Horse dies suddenly after race at Los Alamitos

A 6-year-old mare died suddenly after a race at Los Alamitos Race Course last weekend.

“Ballet Royalty finished fifth (last) in the first race at Los Alamitos on March 12. She galloped back and was unsaddled, but then she collapsed while walking off,” Mike Marten, public information officer for the California Horse Racing Board, told City News Service on Tuesday. “This is termed a ‘sudden death.’ The postmortem examination might provide more details.”

Ballet Royalty had 19 starts in her career, all at Los Alamitos and Santa Anita. She finished last in her first six races, and had four second-place finishes, three third-place finishes and one first-place finish — in a mixed claiming race for thoroughbreds and quarter horses in November 2020.

She is the second horse to die at the Cypress track this year, following the death of Big Fabuloso, a 4-year-old gelding who suffered an injury while racing on Jan. 8.

Eleven horses died from a racing or training injury at Los Alamitos in 2021, and the track was briefly placed on probation by the CHRB in July 2020 due to another spate of racehorse deaths. At that time at least 20 horses had died at the track in 2020 after suffering racing or training injuries.