Santa Anita will finish out meet

The Stronach Group on Sunday rejected a request by the California Horse Racing Board to close its Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., for the remainder of its live meet, saying that the track plans to remain open for the final six days of racing.

The CHRB had issued the request on Saturday after Formal Dude, a 4-year-old gelding, fractured his pelvis in the 10th race, a one-mile race on the dirt, and was euthanized, becoming the 28th horse to die at Santa Anita after suffering a racing or training injury since the meet opened on Dec. 26. Then, on Sunday, Truffalino, a 3-year-old filly, collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack near the end of an allowance race on the turf.

The CHRB said in a statement that it had asked Santa Anita to suspend racing to “provide the industry more time to fully implement announced safety initiatives and perhaps additional ones.” Earlier this year, the CHRB and Santa Anita put in place stricter medication regulations and increased scrutiny of horses prior to training and racing.

In response, The Stronach Group issued a statement that included the endorsement of both the Thoroughbred Owners of California and California Thoroughbred Trainers, the two organizations representing horsemen at the track.

“After extensive consultation among all partners, Santa Anita Park will stay open through the end of the meet to see these reforms through,” the statement read.

Santa Anita Park had suspended racing operations in early March in order to test its racing surfaces and implement the new protocols. It reopened on March 29, but then closed its downhill turf course after another horse died two days later. But after that, no horse died from an injury in either racing or training for six weeks.

But the past three weeks have resurrected concerns, with six deaths occurring since May 17, including the two this weekend. Three of those deaths were due to fractures of an upper-body bone, the pelvis or shoulder.

The CHRB, under current law, does not have the authority to suspend a race meet or remove race dates from a current meet without the approval of the track operator or without holding a public meeting with 10 days’ notice. However, a state bill that is supported by the CHRB and Gov. Gavin Newsom would give the CHRB the power to issue an immediate suspension of racing at any track, and it is expected that bill will pass.

Santa Anita moved to three-day racing weeks earlier this year due to the outflow of horses from Southern California because of the upheaval on the circuit. The meet ends on June 23.

The statement from The Stronach Group said that since the company implemented the most recent reforms, catastrophic injuries at the track have dropped 50 percent in racing and 84 percent in training.

“A detailed and serious epidemiological investigation of all track accidents is underway and will continue with the greatest urgency,” the statement said. “Track management, owners, trainers and veterinarians, are re-doubling their vigilance and close supervision of both training and racing protocols and will consider all enhancements to the sweeping new protocols already introduced.”

This year’s Breeders’ Cup two-day event is scheduled for Santa Anita on Nov. 1-2. The track is a favored location for the Breeders’ Cup due to its consistent weather and its pleasing television backdrop, but concern over the conditions at the track – and the possibility of large-scale protests from California’s well-organized and powerful animal-rights and animal-welfare movements – has led to speculation that the event could be moved, most likely to Churchill Downs in Louisville, another favored Breeders’ Cup host.

Jim Gluckson, a spokesman for Breeders’ Cup, would not comment on Monday morning on the possibility that the event would be moved, though he confirmed that the organization has a board meeting scheduled for June 27. The organization’s plan for this year’s host site is likely to be a topic at that meeting.

–additional reporting by Brad Free