From backstretch to slaughterhouse, Fair Grounds horse deaths shouldn’t surprise

James Gill, writing for NOLA.com, states: The death of four thoroughbreds in six race days at the Fair Grounds track in New Orleans, a couple of weeks after two quarter horses were put down at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, was not as shocking as it should have been.Horse racing is a dangerous sport anywhere,…

California reports racehorse fatalities rose 5% for 2011-2012

Cross-posted from Daily Racing Form WRITTEN BY STEVE ANDERSEN Equine fatalities rose by 5 percent at California racetracks for a 12-month period ending last June, with a significant rise in training deaths at Santa Anita. The data was released on Friday by the California Horse Racing Board as part of an annual review of racing…

Santa Anita leads California in horse racing deaths

Well, no surprise to us about Santa Anita and the rate at which they kill racehorses. And they do not have this grisly distinction just in California. A New York Times report released March 24, 2012, states: Even some of America’s most prestigious tracks, including Belmont Park, Santa Anita Park and Saratoga Race Course, had…

Deaths on dirt revive debate about merits of synthetic tracks

The new dirt track at Santa Anita can be a death trap for the horses who train and race on it, and a danger to their jockeys and exercise riders. Why the switch from the somewhat safer synthetic? Times are faster on dirt than synthetic, and it appears the chief reason leading trainer Bob Baffert…

Synthetic tracks show lower fatality rate than dirt

MATT HEGARTY writing for the Daily Racing Form reports: Horses running on artificial surfaces suffer fatal injuries at a statistically significant lower rate than horses running on dirt courses, according to epidemiologists who have analyzed data collected for a project tracking equine injuries. According to an analysis of 754,932 starts over a two-year period ending…