Just for kicks! 😉
(click images to enlarge)
Sea Biscuit leads the pack at the first turn –
The pace is hot!
Cabbage is up at the head of the bunch
With Bubble Gum, stickin’ to the rail!
It’s a competitive race, ladies and gents!
Banana peels around on the outside!
With Van Gogh charging hard!
And Starburst giving chase!
Cherokee Park even showed up, running hard
With her picnic area tattooed as always
This is a detail horse!
Looking good and stylin’ her Daniel Boone statue!
Royalty was also well-represented as Louisville’s namesake points the way
Although, to be perfectly honest, some horses didn’t much care –
There were some definitely lazy nags at the track that day –
While some were almost too darn excited!
All in all, no one remembered who won. The race was fun all by itself!
Louisville’s “Gallopalooza” is a fund-raising and civic pride phenomenon initiated a few years ago by consigning the best artists in town to do their thing on some gorgeous horses. It’s almost unfair using something as cool and beautiful as a horse to draw and paint on – already beautiful in form, horses are a Louisville love affair. These babies were already placed all over town a few years ago. They are a wonderful institution and uncommonly pretty to look at. They are fun.
Here is some interesting info on the event with many more horses featured in photo’s from Flickr…..here.
They are beautiful animals. I am not an expert on horse racing, but from what I read around, sounds like it’s an intensive money-driven operation that at the very least borders on animal cruelty.
You make a very interesting and relevant point, Annette. At the Kentucky Derby a couple years ago, we witnessed a horse – a crowd favorite – breaking her leg and being put to death on the track. It once again raised issues such as you are raising. There have been many improvements made in racing and in the treatment of horses over the years, none more than in recent years. Abuses still occur, beyond the shadow of doubt. But much more attention than you might imagination has been lavished on the health and well-being of horses used for racing.
There was a time when these horses got to do what they did best – run – with bonded friends and jockeys. Then para-mutual betting and a wider audience formed. Before this, they were pampered beyond belief. The life of a race horse in the 1880’s – 1910’s, believe me, was just fine.
In history, children made the first light bulbs and cars, alongside adults. The laws changed when they made sense. Hopefully, this particular history will evolve as well. It actually seems to be doing just that.
I’m glad to hear things are improving, but the bottom line is where they have animal welfare compete against money, the money usually wins. It’s why you won’t be seeing me in the races…
Too bad. The races are fun city!
I was serious, by the way. The death of that horse motivated a humongous soul-searching by those who oversee the treatment and care of the horses who race. If you’d like to see the Non PETA organizations out there which deal with horse racing, here is a good set of links:
http://www.chrb.ca.gov/horse_racing_links.htm
From Dick Arthur, Equine Medical Director of the California Racing Board: “Every horse that has died within a California Horse Racing enclosure for – since 1991, and they’ve been done by the California Animal Health & Food Safety Laboratory, which is operated by the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis and we have very good information on all of our fatalities, is catalogued and analyzed.”
In short, they are paying attention…..(me)
DR. ARTHUR: …and it’s – If the audience is interested, if they go to Google and search Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, and Welfare and Safety Summit, there’s been two of them have identified several dozen, three dozen or so, different issues that are potential problems in this. So the track surface is just one. You have breeding issues, as you mentioned in the beginning of the program. Medication issues have really come to the forefront the last few years. California has banned – was the first major racetrack to ban anabolic steroids, which unpublished data at UC Davis has indicated is correlated with catastrophic injuries. Intensity of exercise has been associated with catastrophic injuries, and training has changed. We’ve seen trainers move to quarter horse type training where it’s very intense and bursts of hard workouts rather than the longer, slower workouts of old trainers like Charlie Whittingham, 20, 30 years ago. Internationally, the permissive medication policies in the U.S. are not allowed. Just recently, the examining veterinarian—all horses are examined prior to racing several times—and the examining veterinarians have expressed concern that our medication programs with regards to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and there’s three – one of three are permitted in horse racing, and nonsteroidal anti-infammatory drugs are like Advil or bute except – or, Advil or aspirin, those sorts of drugs.
Oh! I love the print on each horses. The ‘starry night’ of Van Gogh caught my eyes. Makes me want to visit the place.
some of the horses look really tacky, and then others are absolutely masterful. Wide range of talent that created these horses.
LOL, Hey, it’s a Kitschy World out there! You are totally correct……………but the ones that are so stunning are by real live talented people.