Santa Anita kills its 11th racehorse since December

We changed NPR’s published title which was “11th Racehorse Dies At Santa Anita Park Since December,” to the title above. Here’s why.

It’s subtle, we know, but when reports say a racehorse dies or has died at a racetrack it sounds like it couldn’t be helped, or that the horse was somehow at fault.

This horse, a filly, wasn’t even racing. She was doing a three-furlong workout — 660 yards. She was barely 4 years old.

M C Hamster

NPR reports:

The racehorse M C Hamster was injured during a three-furlong workout along the dirt track at Santa Anita Park this week, fracturing a front left ankle. She was later euthanized.
In a vacuum, this would be a sad event.
But given the Arcadia, Calif., racetrack’s recent history, the four-year-old filly’s death becomes all the more appalling.
M C Hamster’s death is the 11th horse fatality at the track since racing began in late December, according to the Associated Press. The news service also reports the injury happened on just the second day of training has been allowed at the track since last week because of rain.
As NPR has reported there were at least 49 equine deaths at the prominent Southern California racetrack between July 2018 and June 2019. Of those the vast majority of them, 39, were disastrous breakdowns while training or in the midst of a race.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/04/16/836357375/another-horse-dies-at-santa-anita-race-track-the-11th-since-late-december

Where horses are raced horses are killed. End of story.

Fatality Reports

— Australia

• HORSE RACING KILLS. Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses collects data from the stewards reports from every state and territory in Australia, compiling a detailed report of the horses who have died in racing and the reasons why — something that is not made available to the public each year by the industry itself — Since 2016. See https://horseracingkills.com/issues/deathwatch/ »

— Great Britain

• RACEHORSE DEATH WATCH. Animal Aid’s Race Horse Death Watch was launched during the 2007 Cheltenham Festival. Its purpose is to expose and record every on-course Thoroughbred fatality in Britain. See https://www.horsedeathwatch.com/ »

— United States

• HORSE RACING WRONGS. Consistent reporting of racehorse deaths at U.S. tracks — Since 2013. See https://horseracingwrongs.org/ »

• RACEHORSE MEMORIAL WALL. Remembering the valiant horses who have perished in service to the Sport of Kings at U.S. tracks — Since 2005. See http://racehorsememorialwall.blogspot.com/ »