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Barn Fire at Belmont Park

2 horses died. 58 were saved. https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/247437/numerous-heroes-battled-barn-fire-at-belmont-park

Sounds like every horseperson’s nightmare.

Glad 58 made it, so sad that two did not. American Sailor was nine, a stakes winner, preparing for another year of racing. 45 starts over 7 years years, in the money 27 times. A trouper, so sorry he never got the honorable retirement he deserved.

Trainer Luis Miranda pulled five horses out of the burning barn, apparently at risk of his own life.

Thank God so many horses were saved. I was working on the barns of Hazel Park as a groom for their big fire and I can tell you it is a day that has been stuck only brain for 20+ years.

Nightmare. I was given one of the horses who was in one of the barn fires at Hastings Park, he had been badly injured but survived. I was not at the track in those days yet as a worker. But it was a nightmare. And a friend lost his favourate pet race mare in one of those fires- he still stings over that loss and it was 50 years ago now. She wasn’t famous, but was a character, never had the chance to show her true talent, and loved him. There were two fires there, a few years apart. People used to be allowed smoke in the shedrows, and in the stalls, both before and after these fires. This was my constant worry as a trainer in later years. I hated leaving my horses locked into stalls while I was not there, and other people were there- people that I did not trust.
Such a tragedy.

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