Santa Anita Park is still seeing further problems as another horse died at the race track just this past
Saturday Bonusbets.com reports.
The track which has now seen a total of twenty-six horses die in the past five months had yet another fatality after
a horse was pulled from a race last Saturday. The three-year-old Gelding was the third fatality in just the last nine days,
and serious questions are being asked about the race course, and how it continues to operate.
The jockey decided to stop the horse from competing after he discovered an injury before the race and an operation was
carried out to repair the damage. However, this operation was ultimately unsuccessful, and the decision was taken to put the
horse down.
Track officials had previously suspended all racing for a three week period following earlier deaths before this current spate of
fatalities occurred. Senator Dianne Feinstein chimed in with “How many more horses must die before concrete steps are taken to
address what is clearly an acute problem? I once again call for an immediate moratorium on racing at Santa Anita. We need a thorough investigation of practices and conditions at the track before any more races are held.”
So far there are still no indications as to what the causes of the rash of fatalities, and there appear to be no links to any particular
person or activity, though there is some suggestion that the recent wet winter has caused the track to be unusually soft, and that
this may be the cause of the spate of injuries which have ended terminally.
Horse fatalities are not that uncommon with there being over 6,300 in the nine years prior to this year, but the clustering effect around
this one track and the short period over which they have occurred has renewed protests against horse racing in general in
particularly because of the media attention that this has been receiving. Though it also isn’t correct to say that horse deaths are expected. And it is this perception that a number of people are trying to combat.
A spokesman for the Santa Anita Park race course, Stefan Friedman said “To those who say, ‘Well, horse deaths are eventual,’ we don’t accept that, and we are doing everything possible to bring that number as close to zero as possible. If we aren’t out there shooting for
zero, we aren’t doing our job, and that’s the No. 1 priority for us is horse safety.”
Views like this won’t stop people like Feinstein, who will keep protesting and campaigning against horse racing in general throughout the
US. In particular, she wants the roles of Vets examined, as well as what drugs are administered to the horses. Additionally, she wants there to be an investigation into how the races themselves are run. The US sees a significantly higher number of horse deaths per course than any
other country in the world, and there must be lessons that can be learned from other countries to use in the US.
