Deaths, scratch cast pall over Churchill
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When the chief veterinarian from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission visited Barn 39 at Churchill Downs on Saturday morning, he did so in the milieu of May 2023. The old days had gone. The nation’s sensibilities about animals had changed by at least somewhat. A sport with 1.2 horse deaths per 100,000 entries in 2022, down by almost half since 2009 while still exceeding that of other lands, reeled in the bizarre nightmare of a venerable track on the biggest stage, with five horses dying in the previous nine days ahead of two more fallen later Saturday.
The scratching of Kentucky Derby favorite Forte, about 10 hours before post time, owed to a bruised right foot, the kind of ailment shy of injury which very well might not have forestalled a run 50, 25, 10, or even five years ago. It happened after Forte had galloped and jogged under observation. It left some ticklish scenes.
It left the veterinarian, Dr. Nicholas Smith, declining comment to Louisville TV station WDRB as they walked, a baffling failure of communication given all the accepted arguments for caution. It left Mike Repole, a co-owner of Forte, to relay in various interviews that Smith had said in discussions that Forte had seemed “a tick off.”
By Sunday morning, it left a telltale rearrangement of a sentence from mega-trainer Todd Pletcher, spoken while Forte stuck his gorgeous head out of his stall down the way just before an angry thunderstorm kicked in.
“There are different levels of disappointment,” he said, “and when you have to scratch the — or have the Derby favorite scratched . . .
He hadn’t scratched, he’d gotten scratched, with Forte the fifth horse since midday Thursday to be out — three of those scratched and two getting scratched. That’s counting Lord Miles, who exited Thursday late afternoon with Churchill Downs’s indefinite suspension of his trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., after two of Joseph’s horses died.
So the conclusion of Pletcher’s sentence went: " . . . it’s about the highest level of disappointment you can have. But, keeping in mind that it’s a tough business, tough decisions have to be made, and a lot of disappointments even when you’re doing well. We had a good day, we won a Grade I million-dollar race [before the Derby] and we leave the day disappointed.”
Soon, Pletcher would present an emblem of this sport at this moment when he said, “I think that [Forte] would have performed well yesterday, so,” — he paused — “but, unfortunately that wasn’t an option.”
And as the eight-minute interview with reporters wound down, the Daily Racing Form double-checked: Had Forte missed any work through Derby week?
“He never missed a day,” Pletcher said. “He trained every day, yeah.”
In the air beyond the barns, different and familiar statements emerged. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, for one, called for closure of the track amid its 14-race card on Saturday, given the death in the second race of Chloe’s Dream from a right knee fracture, and even before Freezing Point’s death in the eighth race from a left front biaxial sesamoid fracture. PETA vice president Kathy Guillermo referred to Churchill Downs as “a killing field” and said, “They should play ‘Taps’ at the Derby instead of ‘My Old Kentucky Home.’ ”
Churchill Downs chimed in at 9:45 p.m., stating: “It is with the utmost sadness that we report these tragic fatal injuries.” It echoed calls for a uniform body to lead the sport.
It became that rare Kentucky Derby with a winners’ news conference that veered toward the somber, and the occasional interruptions of the joy met with zero resentment from Ramiro Restrepo, part of the populous ownership group of Derby winner Mage.
“It’s a very difficult subject,” he said, “especially in the climate of 2023. We are very sensitive to these unfortunate instances. All I can say is, we do our best to take care of our horses. We treat them better than we treat our children. And we had full confidence in the soundness of our horse . . . As far as the tragedies that occurred, it’s a very difficult subject to touch upon. I’m sure there’s going to be some investigations done as to the reasons behind that, and hopefully that provides a few more answers.”