Back in May, I wrote this about Oaklawn:
“In terms of money, history and all that, Oaklawn Park in Arkansas is one of the top tracks in America. It is also, at least in the first three months of 2026, one of the deadliest.
“According to HISA’s Q1 ‘report,’ 14 horses were killed on-track: 5 racing, 9 training. But there’s more to it than just that. First, HISA only tracks and reports racing/training kills – the stall variety need not apply. And because we have been completely shut out in Arkansas (and Florida), with the state commission there saying its horsemen/track only report to HISA now, the number of stall victims are, and will ever remain, unknown. Bottom line, the Q1 death toll at Oaklawn is almost certainly higher than the reported 14.”
Well, turns out the great Oaklawn is even deadlier. I can confirm that five more horses who were injured/ambulanced off in Oaklawn races this spring are indeed dead:
Nameless (that’s his name), four, Feb 6 (he’s probably one of the 5 racing dead from Q1)
Hoppin John, five, Apr 4
Sassy Lass, six, Apr 24
Butch, four, Apr 26
Lear, five, May 1
Lear, it should be noted, was killed on the second-to-last day of the meet, meaning we have at least 18 on-track kills – 9 racing, 9 training – at Oaklawn in four months. (HISA hasn’t released its Q2 report yet, so the training number is likely to go up.)
“Safe racing” is a lie. I know it. They know it.
Since they are not reporting stall deaths or horses that were made to become so lame that they couldn’t be physically forced to run anymore even with painkilling drugs, such as a broken sesamoid bone, it stands to reason that there were a lot more horses victimized by the so-called horsemen at Oaklawn. Racing can never be safe because it’s always an accident waiting to happen in addition to the suffering caused to the horses by the daily routine abuse of being forced to gallop under saddle and rider with a whip starting at less than one-third of the age of maturity for horses.