The spotlight on horse-racing fatalities, which is chipping away at the sport’s long-term viability, has now shifted to New York’s signature summer meeting at Saratoga Race Course, where two more horses died over the weekend, bringing the toll to seven in less than a month.
Undefeated 3-year-old filly Maple Leaf Mel fell yards from the finish line on Saturday in the Grade 1 Test Stakes in a gruesome scene played out before a full house and nationally televised audience on Fox. Then on Sunday, Ever Summer, running in an allowance race, fell and sustained life-threatening injuries and was euthanized on the track.
Maple Leaf Mel struggled to get up and then moved about with a broken right front leg that dangled.
