Free Republic

A 32-year-old man has been arrested and charged with arson after he allegedly set fire to a New York barn on Thursday, killing more than two dozen race horses. The tragic events took place at the Tioga Downs Casino complex in Nichols, New York, around an hour south of Syracuse. The New York State Police say they responded to a structure fire, later releasing a statement to confirm that 'over two dozen racehorses died' in the blaze. The statement added: 'One person who entered the burning barn in an attempt to save horses suffered second-degree burns and was transported to...

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,...

Scientists have traced the origin of the 'speed gene' in Thoroughbred racehorses back to a single British mare that lived in the United Kingdom around 300 years ago, according to findings published today in the scientific journal Nature Communications. The origin of the 'speed gene' (C type myostatin gene variant) was revealed by analysing DNA from hundreds of horses, including DNA extracted from the skeletal remains of 12 celebrated Thoroughbred stallions born between 1764 and 1930. "Changes in racing since the foundation of the Thoroughbred have shaped the distribution of 'speed gene' types over time and in different racing regions,"...

From about 1885 until 1915, pacers and trotters were racing royalty in America, the popularity of these standardbred horses greater than that of any baseball star or other spectator sport. When the immortal pacer Dan Patch fell ill in 1904, news of his malady traveled across the nation as racing fans and the public at large anxiously sought out the slightest scrap of information about his condition. Of course, at a time when Ty Cobb, the country’s highest paid baseball player made $12,000 per year, Dan Patch was earning $1 million! And stories of Dan’s successes on the track were...

Chief White Fox, one of only a small handful of Thoroughbreds to be registered as “white” by The Jockey Club, broke his maiden on July 1 at Mountaineer Park in his ninth career start. The 3-year-old son of The White Fox bested the runner-up by 5 ¼ lengths in the one-mile race under jockey Marco Ccamaque. He covered the distance in 1:42.92 over a track rated fast as the favorite. With the victory, Chief White Fox increased his earnings to $16,091 from nine career starts in Kentucky and West Virginia. This marked the first time that he finished in the...

May 22, 2006 -- BALTIMORE - Was Barbaro's tragic breakdown in the Preakness Stakes a sad random incident on the racetrack or new proof of the sharp physical deterioration of the modern American thoroughbred? That question will be hotly debated everywhere in the racing industry in the aftermath of the accident that abruptly ended the brilliant 3-year-old's racing career, if not his life, and left the world in heartbreak.