Two more thoroughbreds have been euthanized after suffering injuries while racing at Arlington Park, bringing this year’s total of “breakdowns” to 17 and causing some owners Monday to consider pulling their horses from the venerable track.
Earl J. Trostrud Jr., whose horse Angelic Morgan L. was destroyed after being injured in a race June 17, said the most recent deaths Friday and Saturday had him nervous about running his four remaining thoroughbreds at Arlington.
“I’m very seriously thinking about not racing,” he said.
The Illinois Racing Board said last week that 14 racehorses were destroyed at Arlington in the first two months of the track’s operation, compared with 12 during last year’s four-month season.
The Racing Board’s list did not include Jake’s Fever, a gelding owned by former Gov. Jim Edgar. The horse was destroyed after a race June 23. That breakdown, added to Friday’s death of gelding Bernel Trail and Saturday’s loss of mare I Love Lisa, brought this year’s total to 17.
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Last week track officials brought in consultant Joe King to examine a section of the dirt oval–the turn leading into the homestretch–where almost all of the breakdowns have occurred. He pronounced it safe.
Some horse owners said they believe the track has done all it can to prevent injuries and they intend to continue racing their thoroughbreds there.
“I trust Arlington more than any other track,” said Robert Neumeyer, whose gelding Gully Washer took a bad step and broke down during a May 7 race. “I know they were out there for three days looking over that section. They would never chintz on anything.”
State regulators have theorized that a thoroughbred shortage in Illinois might be prompting some owners and trainers to race their horses too often.
Eddie Arroyo, senior state steward who oversees the Chicago tracks for the Racing Board, said the end of the season at Kentucky’s Churchill Downs on July 16 will bring new horses to Arlington and might dissuade a trainer from racing a vulnerable thoroughbred.
Some owners, though, still believe the oval itself is chiefly responsible for the problems.
Edgar said his thoroughbreds have been coming back sore from their runs and the racing career of one of his horses, a 3-year-old named San Cart, is probably over after the animal developed a swollen knee during a race Thursday.
“I think there’s something wrong, and I don’t think it’s the owners’ and trainers’ greediness,” he said.
Derrick Miller, co-owner of Bernel Trail, picked up that horse for $10,000 a few weeks ago, intending to race it for fun until his other thoroughbred, a $46,000 filly named Savy’s Delite, was ready to run late in Arlington’s season.
But in the sixth race Friday, Bernel Trail suddenly slowed in the stretch, “like he hit a wall and tired,” Miller said.
The horse walked off the track, but within minutes Miller received a call from his trainer and a veterinarian. He was told that Bernel Trail had injured his front left ankle and would never again be able to walk without problems.
Miller said he agreed with the veterinarian’s recommendation to euthanize the horse.
The thoroughbred’s death has caused Miller to reconsider running Savy’s Delite at Arlington this year. He said that unless the track performs “a major reconstruction or admits something is wrong,” he would hold out the filly until the fall racing season begins Sept. 15 at Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney.
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