Two horses die in Del Mar training accidents Horses come into the finish for the first race of the 2021 season on opening day at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club on Friday, July 16, 2021.
(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
By Bill Center
DEL MAR
For the past three years, Del Mar has been ranked the safest major racetrack in the nation according to numbers compiled by the Equine Injury Database.
But in the span of an hour Sunday morning, July 18, Del Mar lost two horses during workouts, according to track officials.
A 3-year-old filly named Needless to Say succumbed to an apparent heart attack around 7 a.m., dropping to the ground on the backstretch. She had raced twice last year, winning a maiden race at Del Mar and running out of the money in a stakes race at Santa Anita.
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Making a stand against social injustice at a racetrack is nothing new. Perhaps the most famous example occurred more than a century ago when Emily Davison walked out in front of the horses competing in the 1913 Epsom Derby in England. Stepping out from the inside bend at Tattenham Corner at Epsom, the suffragette was struck by King George V’s runner Anmer and unfortunately later died having never regained consciousness.
In recent years several protests have taken place at, or outside of, racetracks. Foremost in our mind was at Churchill Downs for last year’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1). A summer’s worth of protesting over the death of Breonna Taylor and other national social injustice issues were addressed during Labor Day weekend in a daylong march from downtown Louisville to the gates of Churchill Downs.