The 7 biggest takeaways from “Broken Horses,” the New York Times’ unsettling horse-racing exposé

HISA launched an investigation into the 12 fatalities at Churchill Downs in 2023, focusing on several components: testing of the racetrack surface, and a comprehensive veterinary review of all the vet records. 

In reviewing the necropsies, and specifically the orthopedic breakdown, veterinarian Dr. Sheila Lyons found that the horses had significant pre-existing injuries, not only in the limb that broke down but in other limbs as well. Notably, the reports did not have drug history.

The New York Times had Dr. Lyons and Dr. Papp conducted an independent review of the records related to the 2023 deaths at Churchill Downs and Pimlico Race Course. “We don’t even know if these horses were running with legal therapeutic medications,” Lyons said. “If a horse gave the ultimate price, we want to learn what contributed to that and make changes.”

Lyons ultimately determined that Havnameltdown’s pathology was unheard of. He had lesions in all four fetlock joints, which occurs when repetitive injury wears away at cartilage. This sort of injury, according to Lyons, is easily diagnosed. Additionally, previous vet exams detected a choppy or abnormal gait for Havnameltdown. Given that these reports are available to the horse’s trainer and veterinarian, Lyons said, “How it was never red-flagged just baffles me.”

Havnameltdown also had corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid injected into both hocks and stifles, which are different joints in a horse’s leg. Doing so, with his compromised pathology, would have likely enabled him to race and train in a way that he couldn’t without those drugs, Lyons noted, adding that she felt his death could have been prevented. “Continuing to train and race a horse that has significant pathology in one or more joints is abusive,” she argued.

“It was only a matter of time,” Papp said. “Havnameltdown should not have been racing that day. Absolutely not, under any circumstances.”