Last year’s Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs saw 143 horses enter the starting gate. Most will remember Mage, who crossed the finish line first in the world’s most famous race. But forgotten by all who didn’t known them were Chloe’s Dream and Freezing Point, who never made it to the finish line, who never made it back to their stall, who were euthanized after suffering life-ending injuries and were the sixth and seventh fatalities in 10 days.
will make public fatality statistics by track, which will be a secondary method for gathering that information.” was created in 2020. Using the incomplete EID methodology, the national average last year was 1.32 deaths for every 1,000 starts. The Times calculated the number for last year’s spring meet at Churchill at 5.39. In 2019, Santa Anita peaked at 3.01. Last year it was 0.64, but that doesn’t take into account the seven musculo-skeletal training deaths or five sudden deaths while training. Farmer points to “wearables” as something he hopes can make a difference.