‘A VERY EMOTIONAL DAY’

Bob Baffert-Trained Horse Euthanized on Track Right Before Preakness

The 3-year-old colt Havnameltdown was euthanized shortly before another Baffert horse went on to win the Preakness Stakes.

A horse was euthanized right on the track of Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course on Saturday while spectators obliviously listened to music ahead of the Preakness Stakes. A screen was set up around the 3-year-old colt Havnameltdown as he was put down after throwing his jockey and suffering a “non-operable left fore fetlock injury.” Trained by the formerly suspended Bob Baffert—who was sidelined from racing for two years after another one of his horses failed two drug tests—Havnameltdown’s on-track death came just hours before another Baffert horse, National Treasure, won the Preakness Stakes. “This business is twists and turns, the ups and downs. To win this—losing that horse today really hurt. ... It’s been a very emotional day,” Baffert said after National Treasure’s win. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the day’s tragic events proved the horse racing industry was in desperate need of an overhaul: “The tragic death of Havnameltdown is the latest in a long list of fatalities. The racing industry must kick out the bad guys or it will have blood on its hands as well as blood on its tracks,” senior vice president Kathy Guillermo said in a statement.