Danzig Moon euthanized after fracturing leg in Plate Trial

ETOBICOKE, Ontario—Danzig Moon, the fifth-place finisher in this year’s Kentucky Derby, sustained a fatal injury while favored in Sunday’s Plate Trial Stakes at Woodbine.

Racing over a wet Polytrack, Danzig Moon tracked the leading Midnight Trace until midway on the backstretch, where jockey Julien Leparoux pulled him up with a fractured right hind leg.

“It was a compound fracture,” said Ontario Racing Commission veterinarian Greg Taylor. “The horse was humanely euthanized.”

Danzig Moon gained lots of publicity for his troubled run behind American Pharoah in the Kentucky Derby. He subsequently finished a distant sixth over a sloppy track in the Preakness at Pimlico. He was expected to contest the July 5 Queen’s Plate if he had run big in the Trial.

Danzig Moon, an Ontario-bred colt by Malibu Moon, was owned by John Oxley and trained by Mark Casse.