Another guest post from old HW supporter and frequent contribution Mary Johnson.
“The Den of Despair known as Camarero Racetrack”
By Mary Johnson
For those of us who follow horse racing, the stories about loved ones as a result of fractures, degenerative joint disease, torn ligaments, chopped spines and bleeding are all too familiar. However, as I have said for many years, horses can survive the horrors of the circuit to be euthanized later because of the injuries that were sustained during their ‘career’. That was the case with Kayseri.
Then there are those horses that are simply “dumped” when they are no longer able to produce income and are considered “unprofitable”. When I say ‘dumped’, most will assume dumped wayside. That was the case with La Macacoa.
This story is about two mares that became dry because of their racing “connections” and eventually gave their lives for gambling and entertainment purposes, with both tragic endings to their young lives.
I grew up around racing horses and galloped TBS on a farm outside of Cincinnati as a teenager (before I could even drive). I was familiar with Rivierdowns and Latonia, two flat tracks in my area. Of course I had heard of the more prestigious traces such as Belmont, Churchill and Santa Anita, but did not know that an American territory – Puerto Rico – had a trail: Hipodromo Camarero. In recent years I have become more familiar with this song, and it is difficult for me to even read how horses are treated there. For me it was a real eye-opener, a horror story like something that Stephen King would write. As familiar as I am with the Race industry, I thought I could no longer be shocked. But I was wrong.
It is important to understand how horses are sent/sent to that territory. In the course of two to three days, the majority traveled in tight conditions with minimal air circulation, while the temperature rose during the warmer months. According to an article by Bloodhorse from 2020 (“Dark Voyage: dangers from freight shipment to Puerto Rico”), horses at sea would die due to “heat shock because these containers were missing, such as ventilationans.” When this report came to the public arena, the rules changed and now horses usually travel by plane to Puerto Rico. However, boat shipment is not fully eliminated. Nobody knows for sure how many of those horses are thoroughbreds, but the breed does not matter/does not matter.
Kayseri
Kayeri was a Kentucky-bred TB mare from 2017. Her first 15 starts were on two tracks on the highest level bine and Gulfstream but against the middle of her four-year year she was
Sold to a buyer in Puerto Rico. And so her descent started in hell. When Kayseri’s speed figures continued to fall, lawyers e-mailed the Puerto Rico Racing Commission and soon discovered that the mare weighed only 937 pounds (normal weight is 1000-1500 lbs.)-yet the owner had no plans to retire.
The last race of Kayeri (her 67th) was in December 2024 and in January 2025 she was euthanized for advanced degenerative joint disease in her left ankle – the same ankle that she had seen six months earlier on a video. The condition was so seriously advanced that there was no joint space, leaving her in chronic, untreatable pain. According to Chrissy Laughlin, a horse lawyer and former board member of Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare (CTA): “Red flags were raised. We have contacted several times, but it is part of a larger systemic failure that starts in the US and ends in Puerto Rico.” Remember that Kayseri (below) a Kentucky was bred.
La Macacoa
La Macacoa was a Kentucky-bred TB mare from 2022. She was purchased by the Puerto Rico Confederation Horse Owners Group from the 2024 OBS Two-year-old sale and then exported to Puerto Rico shortly thereafter. All her six races were on the island. She finished a combined 164 lengths back in those races (an average of 27 per), and her speed figure was 0 in five of them.
The last race of La Macacoa was in May of this year, and shortly thereafter La Macacoa was dumped along the side of a road. In August she was starving and found too weak to be at the CTA. Although she was brought to CTA and immediately received veterinary care, the damage to her body was too great and she was euthanized at the age of three. Make no mistake, La Macacoa (below) was “killed” by its racing quotes because she was no longer profitable. And she too was bred a Kentucky.
According to Chrissy Laughlin: “At Camarero, between 220 and 300 horses are killed every year. And this has been happening for at least seven years in a row. These are not grace –uthanasies. These are horses thrown away if they can no longer earn. … I really believe that horses are killed in Puerto Rico is a Kentucky trial.
Some horses survive this hell and are lucky to return to the US, but let’s be clear that those who send their horses to race in Puerto Rico are fully aware of themselves
Of the dangers that are inherent on that track and the cruelty that often waits for their horses. Cruelty is not a bug in the system; It is a characteristic of the system.
Here are the figures for horses with Kentucky bred horses that were euthanized in Puerto Rico compared to the total total.
2019: 26 out of 240
2020: 53 of 235
2021: 73 of 267
2022: 74 of 256
2023: 71 of 267
2024: 61 of 253
Kentucky claims that it is ‘the horse capital of the world’. This means that those who have been immersed in that state are concerned with the fate of the thoroughbred. I call that the big lie. There is no other mainstream “sport” where massacre and indifference take place so regularly – and so tolerated.
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#Den #Despair #Mierrentende #Errors