An 8-year-old gelding who was injured in a race at Santa Anita Park has died, the 10th horse to die from a racing or training injury at the Arcadia track this year, state horse racing officials said Monday.
“Minister Shane sustained an injury to his right hind leg near the finish of the fifth race Sunday afternoon at Santa Anita Park,” Amy Zimmerman, Santa Anita’s senior vice president and executive producer, told City News Service on Monday.
“The horse was immediately attended to by an expert team of veterinarians and transported to the on-site equine hospital for further diagnostics and advanced imaging,” Zimmerman added. “After careful evaluation, it sadly was determined that surgical repair was not an option, and the veterinary team subsequently recommended humane euthanasia. His jockey was uninjured and no other horses were involved.
“As is protocol, the horse will undergo a necropsy overseen by the University of California (Davis) School of Veterinary Medicine and the findings will be reported to the California Horse Racing Board.”
Minister Shane had 25 career races and three first-place finishes.
Santa Anita had 12 racing and training deaths in 2025, 14 in 2024, 17 in 2023, 12 in 2022, 19 in 2021 and 16 in 2020.
Those numbers are a substantial improvement over 2019, when 42 such deaths at Santa Anita Park sparked widespread debate about safety issues in the sport and even drew the attention of state lawmakers. The deaths prompted several changes, including drug reforms, increased veterinary oversight and improvements to racing surfaces.
Zimmerman has touted the track’s 99.985% safety rate, which she called “unrivaled among tracks with similar racing and training dates.”