Horses evacuated at Louisiana Downs

Louisiana Downs on Saturday afternoon was evacuating about 250 horses off its Bossier City, La., backstretch for precautionary reasons. Track officials were concerned a nearby levy could breech. Louisiana Downs has been operating as a training center since its meet closed Oct. 4.

"We're looking at a situation where if the levy breeches and the worse case scenario happens, there could be several feet of water on the backside," said Trent McIntosh, the director of racing operations and racing secretary for Louisiana Downs.

McIntosh said a tributary of the Red River runs off near the track, which is the source of the trouble. October has been an unusually wet month for the entire region, although for the past 36 hours there has not been precipitation in the area. McIntosh said the horses are mostly being moved to training centers in the immediate area.

"It's precautionary, and if the worse-case scenario happens, we wanted to make sure the horses that we have here are in a safe place," said McIntosh.

Louisiana Downs does not open its Quarter Horse meet until January, so most of the 250 horses on the grounds are Thoroughbreds.