Horse sustains fatal injury during training at Santa Anita

ARCADIA, Calif. – Commander Coil, an unraced 3-year-old gelding, was euthanized Friday after suffering a shoulder injury during morning workouts at Santa Anita, trainer Marcelo Polanco said.

Commander Coil, who had his first published workout May 10, was galloping toward the end of the training session when he was pulled up. Commander Coil was vanned to the stables and could not be saved.

The incident is the first fatality in racing or training at Santa Anita since March 31 and comes during a spring in which the track has implemented more stringent requirements for horses training or racing after a series of fatal injuries in late February and early March.

Commander Coil is the 24th horse lost since late December.

Santa Anita canceled 13 days of racing in March to inspect and renovate the main track.

Since training resumed on the main track in mid-March, and racing resumed on March 29, horses undergoing workouts or entered to race have been subject to a new set of protocols that have included a reduction in the permissible dosages of the anti-bleeder medication Lasix, a suspension of authorized thresholds of legal therapeutic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, an increase in out-of-competition testing, and greater scrutiny of horses entered to race or train.

“We’re going to always continue to try to have safer and safer horse racing,” said Dionne Benson, the chief veterinarian officer of The Stronach Group, Santa Anita’s parent company.

“I don’t think what happened today is a failure in the program. We’ll review what we know when we know everything we can. If there are additional things we can add, we’ll try to improve as we go on.

“We have to think we’ve made improved steps that will help racing. I think we’ll continue to see a safer caliber of racing at Santa Anita.”

According to statistics provided by Santa Anita officials, there were 7,249 workouts from mid-March through Thursday without a fatality.

“The bottom line is I think we’ve been very successful with the programs in place,” said Rick Arthur, California’s equine medical director. “Everyone has been very conscious. I’m very pleased with how closely everyone is monitoring their horses.

“So far, we’ve been successful, and it’s disappointing we’ve lost any horse.”