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These Details About Kentucky Race Horse Deaths Were Secret, Until Now

Kinley Karole, a 3 yo filly, was euthanized at Churchill Downs this May during her first race.
Provided by Bill Willoughby
Kinley Karole, a 3 yo filly, was euthanized at Churchill Downs this May during her first race.

In most other major racing states, officials readily share names and details of the thoroughbred race horses that die after racing-related injuries.

Now, Kentucky has taken a step toward greater transparency and joined those states, in the wake of a Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting story about the state's secrecy, and an appeal to the state attorney general.

This week, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission gave KyCIR a list of the names of the dead race horses since 2010, along with the tracks where they last raced, the dates they died or were euthanized and details about the horse's injury.

The commission has withheld other details it keeps in its internal data, such as a horse's age at death, owners and trainers. The horse racing commission has cited a law about competitive disadvantages in denying access to some of these details.behind the data,

Using the new information from the state and publicly available racing data, we've created our own database: the most comprehensive information we can find on Kentucky thoroughbred horse racing deaths.

The below data is downloadable, and compiled from state data and Equibase searches. It does not include fatalities that occurred during training or related to injuries sustained in training.

If you see a story idea in here, we'd love to hear it. Contact reporter Caitlin McGlade at (502) 814-6541 or cmcglade@kycir.org.

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