Horse racing: Rains may be cause of Santa Anita deaths, owner says

Canadian Don Schnell considers himself very lucky.

On Wednesday, California’s storied Santa Anita racetrack closed indefinitely following the death of 21 horses there over 10 weeks. Escape Clause, a 5-yearold, Canadian-bred mare owned and trained by Schnell, has run her last three races at Santa Anita, competing in both dirt and turf events and emerging unscathed each time.

“Oh yeah I’m blessed that nothing happened to her,” Schnell, a 66-year-old native of Alliance, Alta., said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “Now that I see how many horses have broke down there, you know, I’m concerned about going back there.

“I consider her the soundest horse in the barn, maybe the soundest horse on the racetrack. She seems to be a throwback to three, four generations ago when horses ran many times and were just tougher back then.”

Santa Anita, owned by Canadian Frank Stronach, has been shut down indefinitely as officials try to determine what the problems are. Seven deaths happened during races on the dirt oval, five on the turf course and nine while training on dirt.

Schnell has been in the racing game 45 years and has never seen such a deadly stretch.

“No, never that severe,” he said. “But they’ve never experienced 12 inches of rain and cold weather either (in Arcadia, Calif.).

“My theory is it’s because of all the rain they’ve had and they can’t keep that track consistent.”

The issues at Santa Anita have prompted Schnell and other trainers to ship their horses the day before races rather than come earlier and train there, which is hardly ideal for the horse and jockey.