LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) – One horse is too many, but what about 21? That’s how many horses have died from injuries on the track at Santa Anita in the last two months.
Racing has been suspended at the track. NBC sportscaster Kenny Rice says no one really knows exactly what is causing the issue.
“No one, even the experts have not been able to come up with a definitive explanation in two months,” Rice said.
Experts like Dr. Mick Peterson from the University of Kentucky are working on solutions. Dr. Peterson says researchers are testing samples from tracks all over the world, including Santa Anita.
“We have equipment that goes out there twice a year to do testing, and they ship samples to us once a month,” said Dr. Peterson
Every month they are looking for consistency but the weather has been anything but consistent in that part of the country.
“In California, they haven’t had these rains for quite a few years, so the adaptation of the surface… they had the assumption that it was going to be dry,” explained Peterson.
The implications are being immediately felt at Santa Anita, and Dr. Peterson hypothesizes they could be felt all the way to Churchill Downs.
