Santa Anita suffers seventh horse fatality of season

Santa Anita had its seventh racing or training death since Dec. 26 on Wednesday when Miss Romania, a 3-year-old filly, broke down with a life-ending injury during training.

The death was listed as a humerus, or upper leg, fracture, by Santa Anita and as a shoulder injury by the California Horse Racing Board. It was the first death this meeting on the dirt track.

Despite the death the track has had a reduction of almost half since last year when 13 horses had died to this point. However, the comparison is mitigated by the fact that the horse population is smaller and the number of horses that start and races that are run are significantly reduced.

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Santa Anita suffered sixth horse death of season on Saturday

Santa Anta suffered its sixth racing or training fatality of the season when Double Touch, a 6-year-old gelding, died on the training track on Saturday in what was described as a “sudden death.”

Feb. 11, 2020

Miss Romania was unraced and had no timed workouts listed on Equibase. She was trained by Eddie Truman. She was presumably a homebred as she was a Cal-bred not sold at auction.

So far, there have been three deaths on the training surface, three racing on the turf and this one on the dirt racing surface.

The CHRB is expected to release the results of its nearly yearlong investigation this month. The L.A. District Attorney released a report earlier in which Santa Anita was exonerated of any criminal wrongdoing and did list a series of recommendations, which are almost identical to those of the CHRB earlier.

Santa Anita resumes racing on Friday.