A 6-year-old gelding has died after suffering a training injury at Del Mar, track officials confirmed Sunday.
Elector suffered an "inoperable right front ankle injury" and was euthanized Saturday morning. A Del Mar spokesman confirmed that account to City News Service on Sunday.
Elector had 17 career races and three first-place finishes, including a win at Del Mar on Aug. 18.
He is the fifth horse to die from a racing or training injury at Del Mar this year.
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The California Horse Racing Board, which tracks all horse deaths at the track, recorded five training or racing deaths in 2023 and four in 2022.
Their data differs from numbers voluntarily reported by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club to The Jockey Club's Equine Injury Database, which tracks only racing deaths that occur within 72 hours of the injury. According to the EID, there were zero race-related horse deaths in 2023 and two in 2022.
In 2023, most deaths that occurred at the Del Mar racetracks were during training and the one race-related death during that time period was not likely within the 72-hour range tracked by the EID, spokesperson Shannon Luce said. Data has not yet been released for the 2024 racing season.
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The EID, which began publishing data in 2012 and has been tracking horse deaths since 2009, recorded six race-related deaths in 2017. A drop followed in the years after, although, there were hundreds more race starts in 2017 than in subsequent years.
Three or fewer deaths were reported each year since -- well below the national average among tracks that report to the database.
Del Mar Racing contends a number of changes made to their horse safety policies has lowered the injury rate at their racetrack, including more veterinary inspections, more testing and the hiring of a racetrack surface consultant. In 2014, an unusual amount of race-related horse injuries led to changes to its turf track.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify how data is tracked differently between the California Horse Racing Board and the Equine Injury Database.
