Wait! What?! "On average, 24 horses die each week at racetracks across America..."
Mangled horses, maimed jockeys: racing’s dangers
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On average, 24 horses die each week at racetracks across America. Many are inexpensive horses racing with little regulatory protection in pursuit of bigger and bigger prizes. These deaths often go unexamined, the bodies shipped to rendering plants and landfills rather than to pathologists who might have discovered why the horses broke down.
In 2008, after a Kentucky Derby horse, Eight Belles, broke two ankles on national television and was euthanized, Congress extracted promises from the racing industry to make its sport safer. While safety measures like bans on anabolic steroids have been enacted, assessing their impact has been difficult because many tracks do not keep accurate accident figures or will not release them.
But an investigation by The New York Times has found that industry practices continue to put animal and rider at risk. A computer analysis of data from more than 150,000 races, along with injury reports, drug test results and interviews, shows an industry still mired in a culture of drugs and lax regulation and a fatal breakdown rate that remains far worse than in most of the world.
Martin’s injury occurred in a state with the worst safety record for racetracks, a place where most trainers who illegally pump sore horses full of painkillers to mask injury — and then race them — are neither fined nor suspended and owners of those drugged horses usually keep their winnings.
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Much more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html?_r=1&exprod=myyahoo
This is just WRONG. The horses are run full of drugs, no necropsies are required, and nobody enforces any rules that are there. Without necropsies, they can't definitively determine wht all the causes are. The jockeys are in danger too.
This is animal cruelty. Racing is stressful anyway, but with these methods, it's pure torture.
= new reply since forum marked as read
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The analysis showed that during those three years the rate of incidents for horses in the United States was 5.2 per 1,000 starts.
By contrast, Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, which year after year has one of the lowest breakdown rates in North America, had an incident rate of only 1.4, according to the Times analysis. “One of the differences here is medication is not as permissive as it is in the U.S.,” said Jamie Martin, executive vice president of racing at Woodbine.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html?_r=1&exprod=myyahoo
what health they are in?
From the article:
But many prior ailments are indeed serious. The Times obtained hundreds of necropsy reports on racehorses that died racing in Pennsylvania and found problems that included “severe degenerative joint disease,” “severe chronic osteoarthritis” and pneumonia with “severe, extensive” lung inflammation. One horse had 50 stomach ulcers. Another had just one eye. Pathologists also found metal screws in two horses that had broken bones from previous accidents.
You seriously believe that horses with these conditions should be racing and there should be no oversight?
Because I don't!
animals is not a valid comparison, IMO. Machines don't bleed or feel pain, horses do. When safety issues arise with vehicles, recalls are issued. Mandatory six point restraints are in all vehicles, air bags employed and I could go on. I just don't think the comparison was valid 
Is it any different than eating a cow?
I hate horse racing! HATE IT.
Hate dog races... etc. 
