As the Kentucky Derby ticks closer, local and national media have made note of the fact Churchill Downs has seen four equine fatalities in the last week: Kentucky Derby contender Wild On Ice, who suffered a catastrophic injury in training on April 27; Take Charge Briana, who was injured and euthanized in a turf race May 2; plus two horses who suffered “sudden deaths,” meaning their cause was not immediately apparent and did not seem to be due to external trauma or musculoskeletal injury.
The sudden death horses both came from the barn of trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. Parents Pride collapsed and died after failing to finish a race on April 29, and Chasing Artie suffered a similar fate after finishing last, beaten 28 ¾ lengths, in a May 2 turf sprint. Joseph trained the horses for Ken Ramsey.
The attention ahead of the track's biggest event prompted track management to release a statement, reassuring fans that it will “continue to press for answers.”
Three more horses pulled up during the May 3 race card – two of them were vanned off, and one walked off the track. The Daily Racing Form's Dave Grening later tweeted both horses who were vanned are recovering back at the barn and are not considered to have life-threatening injuries.
Sudden deaths are statistically rare events, taking place in .13 per 1,000 starts, according to Equine Injury Database figures published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2022. That study looked at 4,198,073 race starts made by 284,387 horses at 144 North American tracks from 2009 to 2021 and discovered 536 sudden deaths.
Joseph acknowledged to WDRB that the odds of having two horses from the same shedrow suffer a sudden death in such a short time are absurdly long.
“I'm shattered basically, you know what I mean?” Joseph told WDRB. “I know it can't happen – it's mind-boggling. The odds of it happening twice is just a trillion. I run almost 4,000 horses, and it never happened like that. So it doesn't, it doesn't make sense.”
The trainer told WDRB he is currently investigating the deaths within his operation. He had one horse, Accomplished Girl, entered in Wednesday's Mamzelle Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs, but the 3-year-old Street Boss filly was withdrawn from the race by Joseph. He has a single entry on Thursday and Friday at Churchill Downs, then seven horses on Saturday's Kentucky Derby card, including Lord Miles in the Derby itself.
While Churchill Downs pointed out that the horses were transported to the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Lab for necropsy, as per standard practice at Kentucky racing facilities, it's likely those examinations won't yield many answers about what happened in the case of sudden deaths.
Sudden death in racehorses has stumped veterinary pathologists, as it could have a variety of causes. Most are believed to be pulmonary or circulatory in nature, but necropsies aren't always able to discern what went wrong. A 2011 study published in the Equine Veterinary Journal found that in 268 sudden death cases of Thoroughbreds around the world, a cause of death was only identifiable in 53 percent of them after necropsy. Another 25 percent had a presumptive cause determined, and 22 percent remained a total mystery.
This is probably because the systems that went haywire ahead of the horse's death can't be observed in action afterwards. It is typical for necropsies of these horses to reveal congestion of blood vessels in certain high blood supply organs like the lungs or spleen, but this may be more a reflection of where blood gathered just after death, rather than an abnormality that was present while the horse's heart was working normally.
Heart attacks do not happen in horses the way they do in humans. In humans, the term refers to a coronary blockage that results in the death of heart tissue. That tissue would appear to be dark, indicating necrosis, on examination. Instead, horses tend to have problems with heart rhythm which may or may not be accompanied by physical abnormalities that would be visible after death. Veterinarians think most of these arrythmias are due to incorrect electrical impulse signaling in the heart, but electrical impulses leave behind no markers to help trace their movements. Many arrhythmias are also believed to be exercise-induced in horses, meaning they wouldn't have had observable problems standing in the barn, either – which is part of what makes cardiac issues in horses so hard to discover and diagnose.
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If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.In the case of Medina Spirit, many fans had questions about toxicology testing done on the horse, particularly for thyroxine, after his death. Researchers pointed out that they didn't have a validated testing method for thyroxine levels in a deceased horse – the testing is more commonly done for diagnostic purposes on a living horse – and also that the test could not tell the difference between synthetic and naturally-occurring thyroid hormones. If officials are able to get blood samples from a horse before euthanasia or just after a sudden death, those may be tested for drugs. Tissue testing of organs can be used to uncover exposure to heavy metal or other poisons.
Ramsey told Horse Racing Nation Wednesday that “preliminary” bloodwork on both horses showed no abnormalities.
The 2022 JAVMA study identified 15 risk factors associated with sudden death in racing, which included horse age, season, race purse, race distance, and horses' recent history of injury. Trainer was not found to be a statistically significant predictor of a horse's likelihood to experience a sudden death.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission mandates mortality reviews between state officials and a horse's trainer after a final necropsy report has been completed in an effort to identify potential causes or risk factors. The agency has not yet uploaded any mortality review reports from 2023, but past mortality reviews are available here.
Meanwhile, the timing of the deaths has prompted mainstream media attention with harsh headlines, a few of which are included below.
Sports Illustrated: Horse Deaths Cast A Shadow Over The Kentucky Derby
The Guardian: What Do Horses Feel AT The Kentucky Derby? Mostly Fear And Pain
ESPN: Churchill Downs To Work With Investigators After Four Horse Deaths
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