27th horse death is reported since Santa Anita meet opened Dec. 26

[demmiblue]

A 27th horse has died since Santa Anita opened its meeting on Dec. 26 after the colt River Derby sustained a catastrophic injury while training Wednesday morning. After six weeks without a death, there have been four fatalities since May 17.

River Derby, an unraced 2-year-old bought in March for $50,000 at a sale in Florida, fractured a shoulder while galloping, according to his trainer, Ruben Gomez.

The horse was euthanized at a clinic in Chino so it was unclear whether the death would technically be called a Santa Anita fatality. However, Mike Marten, California Horse Racing Board spokesman, said “in the interest of full transparency, we will be treating it as an on-track training death and do a full necropsy and count it in the statistics.”

Gomez was obviously still pained by the incident when contacted on Thursday.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/more/la-sp-santa-anita-horse-death-27-20190606-story.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. This is developing into a strange mystery.

I hope they solve it before any more deaths.