Memorial Purpose & Criteria

Memorial Purpose

Hailed as courageous warriors by the industry they serve, the fallen racehorses deserve to be remembered for their valiant effort on the track, contribution to humankind and, above all, for their own magnificence.

Criteria

The horses are registered Thoroughbreds fatally injured at tracks around the world throughout history in training, racing (of any type), a prerace or postrace incident on race day, or due to a medical or postsurgery complication from that same injury, which ultimately resulted in death or euthanization.

Confirmation

To ensure accuracy, every fatality has been confirmed with a published source since the Memorial’s inception in 2005; the policy to cite our sources on the Memorial was launched on 3/14/2014, starting with Raya Star (IRE). Confirmation is strictly enforced to maintain the integrity of each horse’s story reflected on the Memorial.

Note about Horses Missing
from the Memorial

Wintooka (AUS), bay horse (1928-1933)

Many fatalities cannot be confirmed with a source. Take the champion Wintooka (AUS): We find that in 1933 at 5 years old he was brought from Australia to race in the United States, but we don’t know why he only started twice that year and his career abruptly ended. Was he fatally injured? Or did he just retire or go to stud? We cannot speculate. Only a death that is true beyond doubt can be memorialized.