Just read an article that they closed the track due and suspect that the horses are having trouble due to the ground and that the ground issues may be due to weather. Just an interesting thing to read about since we barrel racers are never 100% satisfied with the ground lol.

They were aware early on because I remember reading about it some time ago.  Took the lives of 21 horses to wake them up.  

Some tracks probably lose 21 a week and don't think anything of it. A family friend used to have race horses in Chicago and he'd give away or euthanize 5-6 a year with broken legs, never batted an eye. Just replaced them & claimed they were euthanized for insirance to pay for the next. I remember going up once into the barns with him and there were jsut as many crippled ones as sound(ish) ones. It was sad, I'll never forget that day. You can go up even now and mention you want to purchase one that isn't running anymore and you'll have 50 horses for $200-500 each offered to you within an hour. I don't like rqce tracks or the sport at all, especially the little tracks like this one 

Read that also this morning. I was glad to hear they are trying to get it figured out. I was a fan of horse racing and still love to see talented horses run, but I don't enjoy going to the track anymore. In one day I saw 3 horses break down. A truck whisked out each time with huge curtains to hide euthanasia and the animal was loaded and taken away and everyone went on about their business as if nothing happened. What makes me super sad is the feeling that most of these animals are disposeable to their owners/trainers. 

^^^^ 

This---saw three in one day, two in one race   I said never again.  Everyone just laughing and drinking and irritated cause of the delay.  Pitiful. 

I used to love watching horse racing, and followed it closely, but no longer. I  love to watch horses run, but the horse racing industry as a whole is very disturbing. 

Santa Anita is not a little track. It is one of the biggest tracks in the US....

From the article that I read it seems like over the last three years the numbers crept up in horses having to be put down and then sky rocketed after December. That is concerning. 

I do hate that some seem like their horses are disposable, but there are the others that LOVE their horses and protect them to the best of their ability.

i try to always look at the positive things in life, like that they are looking into this, otherwise with so much negative in the world I would be depressed all the time. 

Why I don’t like it either. 

I'm aware of that, thanks 

Maybe just maybe its because they are running 2 year olds full speed and making their small boned bodies do what they were not designed for. 

Seriously people...just stop. Many of you are voicing opinions that have no merit. It’s not about running 2 year olds. In most cases at Santa Anita...something appears to be off with the surface. They’ve had a lot of rain. The main surface guy left in December. The surface has been there for 9 years. All of the sudden, horses are breaking down left and right. Something is clearly wrong with the surface. Horses aren’t breaking down on the training track. They aren’t breaking down on the turf. It’s pretty much happening on the main dirt track.

A similar thing happened at Arapahoe Park years ago. New surface, record times, following season...lots of horses breaking down. They re-evaluated the surface, changed it, break downs stopped.

We are talking about a horrible situation at Santa Anita that could cost the livelihood of numerous people. The deaths of these horses are horrible and tragic. People losing their incomes is also just as tragic. 

I did see where Dr Allred at Los Al has offered his track to help out. For those of you that don’t follow racing, Allred has the toughest drug policies of just about any track in the nation. If a trainer gets suspended an some other track, they aren’t welcome at Los Al.

https://www.speedhorse.com/spotlights/m.blog/101/allred-offers-to-run-santa-anita-race-dates-at-los-alamitos?platform=hootsuite

I agree with SKM. Santa Anita is one of the biggest name tracks on the west coast, and you can darn sure bet they want to remedy this situation without injuring any more horses. If you’ve looked at the Los Al track recently, they’ve also been inundated with rain, but they still have their grounds crew that know how to handle and work the track. Those folks are worth their weight in salt, that’s for sure. I say kudos to Santa Anita for clearly recognizing there is a problem with their track and doing the responsible thing to get it back up to grade. It’s absolutely tragic that it took 21 horses losing their lives for this to happen, but when you have owners and trainers pressuring the SA bigwigs to keep running races so their horses can continue to win, I can see the tough spot it put SA in to make this call. If anything, they are doing the right thing for the horse in this case.

That is what I've heard as well. The weather has been horrible and trying to keep the track in good condition has been a struggle. Going from wet and sloppy to too hard. 

Thank you for being a voice of reason.

Unfortunately.  Horses are not only being lost on the main dirt track. "Seven deaths have occurred during races on the dirt oval at Santa Anita since the track’s winter meet began on Dec. 26. Five have occurred on the turf course and nine came during training on dirt."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/horseracing/2019/03/05/horse-deaths-santa-anita-race-track-california-rise-21/3074056002/

Though weather and bad conditions may play a role for the turf as well.  But it's pretty appalling nevertheless. One article reported the statistic that there were 1.61 deaths per 1,000 starts in the U.S. in 2017.  Imagine if we had such losses in barrel racing or any other equine discipline.  We would be very concerned.  We would look at a lot more than the dirt conditions at one venue.  We'd look at how/when the horses are started, care, breeding, training methods etc etc. And perhaps they are doing that.  But this negative attention will affect the perception of racing and all other equine sports by extension.  That is a concern also.

Did all of these horses have life ending injuries that could not be successfully rehabbed for the horse to be comfortable, possibly even ridden in other diciplines?  Or were some of them simply career ending and therefore the animal was euthanized to save money?  

My point was that losses in the racing industry in general are huge and it's very nonchalant, it's normal to 98% of tracks to have horses euthanized daily. Yeah this is a bigger track with higher dollar horses, I simply stated I was glad that they are making an effort to acknoweldge something is wrong & maybe trying to fix. Which is 150% more effort than most any other tracks would do. The guy I knew euthanized 3 with minor hairline fractures that would have been riding sound for someone in 6-10 months for the inusrance money, in one day. You get more back when you euthanize them. Two he claimed euthanized and gave away to someone who was willing to make the under the table deal with him. Thatw as my second day visiting the track.  By the time he retired from it  he admitted to having euthanized over 50 horses for the insurance moiney and said he was probably the one who did it the least, this was Arlington in Chicago. Most claim them as euthanized and put them on the meat truck, never to be seen again. I realize there's a significant difference in the quality of racing & price of horses between these two tracks, but it's nice they're at least acknowledging a problem. I don't mind the larger scale operations that spend fortunes and win triple crowns & belmonts, etc. Those horses are cared for on a much higher level than the rest of the tracks. It's the little guys and all the insurance fraud & unneccary euthanasia at those that turn me off. The ones pumping them with cocaine at the match tracks where theres no regulations at all. I'd still go watch the Kentucky Derby or major race like that though. 

things must have really changed as when i rode at los al and san mateo it was the oddity not the norm.

very  rare  this was 70 thru 75

vicky stewart

"Every time you point a finger in scorn—there are three remaining fingers pointing right back at you.”

The equine industry is all tied together weather you understand that or not. Those who are quick to share their horror stories about the track might want to rethink what track they are going to, because like barrel racing there are different levels in the game and with that come good owners and trainers, then the bad ones.  The tragic events that have happened at Santa Anita is not being taken lightly. There was a so called changing of the guard at SA at the start of the season and they seemed to have let a lot fail. Then there is all of the rain. The gentleman that use to groom SA is coming back with a lot of others that are there to Fix it. 

IF we don't dig a little deeper to understand what is actually happening your just adding gas onto a fire with your uneducated opinions. There is bad in all aspects of the equine industry I don't think I need to type it all out for you. 

Peta is licking their chops on this, and if they get a hold of dismantling T/B horse racing no other equine sport will survive, it will be a matter of time for all of it.

SO hang on, be supportive and lets hope we all survive this.

Flameaway.....oh wait one of my favorite race horses! lol