I was watching a race the other day for 2 yr old fillies. Beautiful filly by the eventually unfortunate name of Perfection shattered a front leg in the stretch. As the race was aired live, I saw it happen 😨 The announcers had gone on and on about how beautiful and perfectly she was turned out and how fit she was based on her workouts. She seemed way too big to be racing at 2 to me. I’m just a Hunter Jumper person that likes thoroughbred horses though. Sad for all her connections
Not to downplay the loss of this filly but horses break down. Most are not on commercial TV (don’t know if you were watching FoxSports(?) or TVG?) If NBC or FoxSports, they will usually only carry races from one or two tracks. If you watch TVG, they broadcast many more tracks and every single day, not just Saturdays or weekends. It is unfortunate that this happens. Racing is trying to make improvements.
In a quick glance, it appears that since the Saratoga 2020 Summer meet, 3 horses have died on the main track during a race, 1 on the turf, 3 during morning works. These may include both catastrophic breakdowns and sudden death. It does not include horses that were vanned off due to injury.
https://data.ny.gov/Government-Finance/Equine-Death-and-Breakdown/q6ts-kwhk
Statistics tend to show that 2YOs do break down less frequently than 3YOs racing in their first year.
I feel bad for all the nice horses that break down that don’t get noticed because they weren’t on prime TV coverage.
Run free Perfection!
Yeah I know. I’m not anti racing but it just sucks when you’re watching it live and the horses leg is obviously catastrophically broken.
She was so beautiful, or course I thought about how nice a Hunter she might make ðŸ˜
This yes, it sucks major when there is a fatality on the track. Was watching a few weeks ago, forget the track. IIRC filly clipped heals and when down, when she came back up and over, she hit her poll on the rail . Didn’t say much but I was watching on DVR so I could 'replay" and I think she was dead on impact with the rail.
Oh damn.