With the PETA flyers denouncing horse racing and it's drug culture I knew it was only a short time before an investigation from PETA would also be released.
Over a 26-year career, the trainer Steve Asmussen has built one of horse racing’s largest and most successful operations. He ranks second in career victories, with more than 6,700; has earned more than $214 million in purses, the fifth most in thoroughbred racing; and was recently included on the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame ballot.
“We wanted to know exactly what happens to thoroughbreds in a top racing stable,” Kathy Guillermo, the senior vice president for PETA, said. “It was devastating to see sore, exhausted, drugged horses every single day. Some were in so much pain it hurt them even to stand, yet they were trained and run anyway.”
PETA has also accused Asmussen of employing undocumented workers, requiring them to use false names on Internal Revenue Service forms, and conspiring with Blasi to produce false identification documents, according to the complaints filed with state and federal agencies. Asmussen also paid the PETA investigator $5.95 an hour — less than minimum wage — and did not pay proper overtime wages, according to complaints filed with the labor departments of Kentucky and New York.
Blasi was recorded discussing injured horses, as well as how one of his jockeys, Ricardo Santana Jr., 21, used a buzzer to shock horses, a practice that is banned in racing.
Joe Drape, New York Times, ‘PETA Accuses Two Trainers of Cruelty to Horses‘
It will be interesting to see how this develops, if it blows up like the TWH soring undercover investigation or if it is quietly pushed aside.
PETA does make an actionable form you can submit to your U.S. Representative and Senators, along with their full report.
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