There have been 23 deaths of horses at Santa Anita Park. The deaths aren't investigated and it is more than obvious something is happening. Senator Feinstein has done the right thing in asking for suspension of racing to investigate the causes of these deaths.
April 3, 2019
Arcadia— In a letter to the state’s horse racing board, (click here) Sen. Dianne Feinstein called for racing to be suspended at Santa Anita Park after the deaths of 23 horses since late December.
Feinstein asked for racing to be suspended until the cause or causes of the horse deaths can be fully investigated in her letter sent Tuesday to the California Horse Racing Board, which hours later scheduled a special meeting to consider relocating races to other tracks.
“The death of a single horse is a tragedy, but as a lifelong lover of horses, I’m appalled that almost two dozen horses have died in just four months,” Feinstein wrote in her letter.
Nearly two dozen horses have died at the Arcadia racetrack, most recently on Sunday – just two days after Santa Anita Park reopened after a nearly month-long hiatus. Racetrack officials have not been able to pinpoint any one factor causing the deaths, investigating everything from the effect of unusually heavy rain this winter on the track to race-day medication....
A cluster of equine deaths is not a minor issue. This is not a public perception problem.
April 2, 2019
By Tim Sullivan
Horse racing is running scared. (click here) Fearful of the fallout from a spate of equine fatalities, industry leaders are lobbying for reform with growing urgency and increasing anxiety.
“In horse racing, we say we have a public perception problem,” Claiborne Farm president Walker Hancock said Monday. “But we kind of bring some changes to the table and it’s ‘You can’t do that.’ I’m worried if we keep going down this road, how far do we have to go before significant changes are made?
“... If we’re not going to change now, I don’t know what it has to take.”
Though the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database shows North American racing suffered more than 6,000 fatal injuries during the last decade, the recent carnage at Santa Anita has created a crisis atmosphere within the sport. When Arms Runner, a 5-year-old gelding, was euthanized Sunday following the San Simeon Stakes, it was the 23rd fatality at the California track since Dec. 26....
