Folks watching The Belmont Stakes this weekend got a shocking reality check after the race, in the winner's circle as the trophy was being presented when a PETA representative whipped out a sign demanding a ban on dopers in horseracing.

Readers of The PETA Files already know that Doug O'Neill, the trainer of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I'll Have Another, who scratched at the last minute, has a shameful record of illegally drugging horses, but nine out of the 10 trainers of the remaining contenders have violated drug regulations, too, including Michael Matz, the trainer of Belmont Stakes winner Union Rags.

It's time for racing fans to face up to the seamy practices that they're enabling—and how they're harming horses in the process. Of course, the problem goes far beyond The Belmont Stakes: Only two of the top 20 trainers in the U.S. last year had never been cited for a drug violation.

What You Can Do

Horse racing's dirty secret is out, and it's time for the dopers to get the boot. Please contact your members of Congress and ask them to support the Interstate Horseracing Improvement Act of 2011, which would prohibit the use of performance-enhancing drugs and expand drug-testing requirements at all races.

Remember Coming Home, the sweet little thoroughbred who, discarded by the racing industry, wound up in the hands of a kill buyer? She was on her way to a slaughterhouse in Canada when PETA, working undercover at an auction house where hundreds of horses are sold every week, stepped in. Today, she lives on a luxurious ranch in New Mexico—and even though she never won a race, in the eyes of her adoring human companions, she's a champion. She even has a new name to fit her new position in life: Little Winner.

WLKY TV in Kentucky recently visited Little Winner, who pranced in her spacious new quarters, as secure and happy today as she was world-weary in May. Another horse, Georgia's Boy, is profiled in a second installment of the news story. The great grandson of Triple Crown Winner Secretariat, Georgia's Boy's lineage didn't prevent his owner from abandoning him to slaughter. Thousands of thoroughbreds meet the same fate every year. We're working hard to end that, and by clicking here, you can join our efforts.

Every horse deserves to be a Little Winner.

On the eve of the Kentucky Derby, Secretariat star James Cromwell has written to The Jockey Club urging it to adopt PETA's proposed Thoroughbred 360 Lifecycle Retirement Fund. The plan would require owners and breeders to pay a $360 retirement fee for each new foal they register. The money generated from the fees would be put into a fund to provide care for the 10,000 former racehorses currently sent to slaughter each year.

"These magnificent animals should not end up on a meat hook after a terrifying journey to a terrifying death," writes Cromwell in his letter. "I urge the Jockey Club, as the only official body that deals with every thoroughbred owner in every racing state, to implement PETA's Thoroughbred 360 Lifecycle Retirement Fund without delay."

Join James Cromwell in asking The Jockey Club to give racehorses the dignified retirement that they deserve.  

Written by Michelle Sherrow