Santa Anita Park whip ban looks like a panicked response to a welfare crisis | Greg Wood

The California course’s decision could cause a chain reaction but it is a big leap to suggest whipping played a part in any of the 22 fatalities at the track this year

For the first time in three weeks horses will race at Santa Anita Park in California on Friday, beneath the spectacular backdrop of the San Gabriel mountains. The course has been closed since 5 March to allow officials to inspect and renovate the dirt track following the death of 22 horses when either training or racing in the first nine weeks of the 2019 season. The hope is that one of the racing world’s most cherished courses can begin to move on from a traumatic start to the year.

But while the unforgettable setting endures, the racing itself will look quite different if The Stronach Group, which owns Santa Anita, gets its way. In what it described as “an open letter about the future of thoroughbred racing in California”, published on 14 March, TSG made two radical proposals for the resumption of racing at Santa Anita and its other track in the state, Golden Gate Fields near San Francisco.

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