# Santa Anita averaging two dead horses per week. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 6, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633 "2019-03-06T16:16:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633/1 "2019-03-06T16:16:43Z")
[21 horses have died since the season opened and the track has suspended operations until at least Monday to try to figure out why.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/03/06/something-is-drastically-wrong-after-horse-die-storied-california-track-shuts-down-racing/?utm_term=.a212e52e789e) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633/2 "2019-03-06T17:20:28Z")
To clarify, these horses haven’t “died”, they’ve been euthanized following injury. It’s not like there is some infectious disease lurking. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633/3 "2019-03-06T17:44:47Z")
Thanks for that. The AP Radio report which prompted me to look online wasn’t clear. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633/4 "2019-03-06T18:05:52Z")
There was a series on Netflix called [**Luck**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luck_(TV_series)), starring Dustin Hoffman. I loved the first season and was eagerly awaiting season two. Then, Netflix cancelled due to too many horses being euthanized due to injury during filming resulting in lousy PR. Like it or not, horses are injured at the track and many of them wind up being euthanized. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633/5 "2019-03-06T18:29:23Z")
Not disagreeing but evidently this is unusual. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633/6 "2019-03-11T19:32:26Z")
My immediate thought was “wow, now _that’s_ an appetite.” ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633/7 "2019-03-11T20:19:42Z")
I keep reading it as “Santa Anita is \*\*avenging \*\*two dead horses a week” Santa Smite!! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2019, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633/8 "2019-03-11T20:29:03Z")
Honest to Og, maybe we need to look at horse breeder’s and not just the tracks - horse racing puts an emphasis on speed, which may or may not be in best long-term interests of either the individual horses or the breed known as “Thoroughbred”. But yeah, definitely look at the track. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633/10 "2019-03-26T12:33:52Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > … horse racing puts an emphasis on speed, which may or may not be in best long-term interests of either the individual horses or the breed known as “Thoroughbred”. It would be challenging to de-emphasize speed while retaining the concept of racing. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santa-anita-averaging-two-dead-horses-per-week/830633/11 "2019-03-26T13:36:32Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > It would be challenging to de-emphasize speed while retaining the concept of racing. Not really. There are two types of speed burst and endurance. Thoroughbreds are bred for burst speed and are generally a fragile creature. You could emphasize toughness first and then speed second just by changing the race design. In racing we already see this in marathons vs 100 M dash. Yes, marathoners do suffer from lots of over use injuries so its not a perfect comparison but you can still have races where toughness is part of the race. Another example would be football season vs baseball season. 16 games per year is more of a sprint and while 162 games is more of a marathon. If you are fragile you won’t make it 162 games no matter how good you are. If the goal was to make thoroughbreds tougher then maybe the Kentucky Derby should be changed to a 7 races series run over the course of a week where all races must be completed. Then speed in the quarter mile would still matter but also toughness. I’m sure if I knew more about horse racing I could could come up with other ways that could test that some of the fragility is being bred out of the horses.