The City of Baltimore has filed a lawsuit against The Stronach Group that seeks to block the company from moving the Preakness Stakes from Pimlico Race Course and to thwart legislation that would allow the state to issue bonds to improve the company’s sister track in Maryland, Laurel Park.
Even while California racing gained clarity with the weekend announcement that Santa Anita would reopen on March 29, headwinds will continue. On Sunday at Santa Anita, officials and horsemen expressed satisfaction at medication and safety reforms agreed to by track owner The Stronach Group and the Thoroughbred Owners of California. Those include a gradual phase-out of race-day Lasix instead of the initial proposal of an outright ban.
The future of horse racing at Santa Anita Park remained uncertain as of Saturday. No one knows when the track will reopen for racing. Santa Anita was to reopen this coming Friday following a suspension of more than two weeks after a rash of equine fatalities and the reexamination of the racing surface. The reopening date has been postponed after the surprise announcement Thursday concerning the use of race-day Lasix.
The Breeders’ Cup remains committed to running its two-day event at Santa Anita this year despite the deaths of 22 horses at the track since its meet opened on Dec. 26 and the outcry surrounding the deaths, a spokesman for the organization said on Friday.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney has assigned investigators to work with the California Horse Racing Board as it conducts examinations of horses that have suffered catastrophic injuries at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., the district attorney’s office said on Friday.
Santa Anita horsemen voiced a range of opinions following the surprise announcement Thursday that Lasix will be disallowed at California racetracks owned by The Stronach Group. Some favored the action, some were against, and others questioned the timing. Most acknowledged being off guard when Belinda Stronach, TSG chairman and president, declared in an open letter “zero tolerance for race-day medication at Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields.”
The Stronach Group plans to implement a ban on the raceday use of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide,more commonly known as Lasix, for horses racing at its two California tracks, Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., and Golden Gate Fields north of San Francisco, along with a handful of other policy changes.
Two federal legislators have reintroduced a bill that would appoint a non-profit private company as the overseer of horse racing’s medication rules and their enforcement, according to the legislators.
A maiden filly broke both front legs at the conclusion of a half-mile workout Thursday morning on the main track at Santa Anita, becoming the 22nd equine fatality at Santa Anita since the winter meet began on Dec. 26.
Santa Anita is tentatively scheduled to reopen its main track for light training Monday and could resume racing on March 21-22 as an investigation continues into the cause of 21 equine fatalities since late December.
