Bob Baffert, coach of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, stands near the monitor at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, April 28, 2021.
Bryan Woolston | Reuters
A horse of Corridor of Fame coach Bob Baffert was euthanized at Pimlico Race Course on the undercard of Saturday’s Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, working a further black eye to the beleaguered sport.
Havnameltdown, a 4-5 beloved in the $200,000 Quality IIII Chick Lang Stakes, broke down and threw jockey Luis Saez at the leading of the stretch.
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“We are just devastated,” Baffert claimed in a statement. This is a shock to everybody at our barn who appreciate and care for these horses just about every day.”
Breaking out of inside stall, Havnameltdown was bumped by the No. 2 horse and eventual winner Ryvit, producing him to briefly veer toward the rail.
“Havnameltdown was clearly strike quite challenging coming out of the gate,” Baffert extra. “We do not know if that contributed to the damage, but we will be completely transparent with all those reviewing this awful accident. Proper now, our thoughts are with Luis Saez and we are hopeful he will be ok.”
Hanvameltdown’s injury was catastrophic and almost nothing could be finished for him, according to on-contact keep track of veterinarian Scott Hay. The horse was put down although still on the track.
“Sadly Havnameltdown suffered an harm of his still left front ankle that was of such an extent that they couldn’t do everything for him and he had to be humanely euthanized,” Hay advised NBC Sporting activities.
“The extent of the harm was intense adequate that it was almost certainly in the horse’s very best fascination to just euthanize at that position fairly than check out to go via the system of loading him on to an ambulance.”
The colt’s euthanization arrives in the wake of a string of equine deaths foremost up to the Kentucky Derby earlier this thirty day period at Churchill Downs.
Eight horses died in a tiny far more than a 7 days at the famed Louisville training course, increasing considerations about the sport’s treatment method of its animals.
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