LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In the wake of Churchill Downs suspending racing at its track, several prominent trainers are speaking out, voicing their confidence in track conditions. That includes top trainer Dale Romans.
Romans says there is an unfortunate feeling on Churchill’s Backside.
“It’s somber over there. No one can believe what’s happened,” Romans said.
A total of 12 horses have died or have been euthanized due to injuries sustained at Churchill Downs since late April, including deaths throughout Derby Week racing.
Romans’ team lost a horse in the days after Derby festivities. “He was a perfectly sound horse. I don’t know what happened to him. He had a catastrophic injury at the end of a race and you just can’t explain some of these things,” Romans explained.
Romans does not believe track conditions are the cause of so many injured horses.
“When the track is bad, you start to see uncommon injuries, mild ones,” he said.
“Things you see: bruised feet, suspensory strains, stuff like that. I have not seen that in my horses,” Romans told Spectrum News 1.
Romans has over 40 years of experience training horses. Presently, the trainer has upwards of 75 horses at Churchill and approximately 50 employees based there.
So where there may be interest in identifying a singular cause for the injuries, Romans doesn’t think it’s that clear cut.
“I think it’s a statistical anomaly that we’ve hit right now. You know, we went three meets without having any horses break down and all of a sudden boom, boom, boom, we’ve got a cluster,” Romans said.
When announcing the pause on racing, Churchill Downs released a statement on June 2 which said, in part: “Churchill Downs Racetrack has seen an unusual number of horse injuries over the previous month resulting in 12 equine fatalities. Following a thorough internal review and concurrent investigations conducted by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, no single factor has been identified as a potential cause and no discernible pattern has been detected to link the fatalities.”
Churchill Downs also explained that diagnostic testing of the racetrack did not raise any concerns for experts, who concluded that the surface is consistent with prior measurements from the track in past years.
Romans supports the decision to suspend racing at Churchill Downs, despite being confident in track conditions.
“My wife is a rider. She gets on horses everyday. She goes out there, she said the track is not bad,” Romans shared.
As racing moves to Ellis Park for the rest of the season, he says his horses and staff will stay at Churchill. If he wanted to move operations to Henderson, he couldn’t, saying there isn’t enough space.
Racing will continue at Ellis Park throughout the rest of the Spring Meet, which ends July 3.