Through a “West Virginia Freedom of Information Act” request, I have confirmed the following 33 deaths at Mountaineer in 2014. Please note that while this data comes from the same request that produced the Charles Town post, the latter included training and “non-racing” deaths; Mountaineer did not. So this list is far from complete (doubling the 33 would be a reasonable estimate).
4-year-old Ide Better Pray, March 1, Mountaineer 2 (euthanized March 4), “tendon injury”
2-year-old Syeshacat, March 1, Mountaineer 4, “compound fracture”
4-year-old Know This, March 4, Mountaineer 2, “slab fracture”
2-year-old Junkyard Eddie, March 4, Mountaineer 8 (euthanized March 5), “carpal fracture”
5-year-old Thegallopingghost, March 5, Mountaineer 4, “compound fracture, dislocation”
5-year-old D’wildbill, March 8, Mountaineer 1, “slab fracture”
6-year-old Tawdry, March 10, Mountaineer 8, “sesamoids fracture”
3-year-old Passport Denied, March 11, Mountaineer 9, “slab fracture”
5-year-old Tanjero, March 17, Mountaineer 7, “sesamoids fracture”
3-year-old HJD’s Prize, March 22, Mountaineer 1, “finish line”
6-year-old Crystallo, April 6, Mountaineer 3, “compound fracture”
6-year-old Big Boy Tyson, April 26, Mountaineer 3 (euthanized April 27), “sesamoids fracture”
4-year-old Win Machine, April 28, Mountaineer 3, “sesamoids fracture”
3-year-old Zion Hill, May 4, Mountaineer 6, “compound condylar fracture”
5-year-old Transatlantic, May 13, Mountaineer 2 (euthanized May 14), “carpal slab fracture”
5-year-old Blushing Martha, May 18, Mountaineer 8, “sesamoids fracture”
5-year-old Berrymeaux, May 31, Mountaineer 2, “sesamoids fracture”
5-year-old Hot Necker, June 14, Mountaineer 5, “sesamoids fracture”
9-year-old Streaterville, July 6, Mountaineer 6, “fetlock open dislocation”
7-year-old Back Talking, July 9, Mountaineer 5, “MC3 fracture”
5-year-old Finally Together, July 14, Mountaineer 9, “sesamoids fracture”
3-year-old Ifihadalady, July 19, Mountaineer 6, “sesamoids fracture”
3-year-old Ithink I Can Dance, July 22, Mountaineer 6, “MC3 fracture”
7-year-old Maji Moto, August 4, Mountaineer 7, “sesamoids fracture”
8-year-old Cross Village, August 31, Mountaineer 8, “slab fracture”
4-year-old Feeling Naughty, September 1, Mountaineer 5, “sesamoids fracture”
5-year-old Manis, September 3, Mountaineer 2, “sesamoids fracture”
7-year-old Dream Rocker, September 13, Mountaineer 1, “cardio vascular accident”
3-year-old Kat Alpha, September 22, Mountaineer 3, “MC3 fracture”
5-year-old Mi’Kelseys Pride, October 4, Mountaineer 3, “sesamoids fracture”
5-year-old That’s the Answer, October 21, Mountaineer 5, “sesamoids fracture”
7-year-old Auditorium, October 22, Mountaineer 7, “sesamoids fracture”
3-year-old Cloud Cutter, October 26, Mountaineer 4, “MC3 compound dislocation”
Lets not forget about injured bodies also, shipping from Barberinos Training Ctr aka front for slaughter bounds,
just that short trailer ride away from Mountaineer.
Right Jo-Anne. Doubling this number, in order to have a truer number of dead horses, is being conservative, IMO.
The beginning of the end for racing would be for all the tracks such as Mountaineer to go broke and close. Unfortunately, there is too much support available from the casinos. That support happened because of lobbying politicians to one extent or another. Racing would fold at tracks such as Finger Lakes, Aqueduct and many others, were it not for casino money subsidizing them.