Another horse dies at Santa Anita
The 25th since Dec. 26
LOS ANGELES – After six weeks of safe racing and training, Santa Anita had its second horse death in four days when a first-time starter pulled up during a race Sunday and was euthanized Monday. It was the 25th equine death at the Arcadia track since Dec. 26.
Spectacular Music was running in a maiden claiming race restricted to California-breds when jockey Jorge Velez pulled the horse up on the backstretch after leaving the gate in the sixfurlong contest. The gelding was vanned off the course and taken to the barns with the hope of saving him after suffering a pelvis injury. However, the extent of the injury was such that it was decided on Monday morning to euthanize the horse.
The gelding was trained by Steve Miyadi and owned by Miyadi and breeder Nadine Anderson. He was bought for $900 in the local Barretts sale in January 2018.
On Friday, during training, Commander Coil was euthanized after suffering a shoulder-area injury. He was an unraced 3-year-old gelding and was just galloping, much less stressful and not considered risky. The gelding was trained by Marcelo Polanco and owned by Jose Romero. He was not bought at public auction.
The Daily Racing Form, citing two track officials who would not speak publicly, reported that Polanco was asked over the weekend to vacate his stalls, where he had five horses. The DRF said Polanco was cited for training a horse on behalf of another person. It’s unknown if this is related to Commander Coil.
The two injuries are similar only in that they are not the most common injuries. Most catastrophic injuries to horses occur in the fetlock or joint area of the leg, not the shoulder area or pelvis.
During the 2016-17 fiscal year, which is how the California Horse Racing Board collects statistics, seven of the 170 horse fatalities in the state were related to the pelvis and 10 related to the humerus, the bone between the shoulder and elbow. In 2017-18, of 113 fatalities in the state, four were in the humerus and five in the pelvis.
“You’ll find that there are preexisting conditions on most scapular (shoulder blade), pelvic, lumbar (spine), humerus and tibia (lower leg) injuries,” said Dr. Rick Arthur, chief equine veterinarian of the CHRB. “But many are not clinically apparent. The problem is they are hard to discover because they are covered by muscle. Horses with these injuries don’t show lameness. They are very hard to pick up.”
Arthur did not know what prior treatment either of these two horses had received.