How horse racing went terribly wrong at Santa Anita New York Times

On the morning of March 29, Santa Anita Park was reopening for racing for the first time in three weeks after the mystifying deaths of nearly two dozen horses. Satellite trucks, national news reporters and animal rights activists converged for what had become a macabre death watch. But California regulators were watching a live surveillance feed of a trainer’s assistant carrying a bucket into the stall of a horse named Tick Tock. Moments after the assistant left, a white foam was visible on the horse’s lips, often a telltale sign of performance-enhancing drugs. Investigators later found syringes in the bucket, along with a fatigue-fighting agent known in racing parlance as a milkshake, according to hearing transcripts from the state’s Horse Racing Board. The news that investigators believed Tick Tock had received such a concoction — before the first race on the first day of the track’s return to racing, no less — is indicative of the dysfunction that has enveloped Santa Anita the past six months, a period when horses had to be euthanized after suffering fractures at an alarming rate. Thirty horses have suffered this fate since Dec. 26 at Santa Anita, a storied racetrack that became a flash point this year for activists who want to ban the sport altogether. Racetracks in the United States have a particular problem with horses dying. Nearly 10 horses a week on average died at American racetracks in 2018, according to the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database. That figure is anywhere from 2 1/2 to 5 times greater than the fatality rate in Europe and Asia, where rules against performance-enhancing drugs are enforced more stringently. Even so, what transpired at Santa Anita, where a horse was put down more than once a week, on average, stands out. Despite advances in veterinary care, rehabilitating horses from fractures is rare, because the animals cannot be immobilized. Finding a direct cause for the demise of a single horse, much less 30 of them, is nearly impossible. But interviews with state regulators and more than two dozen people who work at Santa Anita revealed an array of factors that put horses’ lives at risk. Many of those people lay the blame on a push by the Canada-based Stronach Group, which has owned the track for two decades, to maximize profits. The push to boost revenues required a relentless racing schedule, the people said, despite unusually rainy and cold weather in Southern California that might have made the track less safe. Of the 30 deaths, 11 occurred during training, when horses were presumably not going full speed, suggesting problems with the track’s surface. And to increase betting, track managers held more races with bigger fields, which put intense pressure on trainers to race horses that may not have had enough rest or been in the proper condition, owners and trainers said...MORE