CHRB Chairman Sheds Light on Bobby Abu Dhabi's Death

With an off-the-cuff remark during the California Horse Racing Board meeting Aug. 23 at Del Mar, board chairman Chuck Winner indicated the death of grade 2 winner Bobby Abu Dhabi July 22 was likely not due to a cardiac event.

Dismissing a notion from Joanne Nor, who was using her three minutes of public comment time to warn the board of what she feels are the negative effects of the herbicide glyphosate, Winner said there was a "very good chance" the 4-year-old Macho Uno  colt died for reasons other than a heart attack.

It was widely reported that the incident during a workout was from an apparent cardiac event, because of the way it happened. Immediately after he fell, Bobby Abu Dhabi was motionless on the Del Mar main track and did not appear to have any signs of a catastrophic leg injury.

"For the record, to clarify, the enhanced necropsy on Bobby Abu Dhabi ... has not been completed. It does appear that there's a very good chance it was not a heart attack," Winner said.

After Winner made the comment, CHRB equine medical director Dr. Rick Arthur said he was "surprised" the chairman made such a statement in the public forum but indicated Winner's statement was informed by preliminary findings.

"He has gotten some indication (about the cause of Bobby Abu Dhabi's death), but it's still going through the sudden-death protocol, with cardiac histology and toxicology," Arthur said. "There's indication that the cause of sudden death was different than a heart attack. ... It's preliminary. It could still be a heart attack, but I don't think so."

Arthur declined to comment further on the cause of death.

Winner's statement was no surprise, however, to the jockey who was riding Bobby Abu Dhabi that morning.

Still recovering from the spill that fractured his C3 vertebra, Victor Espinoza has believed since the incident that it was not related to a cardiac issue.

BALAN: Espinoza Injured After Bobby Abu Dhabi's Fatal Incident

"I don't know who came up with the idea the horse had a heart attack," Espinoza said Thursday. "I've been riding for 25 years. I've ridden every kind of horse you can imagine, and I've fallen off all kinds. I know. In my mind, he broke his leg. I heard the sound."

Espinoza said the last time he rode Bobby Abu Dhabi in a race, a third-place run in the True North Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park June 8, something felt out of the ordinary aboard the Kona Gold Stakes (G2) winner, but he attributed it to a colt running on an unfamiliar surface.

"He just didn't feel like he was before," the rider said. "I thought maybe it was the track. But now that I think about it, he may have had another problem."

Espinoza went on to say Bobby Abu Dhabi "just wasn't 100% going into that work" July 22.

"Something has to be done to change that," Espinoza said. "It cost the life of a horse and almost the life of a jockey. I was laying there thinking I was paralyzed."

Peter Miller, who trained Bobby Abu Dhabi, did not respond to multiple requests for comment Thursday.

Brian Trump of Rockingham Ranch, which co-owned Bobby Abu Dhabi with David Bernsen, declined to comment in detail until the full necropsy results are finalized.

"Once we have a complete report, we can speak further on the issue, but at this point we don't have all the information," said Trump, who also said he has been told the full report could take up to three months to complete.