A 4-year-old gelding injured in a race at Los Alamitos last month has recovered and is doing well, track officials said this week — contrary to a state official earlier saying the horse had died.
Capital Outlay was injured in the fourth race on Feb. 16 and was taken off by ambulance without finishing the race.
On March 3, the California Horse Racing Board’s public records coordinator said the horse had died. But the CHRB and Los Alamitos now say that information was incorrect, and the horse is alive and doing well.
CHRB spokesman Mike Marten said the agency’s equine medical director determined that the horse was “doing well” via video on Feb. 23, two days after he left a CHRB enclosure.
Three horses have died from racing or training injuries at the Cypress track this year.
According to numbers provided by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, racing-related horse fatalities fell nationwide in 2024 to their lowest percentage since such data has been recorded.
In 2009, two out of every 1,000 horses to start a race at U.S. tracks subject to HISA rules died as a result. That number dropped to 0.9% in 2024. HISA credits changes to safety rules implemented in 2022 and improvements in drug regulation in 2023 for the decline.