Horse Racing Returns To Crisis Mode With Death Ahead Of Breeders’ Cup

More than four months after the conclusion of the historically grim 2023 Triple Crown season, horse racing has returned to a health-related crisis mode.

This weekend’s Breeders’ Cup — one of the sport’s most prestigious sets of races and also among its most lucrative, thanks to the $6 million Classic — has already been marred by the death of Practice Move following a Tuesday morning gallop in what has been suspected as a cardiac-related event. 

Soon after, Belmont Stakes winner Arcangelo dropped out of the featured Classic with a hind-foot issue. Kentucky Derby winner Mage had also been an expected entrant in the Classic but never made the trip to Santa Anita Park in California due to a spiking fever.

“He’s not fully resolving, and we’re running out of time,” Arcangelo trainer Jena Antonucci told TVG.

Ongoing Issues

While these issues don’t involve as many horses as during the spring’s debacle, they still represent an ugly coda to what has been one of the most difficult years in the sport’s history. 

Two horses died immediately following June’s Belmont Stakes, one horse was euthanized on the track at Maryland’s Pimlico Race Course, and 12 more died this spring at Kentucky’s Churchill Downs, leading to a month-long suspension of races there.

A definitive cause for the deaths was never found, and the ongoing equine health problems continue to draw the ire of animal advocacy groups.

“Either the fatalities end or racing must,” PETA said.