Santa Anita (Where Luck was filmed), Hollywood Park, or even Del Mar in San Diego. All old haunts that my parents used to drag me to.
And in the right light and filmed with skill, it’s a beautiful sport to behold. But my wife is pretty down on horse racing and I admit that it ain’t perfect if you dwell on it. But then there’s this dark side of the industry that, because I never thought deeply about it (ignored?), I never realized existed.
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Junkyards For Burial, 24 a Week
When you don’t dwell on it, you don’t realize that the underbelly of the industry are the minor tracks where a lot more racing goes on. The tracks where a jockey is racing to place, just to make $60… or tracks that dump euthanized horse bodies in junk yards down the street from the track.
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