There isn’t much in the way of sports happening right now as the COVID-19 outbreak has put a halt to most all sports leagues as they attempt to prevent of people both for the protection of fans and the athletes themselves. Right now, the only things really happening are virtual NASCAR racing (which has been surprisingly thrilling to watch) and horse racing, as some tracks continue to insist on holding races in front of empty stands.
The reason for that is, simply, money, as there is still a large amount of revenue brought in from off-track betting on horse racing and, with nothing else happening in the gambling world, there’s surely an even greater spotlight right now on the ponies. Fox Sports 1 has even taken to showing the live feed of races around the country still going on and on Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs viewers were treated to a rogue horse on the loose.
The 4 horse in Race 2 of the day at Tampa was the overwhelming 3-5 favorite (the one horse was 7-2 as having the second best odds), but she decided she was not trying to run on Sunday and bucked off her jockey and broke free, twice, in a rather incredible scene.
Guessing Fox had no camera control because they cut away in the middle, but this is still pretty amusing https://t.co/gh2L8fcvl9 pic.twitter.com/2nrnZO1RLk
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) March 29, 2020
They tried to wrangle her back in but she bucked away from the handler again and took off away from the starting gate. I must say, good on the 4 horse for challenging authority and freeing itself from being forced to race. Maybe if more star horses refuse to race they too will have to consider shutting down horse racing amid the pandemic.