Early morning crash kills 3 horses

An early morning trailer crash in Kentucky that killed three thoroughbreds bound for Keeneland Race Course on Monday was traveling from Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, not Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs as several media sources have claimed.

The tractor trailer was traveling east around 4:49 a.m. on the Bluegrass Parkway toward Lexington, Ky., when it “crossed the median and west bound lanes, colliding into the embankment of the overpass,” a news release from the Bardstown (Ky.) Police Department said.

The release said the trailer contained seven horses, “3 of which were pronounced dead on scene. The other 4 suffer from life threatening injuries and have been transported to an animal hospital.”

Jason Milligan, Oaklawn’s vice president of racing, confirmed via email the horses were not traveling from Arkansas, noting “they were shipping from New Orleans to Kentucky.”

The horses came from the barn of trainer Eddie Kenneally, and according to a post shared Monday afternoon by Double O Racing on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, one of the horses that was killed in the crash was 3-year-old Darkroom, that had won 2 of 4 starts, including an allowance race on March 15 in his last appearance. Double O Racing was part owner of the horse along with Kenneally, Kim Valerio and Martha Ingram.

Thoroughbred Daily News noted the 3-year-old Vitement, out of Mizzen Mast, was among the injured horses. The colt last finished third in the $150,000 Ozark Stakes on Feb. 10 at Oaklawn.