Churchill Downs Goes Dark In The Wake Of A Dozen Equine Deaths In May

Churchill Downs will shut all operations on Sunday, June 4, in the wake of the unprecedented number of equine deaths at the track during its legendary spring meeting. The shutdown is meant to allow a broader investigation into the possible causes of the dozen deaths. Ten of the twelve deaths have been assessed as the results of racing or training leg injuries, but the sheer number of breakdowns and the extreme rarity of one track experiencing that number in such a short amount of time is moving the needle to this place: A shutdown is necessary.

Following an emergency summit called earlier in the week by the federal oversight agency, the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), participating Churchill Downs and Kentucky Horse Racing Authority officials seemed to agree that the measure would help. Churchill Downs’ CEO Bill Carstanjen included this statement in the June 3 press release: “What has happened at our track is deeply upsetting and absolutely unacceptable. We need to take more time to conduct a top-to-bottom review of all of the details and circumstances so that we can further strengthen our surface, safety and integrity protocols.”

Significantly, the second independent review of Churchill’s track surface began on Wednesday, May 31. It’s important in this context to recall the construct of a track, and There are many factors that can influence the safety of a track, but it’s axiomatic in racing that, on dirt, as Churchill’s surface is, horse’s hooves cut through the cushiony, harrowed surface considerably. A racehorse essentially creates his next stride by bouncing off a substrata of harder dirt below the harrowed surface. The irregularities in that stratum are the irregularities of nature itself, and that will also be looked at as the investigators examine the possibilities.