Breeders' Cup horse death: Mongolian Groom death at Santa Anita will haunt racing

Tim Sullivan | Courier Journal

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ARCADIA, Calif. – Last race of the last day. Sun setting at Santa Anita. Maybe a furlong from the finish of the Breeders’ Cup finale, thoroughbred racing’s recurring fear was again realized Saturday.

Mongolian Groom, a heavily raced 4-year-old gelding, broke down in the stretch as Vino Rosso pulled away to an emphatic victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Because the horse sustained fractures to his left hind leg, hard decisions were at hand and ultimately resulted in euthanasia.

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“The death of Mongolian Groom is a loss to the entire horse racing community,” the Breeders’ Cup said in a statement released roughly two hours after the race. “Our equine and human athletes’ safety is the Breeders’ Cup’s top priority.”

Because Mongolian Groom could not be saved, Santa Anita’s death toll rises to 37 horses since Christmas and calls for the abolition of thoroughbred racing will surely intensify, at least in California. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said as much in a letter to the California Horse Racing Board’s Rick Baedeker on Wednesday.

“If horseracing cannot be conducted in a safe and humane manner that protects the life and safety of horses and jockeys,” she wrote, “it may be time to reexamine the future of this sport in our state and in our country.”

Even before Mongolian Groom’s death was confirmed, a more strident statement was issued Saturday night by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

“We will not tolerate another mangled horse,” PETA Vice President Kathy Guillermo said. “Get the drugs out, install CT scan equipment at every track, replace dirt tracks with synthetic, and ban whipping. This is now non-negotiable: The racing industry must make a choice between doing right by the horses or shutting down forever.”

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Here was the sport’s nightmare scenario playing out in prime time on NBC: green screens held up around the injured horse to hide his condition from the crowd. An ambulance arriving on the scene to carry Mongolian Groom to an equine hospital. A $6 million duel for one of racing’s most coveted prizes overshadowed by the fate of a Kentucky-bred workhorse racing for the 11th time in 2019. (Acclimate, a turf horse, was the only 2019 Breeders' Cup entry to have raced more often this year.)

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“It’s something that we were all very concerned about coming in,” winning trainer Todd Pletcher said of Mongolian Groom's breakdown. “We were anxious for, not only running in huge races like these, but also hoping that everything would go smoothly and safely.”

For the first 13 of its 14 races, the Breeders’ Cup went off virtually without incident. Dale Romans’ Dennis’ Moment stumbled out of the gate in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, but recovered his footing and finished the race without a discernible scrape. Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. reaffirmed the reasons behind the extraordinary demand for his services by winning four races, including the Classic.

Yet in keeping the event at Santa Anita despite its recent rash of fatalities, the Breeders’ Cup board appeared to be tempting fate. Though trainer Bob Baffert expressed confidence Thursday that the Breeders’ Cup races could be held without catastrophic injuries, citing the superior caliber of the horses involved, that confidence belies the risks and rigors of a sport contested by half-ton animals running up to 40 miles per hour on delicate legs.

“It’s a sport and things happen. . .” Baffert said. “Basketball players when they sprain their ankle badly, they tape ‘em up and they get time off and everything. (But) When a horse does it, nobody tells the story that sometimes you have to (euthanize) it. You have to humanely put ‘em down because you can’t repair them. If you try they’re going to suffer more because the blood flow is not there. There’s a lot of issues. Nobody wants to tell that. It’s a sad story.”

Considering the consequences for the entire sport, veterinarians took pains to delay a decision that had seemed inevitable to some of those on the scene. The Breeders' Cup reported that radiographs were taken and a complete evaluation performed before surgeon Dr. Ryan Carpenter, in consultation with three other veterinarians, recommended Mongolian Groom be euthanized.

Another veterinarian, Dr. Larry Bramlage, has been engaged to conduct an independent evaluation.

"We have worked closely with Santa Anita leading up to the World Championships to promote enhanced equine safety," the Breeders' Cup statement said. "Santa Anita has implemented numerous industry-leading reforms to enhance the existing health and safety measures with the intent of providing a safe racing environment."

For 13 out of 14 races, all of the Breeders' Cup horses made it back to their barns. The death of Mongolian Groom means racing's survival may henceforth be harder.