A two-year-old racehorse was put down on Friday after suffering an injury at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia.
According to the California Horse Racing Board, thoroughbred Fight On Ron suffered an unspecified musculoskeletal injury during a race. Though he was able to walk after, officials determined the damage was unrecoverable and ordered the horse be euthanized.
Fight On Ron was the second horse in two days to die after suffering a major injury at Santa Anita, according to the racing board. Another two-year-old thoroughbred by the name of Seven Summers was injured during a training session on Thursday and put down shortly thereafter.
A 2019 investigation by Town & Country magazine uncovered a spate of horse deaths at Santa Anita that ownership blamed on "overmedication" and substandard track foundation. Reforms undertaken in the wake of those deaths did not prevent 15 more euthanizations the following year.
The deaths of Seven Summers and Fight On Ron brought the 2021 death toll to 13.
