The Death Toll from the fire at Saratoga Harness early this morning is, at present, 17. Here are the victims’ names and ages:
Arlanda, 8 years old (had just been raced yesterday)
Conquest As, 9 years old
Crazy Jet, 5 years old (had just been raced yesterday)
Five Star Lou, 4 years old (had just been raced Saturday)
Free Willy Hanover, 13 years old (had just been raced yesterday)
Gimlet Hanover, 4 years old (had just been raced yesterday)
Influencer, 4 years old
Lyons Dukey, 4 years old
Muscle Dynasty, 8 years old (had just been raced yesterday)
Our Father Lindy, 4 years old
Perfect Bang, 3 years old
Quite Like Me, 4 years old
Race Me Bombshell, 4 years old
Shalamar Hanover, 4 years old
Trackstar, 3 years old
Tropical Cyclone, 3 years old (had just been raced Sunday)
Red, age unknown
Appalling! No fire suppression system in this day & age. At our old Portland Meadows 1 mile track grooms & poor horseman, ( we were ones) were not allowed to sleep in tack rooms or aisle ways because of only having 1 way out of the tack rooms. Many times we had to sleep in a stall with a horse! Had to choose the good tempered one. If we missed the last bus at 12:05am to our sleeping room downtown we would have to stay with a horse. Cold in winter at Portland! No dorms at our old crummy track! Too tired after working from 7am to have to walk another 2 or 3 miles to Dekum street to the only bus line that operated late nights. When we 1st became grooms PM had a terrific fire! The old wooden barn went up FAST. The rest of the barns were somewhat safer as they had concrete block construction & metal corrugated roofs. We learned something very valuable for later teaching of horses. Those horses we could lead by their forelock we were able to save from the fire, those that needed a halter / lead sadly died just as these did here at Saratoga. Never will forget that 1st year as a groom! Always teach your horses to lead with their forelock or a shirt around their neck in an emergency.
It’s outrageously unacceptable that the City, and the County, in charge of such basic things as 1) Fire Hazards, 2) Health Hazards, and 3) Safety Hazards do not require stables to have FIRE EXTINGUISHERS in an area where they can be readily accessible to any able-bodied, able-minded adult; AND where there are multiple flammable materials such as 1) hay as feed for the horses, and 2) straw and/or wood shavings as bedding for the horses in the stalls.
These materials obviously constitute a FIRE HAZARD, especially when combined with people who smoke cigarettes and carelessly throw their burning cigarette butts willy nilly on the ground or somewhere.
Were there no security guards on duty?
Were there no grooms sleeping inside the barn to at least keep an eye on the horses? (Let alone the fact that many grooms have nowhere else to go. Renting a motel room for a night or for a week costs too much on a groom’s wages, to the best of my knowledge and belief.)
No, not surprised about the no sprinkler system. Most barns don’t seem to have them, even at bigger, newer tracks. The casinos don’t want to spend any extra money on the horses if they don’t have to, they are already losing tons of money on horse racing.
I was in a newer barn, years ago, when a groom accidentally burned a bag that their oats came in, while he was cooking them. The whole barn filled with smoke. Everyone was commenting on the smoke, but no one was concerned with moving the horses out. I was waiting for the sprinklers to open up on us. I looked up and saw there weren’t any. The barn was literally a year old. That has stuck with me all these years. All the stalls were wood, the beams wood, the door frames wood, with hay and straw stacked in the aisles because there was no where else to store them. Scary. There but for the grace of God…
CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil reported Tuesday, June 16, 2026 that there was “no fire suppression equipment” in the barn or near the barn where 18 horses were stabled. One horse managed to escape the fire.