Horse News

Two Horse Deaths In Two Days At Santa Anita, Death Toll Now 41 Since December 2018

Source: Los Angeles CBS

Another racehorse has died after breaking an ankle at Santa Anita Park, just one day after a 5-year-old gelding was euthanized at the Arcadia, CA track.

Saturday’s death of Uncontainable is at least the 41st horse death at Santa Anita since December 2018.

The 4-year-old gelding was entered in Saturday’s first race, but did not finish. An incident alert posted on Santa Anita’s web site said the horse suffered a “Fractured right front ankle. Per recommendation from the attending veterinarian, the horse was humanely euthanized.”

Another gelding was euthanized Friday after fracturing his right front ankle in a race.

The horse, Harliss, finished seventh in a field of eight in the seventh race there Friday,  and was “unsaddled nearing the clubhouse turn and vanned off,” according to Santa Anita racing information. He was euthanized under the recommendation of the attending veterinarian.

The race track released a statement Saturday, touting it’s safety record:  “Santa Anita remains committed to transparency. Our safety statistics and incident reports are publicly available on our website at SantaAnita.com/safety. Home to 2,000 horses, Santa Anita Park is one of the largest equine training facilities in the United States. Horses raced or trained at Santa Anita Park more than 420,000 times over the last year with a 99.991% safety rate.”

Four horse have now died at Santa Anita’s winter/spring meeting, which began Dec. 28.

Golden Birthday, a 4-year-old gelding, sustained a hind pastern fracture with sesamoid involvement on New Year’s Day after possibly making contact with another horse on the turn during a race on the main track, according to an incident report from Santa Anita Park.

The first horse death of the season happened Dec. 26, before the track officially opened. Truest Reward, a 3-year-old gelding, sustained a broken left front leg while on the training track.

The California Horse Racing Board is expected to release the results of its investigation into the deaths at Santa Anita sometime this month.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office found no criminal wrongdoing in its investigation into the fatalities.

3 replies »

  1. I wish you had other ways to rate your posts. I can not call something like this worthy to the max when I am deeply saddened by the essay. I am very grateful that you are so diligent about providing us with the information and think you, yourself, are worthy to the max.

    Like

  2. “Santa Anita remains committed to transparency.”
    Why no mention of what happens to these unfortunate horses after they are killed, then? This is a harsh truth that is rarely revealed, and potentially a “one health” concern if their chemically-laden bodies end up buried or in a human or pet food chain. What is the carcass disposal policy at Santa Anita?

    Like

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