Santa Anita's fatality-marred meet finally ends

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita concluded its six-month meeting Sunday amidst public scrutiny and widespread pressure from lawmakers to improve horse safety following the deaths of 30 horses during racing or training at the meet.

The final weekend of the season was marred when American Currency suffered a fatal injury during a workout on the infield training track Saturday. American Currency was trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, who was told by track officials later that morning to vacate his stalls. American Currency was the fourth horse trained by Hollendorfer to sustain fatal injuries during the meeting. The Hollendorfer-trained Battle of Midway, winner of the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, suffered a fatal injury in a workout in February.

Hollendorfer moved 46 horses to Los Alamitos on Sunday. The Los Alamitos meet begins Saturday.

Horse safety became a focus of the meeting in mid-February and remained a constant source of concern for track officials and horsemen as well as a subject for the mainstream media through the final four months of the season.

Through the late winter and spring, the track canceled 23 days of racing, including 13 days in March while the main track underwent inspection and renovation and while new protocols for veterinary examinations were finalized. Nine Thursday programs in the spring were canceled because of concern over the number of available horses.

Training was interrupted for two days in late February to inspect the base of the racing surface following four fatal injuries from Feb. 22-25. A week later, after two additional fatalities, racing and training was halted on the main track for much of March to allow track consultant Dennis Moore to inspect the surface.

When racing resumed March 29 after a break of more than three weeks, the track introduced more stringent inspections for horses entered to race. The track made the inspections stricter after additional equine fatalities in late May and early June.

Also in March, Santa Anita reduced the permissible dosage of the anti-bleeder medication Lasix by 50 percent; eliminated threshold levels on therapeutic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in post-race tests; increased out-of-competition testing; and required transparency of veterinary records when horses switch stables.

On March 31, Arms Runner suffered a fatal injury in the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes on the hillside turf course, an incident that drew media attention throughout Southern California. Santa Anita then stopped running sprint races on the hillside turf course.

Two days after Arms Runner was euthanized, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein called for Santa Anita to cease racing pending investigation of the equine fatalities. Feinstein called for racing to cease on two more occasions after fatalities in May and June.

On June 9, the California Horse Racing Board asked Santa Anita to cancel the final seven racing days of the season because of the outcry surrounding the fatalities. Track officials declined. The racing board does not have the authority to order the track to cease racing without holding a public meeting with a 10-day notice. Legislation has been introduced in Sacramento that would give the racing board the right to suspend a race meeting on short notice for issues related to equine safety. The legislation has passed the state Senate and is currently in the state Assembly. California Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed the bill in late May.

In early June, Newsom issued a statement calling for stricter oversight on horses entered to race. A few days later, the racing board convened a five-person panel of veterinarians and stewards to review the racing, medical, and veterinary records of all horses entered to race and gave any member of the panel the right to deem a horse unfit to race and deny entry.

In the final six days of racing, the panel rejected 38 entries. Similar panels will review entries for the next two meetings in Southern California – the Los Alamitos meeting that begins Saturday and the Del Mar meeting that starts July 17.

Santa Anita is scheduled to open its autumn meeting Sept. 27 and host the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 1-2.

During the track’s March closure, some horses were relocated to other circuits, reducing the number of race-ready horses at the meet and resulting in smaller fields. In an effort to boost field size, the racetrack and the Thoroughbred Owners of California increased purses for overnight races by $10,000 each for the final two months of the meeting.

Field size declined this meet compared to the 2017-18 meet, a trend that in part can be attributed to a wetter-than-normal winter. The track ran 734 races this meet and averaged 7.36 runners per race, compared to 908 races that averaged 7.85 runners in 2017-18.

Beginning in late March, the track began to run fewer races, with eight-race cards on weekdays and nine races on weekends for much of the spring.

As of Monday, the track had not released attendance or handle figures for the meeting. A track spokesman said the track would issue a statement regarding the race meeting in coming days.