12th horse dies at Churchill Downs in span of a month

RIP to Lost in Limbo and Kimberley Dream. The two thoroughbreds became the 11th and 12th horses to die in the past month while racing or training at Churchill Downs.

PETA posted a video of the heartbreaking scene of what happened with Lost in Limbo. He was sprinting through the seventh race on Friday, at Churchill Downs. Then his legs buckled as the jockey pitched forward. Lost in Limbo rolled over and tried to get back up. But he couldn’t. The video showed a horse in immense distress. A vet needed to euthanize him. Losi in Limbo was seven years old and competing in his 35th race.

Then on Saturday, Kimberley Dream pulled up in her race. She was taken off track and put down. Kimberley Dream was seven years old and competing in her 61st race of her career. The LA Times noted that the mare had finished her last five races by 19, 32½, 14½, 31 and 33 lengths.

It’s all why PETA continues to protest horse racing. However, horse racing deaths actually had been dropping coming into the 2023 season. The Jockey Club began tracking deaths in 2009 in the months after Eight Belles needed to be euthanized after her second-place finish at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby. That event prompted the creation of the Equine Injury Database. The idea behind it was to analyze and document how the injuries occurred. And then from there, how they could be prevented.

In 2009, thoroughbreds suffered catastrophic injuries at the rate of two deaths per 1,000 starts. In 2022, the number was 1.25 fatalities per 1,000 starts. That was a drop from 1.39 deaths per 1,000 starts posted in 2021. In fact, the number of deaths had decreased for four straight years.

Churchill Downs said it’s investigating why deaths have spiked

In confirming the death of Kimberley Dream, Churchill Downs issued this statement:

“It is with absolute dismay and sorrow that we report this highly unusual statistic. Our team members mourn the loss of these animals as we continue to work together to discover cause and determine appropriate investments to minimize, to the degree possible, any avoidable risk in this sport and on our property.

“We have been rigorously working since the opening of the meet to understand what has led to this spike and have yet to find a conclusive [discernible] pattern as we await the findings of ongoing investigations into these injuries and fatalities.”

Critics believe that drugs are playing a large part in the deaths. The drugs could be performance-enhancing. Or the horse, doped with pain-killers or anti-inflammatories, could be running artificially fast only to suffer a significant injury.

Churchill Downs isn’t the only track to see its participants die. A horse trained by Bob Baffert needed to be euthanized last Saturday after an injury in a Preakness undercard race.