11 Horse deaths In 37 Days Of Racing: Too Much?

An interesting article from Matthew Hall and the San Diego Union Times:

The book on the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club’s 75th meeting closed Wednesday with all the poetry in motion, luck and drama, life and death of a Cormac McCarthy novel: Eleven horses died in 37 days.

I showed up to put that statistic in perspective. On a day when the track typically touts earnings and attendance, I wanted to glimpse its ghosts: Playful Council, Gifted Monarch, A K Karma, Concier, Lauren’s Lady, Elivette, Raquelita, Bandolim, Temerity, Aphorism and Warren’s Today.

Nine of these horses died of injury, two of heart attacks.

If 11 children ages 2 to 6 died over the course of five weeks in Del Mar, in any city in America, the national media might descend.

But most of us don’t pay much attention to racehorse deaths. Regulators do, but they certainly aren’t on the minds of the roughly 18,000 daily track patrons in search of pay days, behatted and besotted or otherwise.

I did after three horse deaths during the shooting of the HBO show “Luck” led to its cancellation in March, but I missed the New York Times expose that month that reported an industry facing a steep loss of customers is more dangerous than ever.

A reader wrote me about this sad staple of horse racing before the Del Mar Racetrack’s opening day. That day was marred by a fatality.

“Everyone hears about how the winning racehorses are royally treated, but most don’t know about the harmful and fatal risks that befall the non-winners, which are the majority,” wrote self-described animal welfare advocate Lani Kian.  http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/05/death-a-part-of-life-at-del-mar-racetrack/

The author took a tour of the stables, talked to workers and jockeys and horse owners and he could not find any abuse or misuse of the horses at the race track.

But to have a horse death every 3 days at the track seems awfully high and most of the injuries happen in front of the spectators, including kids and I am sure that is pretty traumatic.

I am sure the horses are treated basically well but it seems like that something is wrong when that many horses die.  

One hopes that the regulators, track owners and horse owners will find a way to reduce the number of horse deaths at this track.