This morning, one day after officially opening for business, Del Mar recorded its first and second kills of the season – via head-on collision during training hours. Both Charge a Bunch, two, and Carson Valley, three, died from impact – i.e., no euthanasia required. Imagine that scene.

I can hear it now – “freak accident,” “nothing we could have done to prevent this one,” “could have happened anywhere horses exist.” Indeed, it’s already being said. Bob Baffert, Carson’s trainer: “This was a very unfortunate accident and it is a shock to everyone in the barn. We work every day to take the best care of our horses but sometimes freak accidents occur that are beyond anyone’s ability to control. This is one of those times and we’re deeply saddened for the horses and everyone involved.”

Sorry, the American public is growing weary of your excuses, diversions, and obfuscations. Horseracing kills horses. The where and how matter not a whit.

Sandra Smiles, a 2-year-old filly being prepped for her first race, was killed training at Pleasanton (Alameda County Fair) July 7 – “sudden death [at] 1/8th pole,” say the stewards. “Sudden death” at two, the rough equivalent of a grade-schooler.

In the minutes for the just-concluded Los Alamitos Thoroughbred meet, one “fatality” is listed for the week 7/8-7/14. I wrote to the California Horse Racing Board requesting the name; I was told that since it was non-racing/training, the identity of the dead horse was not available (at least to the person I made the request to).

And yet another. The Gaming Commission has disclosed the death of 3-year-old Overlord at Rood and Riddle Hospital, by way of Saratoga Race Course, yesterday: “developed post-op GI complications (colonic rupture)…subsequently euthanized.” He is the sixth casualty of the young Saratoga meet. For those who might object to that characterization, I give you a historical parallel.

It is fairly well known that roughly 620,000 soldiers died during the Civil War. But what most don’t realize is that roughly two-thirds of those soldiers died of disease. With that knowledge, when have you ever heard someone try to make the case that those deaths were in any way less significant, or more to the point, could somehow be disassociated from the war itself? Doesn’t happen – nor, obviously, should it. Clearly, then, time, place, circumstances, and context matter.

Similarly, every death in the horseracing industry is by the horseracing industry – every one, whether it comes via snapped leg, ruptured ligament, cardiac collapse, pulmonary hemorrhage, or “colonic rupture.” And that’s that.

Golden Julia, May 25, Saratoga T (died May 30) – “horse died from acute blood loss”
Investment Analyst, Jun 7, Saratoga T – “sustained leg injury necessitating euthanasia”
Gattino Marrone, Jul 3, Saratoga T – “fractured sesamoids – euthanized”
Fight Night, Jul 12, Saratoga R – “suffered a catastrophic fracture”
Total Fidelity, Jul 14, Saratoga T – “suffered fracture to sesamoids – euthanized”
Overlord, Jul 15, Saratoga – “colonic rupture – euthanized”