Horse deaths, 4 in 6 days, mar the start of Kentucky Derby week at Churchill Downs

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Kentucky Derby week is off to a grim start at Churchill Downs. Three horses have died in the first two racing days of a meet that already began on a tragic note with the death of a Kentucky Derby qualifier, Wild on Ice, who was euthanized following an injury sustained in training last Thursday.

Parents Pride, a 4-year-old filly trained by Saffie Joseph Jr. and owned by Ken Ramsey, collapsed and died after Race No. 8 on the Churchill Downs turf course on Opening Night.

Another horse trained by Joseph and owned by Ramsey, Chasing Artie, collapsed and died after Race. No. 8 on the turf course on Tuesday. It had been his 12th career start. Earlier on Tuesday’s “502’s Day” card, Take Charge Briana, a 3-year-old filly trained by Wayne Lukas and owned by Willis Horton Racing, fell in the stretch on the Churchill Downs turf course and was euthanized on the track because of catastrophic injury.

All of the deaths were confirmed by reporting in the Daily Racing Form.

Joseph Jr. told WDRB that his barn is looking into what happened to both horses, but right now, they have no answers.

"I'm shattered basically, you know what I mean? I know it can't happen - it's mind-boggling. The odds of it happening twice is just a trillion. I run almost 4,000 horses, and it never happened like that. So it doesn't, it doesn't make sense," Joseph Jr. said.

Sorry to report that Chasing Artie, a 3-time SW, collapsed and died following R8 today at #ChurchillDowns, his 12th career start, per owner Ken Ramsey. This follows a similar incident in which the @Ramsey_Farm filly Parents Pride died following R8 Sat. night at CD. (1/2)
— Marty McGee (@DRFMcGee) May 2, 2023

Both horses were ridden by Luis Saez, who was not injured in the fall. Saez has the Derby mount on Tapit Trice, No. 2 in the morning line, and was the jockey who rode Maximum Security to the finish line first in the 2019 Kentucky Derby, only to be disqualified for a claim of foul.

Few details on the death of Wild on Ice, who had qualified for the Derby with a longshot run in the Sunland Derby, were made available. According to the track, he had worked 5 furlongs, then was pulled up while galloping out on the backside. He was transported to Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, where he was later euthanized.

Dr. Alan Ruggles, a veterinary surgeon at Rood & Riddle, said he did not operate on the horse but added that injuries in the lower extremities are the most common type of severe injury for horses and that, “Soft tissue coverage is poor, blood supply is poor. It's very high energy injuries because of the speed and weight of the horse, so they tend to be very traumatic injuries.”

Churchill Downs has had no public reaction to any of the equine deaths.