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IPFS News Link • Entertainment: Sports

The Mysterious Deaths That Exposed Horse Racing's Brutal Underbelly

• https://www.thedailybeast.com by Tarpley Hitt

The Sport of Kings

It was sweltering in Saratoga Springs, New York, on the second Sunday of August, when 400 racing executives decided to discuss the dead horse situation. The horsemen had filled a ballroom at the Gideon Putnam, a gargantuan brick resort near the town's famous racetrack, for the 67th annual "Round Table Conference On Matters Pertaining to Racing." Specifically, one matter pertained a lot to racing: the possible end of it. The past six months had produced protests across the country, a flood of articles investigating the industry, and calls from legislators for an outright racing ban. At the conference that morning, panic levels reached such unprecedented heights the program dragged more than 40 minutes past noon—the time when, in better years, attendees would shuffle off to lunch at the races. Later, Jockey Club President James Gagliano would recall it and sigh: "There were some cold lunches at the track that day."


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