Another Horse Dies During Training at Santa Anita Park

A third horse in three days has been euthanized following an injury sustained during training on the main track at Santa Anita Park. The horse who suffered the fatal injury Feb. 25 was named Charmer John and was trained by Mark Glatt.

California Horse Racing Board equine medical director Dr. Rick Arthur said the horse was euthanized after training because of an injury sustained in his front left fetlock. Glatt declined to comment on the incident Monday morning.

The fatality follows a pair of deaths following breakdowns during training Feb. 23—grade 1 winner Battle of Midway and unraced gelding Just Forget It.

BALAN: Battle of Midway Euthanized After Training Breakdown

Those incidents, along with an increase in fatalities spread across training and racing, inspired a conversation between Santa Anita management and the CHRB Feb. 24 to address safety issues. After that meeting, Santa Anita announced training would be cancelled for Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, but after opposition from several trainers, including Hall of Famers Jerry Hollendorfer and Bob Baffert, track management decided to leave the main track open for training Monday.

"If they hadn't told me they were completely comfortable with it, we wouldn't be doing it," Tim Ritvo, the chief operating officer of The Stronach Group (which owns Santa Anita), said Sunday.

BALAN: Santa Anita to Close Main Track to Evaluate Safety

When reached for comment Monday, Ritvo expressed sadness about the death but reiterated he felt the track was safe, that the evaluation of the surface to be conducted Tuesday is a precautionary measure, and that injuries during training and racing are multi-faceted incidents that often cannot be attributed to a single factor. He also pointed out, unlike racing where horses need to clear a vet check, training does not have that safeguard.

"With these things, racing and training stats are different," Ritvo said. "With training, we don't examine horses before they breeze. We're not throwing any trainers under the bus, but before races horses have to be examined and be cleared by the vet. We don't do that for training.

"With all the horses and trainers who wanted to work, I would hope they wouldn't run their horses unless they were confident the surface was safe."

There were 121 horses who worked on the Santa Anita main track Monday, including several top horses for Baffert and Hollendorfer. Both trainers said all their horses who trained Monday—including notable stakes winners Galilean, Game Winner, Improbable, Instagrand, and McKinzie—came out of their training sessions well.

"I checked with all my riders and they'll let me know if they feel a little something is off," Baffert said "It's a different track, and you just have to adapt. There's more material (sand) in it now than we're used to, but my horses went over it well.

"I've always felt (nervous) with big horses. You don't get a lot of sleep the night before. You always feel that way, no matter what track you're at. Unfortunately we've had a lot of bad luck lately, and you knock on wood, but in this business it can happen at any time. I'm like everybody else. We don't want to see horses get hurt.

"I just read my horses, and they're traveling well over it. I just feel bad for these trainers with bad luck, because when you have one where that happens, you just want to quit. I feel bad because we said we need to work these good horses, but we're all in this together and need to make sure it's as safe as possible."

BloodHorse made a formal request for comment to the CHRB regarding the safety of the main track at Santa Anita.

"The decision to close or open the track rests with management. The CHRB can make recommendations, as we did on Sunday, but we cannot mandate on short notice, even if we want to," said CHRB spokesman Mike Marten. "State law requires at least four members of the board to suspend a racing license, even for just a few days. State law prohibits more than three members from communicating about an issue like this without prior public notice. Furthermore, state law also requires ten days of public notice before an open meeting with four or more members of the board can take place, with certain exceptions that are not met in this circumstance."

BloodHorse has inquired about what "recommendations" the CHRB made during its meeting with Santa Anita management Sunday, Marten said the public regulatory agency would not provide comment on that aspect because "it was a private discussion and it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment further."