It’s been a deadly week at Churchill Downs. On Thursday we reported that five horses had died in six days. Today the mysterious deaths continued as two more went down. A gelding named Chloe’s Dream was pulled up leaving the first turn of Saturday’s second race, taken off the track in an equine ambulance and euthanized, according to a spokesperson for the Horse Racing Integrity & Safety Authority.
And in the early part of the eighth race, Freezing Point pulled up abruptly. The horse, ridden by Corey Lanerie for the trainer Joe Lejzerowicz, walked into the equine ambulance under his own power but was later euthanized because of his injuries, according to the same spokesperson.
Horse racing is not among the most popular sports with the public and so horse deaths do not attract much attention as a matter of course. However, this is one of the few weekends of the year when sports fans are focused on horse racing, making the situation all the more clamorous.
In the days leading to Saturday’s races, the Derby entrant Wild on Ice was euthanized after he sustained a leg injury; another horse was put down after an injury; and two collapsed and died after racing, prompting officials to suspend their trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., and scratch his Derby horse, Lord Miles.
Adding to those numbers, Code of Kings broke his neck after flipping several times in his saddling paddock last Saturday. He was rushed to a nearby equine clinic, where he was euthanized.
In Saturday’s 10th race, Here Mi Song, a 5-year-old gelding with 20 career starts and five wins, was taken off the track in a van after finishing fourth. An Associated Press reporter said on Twitter that X-rays showed no injuries.
Saffie Joseph Jr. who is the trainer for two of the deceased horses, was suspended indefinitely. The suspension prohibits Joseph, or any trainer directly or indirectly employed by him, from entering horses in races or applying for stalls at all Churchill Downs Inc.-owned tracks.
The decision comes after the deaths of Parents Pride on Saturday and Chasing Artie on Tuesday. Both collapsed on the track and died after races for no apparent reason.
“Given the unexplained sudden deaths, we have reasonable concerns about the condition of his horses, and decided to suspend him indefinitely until details are analyzed and understood,” Bill Mudd, CDI president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. “The safety of our equine and human athletes and integrity of our sport is our highest priority. We feel these measures are our duty and responsibility.”
Investigators have yet to find any cause in the deaths of Joseph’s two horses in a 72-hour span, along with two others over the past week, which cast a pall over Churchill Downs in the final preparations for the Kentucky Derby that was run on Saturday and won by Mage.
“This is the worst part of the game,” said Mike Repole, co-owner of early Derby favorite Forte. “It’s very sad.”
Joseph said earlier Thursday he was questioned by investigators from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and Churchill Downs. “They found no wrongdoing on our part,” he said.
Joseph, a 36-year-old third-generation trainer, said earlier Thursday that investigators examined his barn, checked the horses’ veterinary records, and took blood samples from each of his horses, which showed nothing abnormal. The feed, hay, straw and supplements used by the horses were checked, too.
In 2019 more than 40 horses died at Santa Anita in California. As a result, a raft of safety reforms was enacted that have spread around the country. Yet despite the new safety guidelines horses continue to die, either with injuries that should have been preventable or without apparent cause.
“The horses get great care and we do our best to prevent these kind of things, but they still happen,” Joseph said. “A lot of times in those sudden deaths you never get answers.”
One of the theories proposed is an excessive use of drugs in the industry, administered either to give the horse a competitive edge, or in order to allow the horse to run even with injuries. This eventually causes more damage— and may sometimes lead to death.
An investigation is being conducted at Churchill Downs to learn the cause of the horses’ deaths.
