Horse deaths hover over Santa Anita
ARCADIA, Calif. – Craig Favel sat down in front of the grandstands at Santa Anita Park as he looked across the famed racetrack and into the distance.
“Sitting here at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, you can see why this is such a great venue for the Breeders’ Cup,” the CEO and president of the Breeders’ Cup told USA TODAY Sports this week. “It’s a spectacularly beautiful place.”
Yet it’s also fraught with tension and scrutiny as the annual two-day horse racing event is set to begin Friday.
The 36th running of the Breeders’ Cup, 14 races with purses of no less than $1 million each that culminate with the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, has attracted many of the sport’s top horses. It’s also certain to attract protesters decrying a string of horse deaths – 36 since December – at Santa Anita.
The deaths have activated animal rights groups such as PETA and led to an investigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.
Yet in June, with a chance to move the Breeders’ Cup to famed Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, or another racetrack, the organization’s
board of directors voted to keep the event at Santa Anita, which will be hosting the Breeders’ Cup for a record 10th time.
Favel has dismissed the idea that his accepting a new job with the Stronach Group, which owns Santa Anita Park, influenced the Breeders’ Cup board’s decision to keep the event here.
“It wasn’t really that hard a decision because it was the right thing to do and we needed to acknowledge people were taking the right kind of steps that we believe are important for the whole industry to take,” said Favel, who after the Breeders’ Cup will become CEO of racing operations for the Stronach Group, which owns six other thoroughbred racing tracks.
Unable to slow the alarming rate of horse deaths, Santa Anita shut down racing for almost all of March. Two experts were brought in to inspect the track. The Stronach Group later announced the track was deemed fit to resume racing.
Reform followed.
The use of race-day medication was banned with the exception of Lasix, and the Stronach Group has committed to phasing out permitted use of the potent diuretic. Jockeys faced new restrictions on the use of whips. The Stronach Group also said it has invested in potentially life-saving diagnostic equipment designed to detect horse injuries.
USA TODAY Sports requested an interview
with a member of the Stronach Group’s executive team but none was made available.
Despite racing reforms at Santa Anita and throughout the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom in September put California horse racing on notice during an interview with The New York Times.
“I’ll tell you, talk about a sport whose time is up unless they reform,” Newsom told the Times. “That’s horse racing. Incredible abuses to these precious animals and the willingness to just spit
these animals out and literally take their lives is a disgrace.”
Besides the horse deaths, Newsom pointed to another troubling matter: In September, the Times reported that Justify, winner of the 2018 Triple Crown, failed a drug test after winning the Santa Anita Derby, which preceded the horse’s sweeping the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. Yet California horse racing regulators disposed of the inquiry behind closed doors, the Times reported.
Earlier this week, Jim Gagliano, president and chief operating officer of the Jockey Club, said the sport of horse racing is facing a reckoning.
“Safety and integrity, those are fundamental matters for any sporting competition,” said Gagliano, who is helping spearhead a push for federal legislation – the Horse Racing Integrity Act – that would establish a central body responsible for drug-testing horses. “This is a gambling sport. Integrity has to be of the highest variety.”
But reality has cast a shadow over talk of reforms. During buildup to the 2019 Breeders’ Cup, the horse death toll at Santa Anita continued to mount.
On Oct. 25, G Q Covergirl, a 6-yearold mare, was euthanized after injuring her front legs while on the training track. On Sunday, Bye Bye Beautiful, a 2-year-old filly, was euthanized after she injured her front right leg during a race.
“Like I’ve been arguing for a long time, they can’t stop the killing,” said Patrick Battuello, an animal rights activist focused on the death of racehorses. “It’s built-in to the system.”
Yet Favel, wearing a purple Breeders’ Cup sweatshirt as he sat in front of the Santa Anita grandstands this week, looked serene with the view of the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance.
“I take comfort in the fact that we’ve done everything that we can to control the controllable,” Favel said. “What misfortune could occur that we can’t avoid, I worry about it, but that’s just because I’m a worrier, not because we haven’t done everything we can do to address it.”