Two Horse Deaths In Two Days At Santa Anita, Death Toll Now 41 Since December 2018

ARCADIA (CBSLA) —  Another racehorse has died after breaking an ankle at Santa Anita Park, just one day after a 5-year-old gelding was euthanized at the Arcadia track.

Saturday's death of Uncontainable is at least the 41st horse death at Santa Anita since December 2018.

The 4-year-old gelding was entered in Saturday's first race, but did not finish. An incident alert posted on Santa Anita's web site said the horse suffered a "Fractured right front ankle. Per recommendation from the attending veterinarian, the horse was humanely euthanized."

Another gelding was euthanized Friday after fracturing his right front ankle in a race.

The horse, Harliss, finished seventh in a field of eight in the seventh race there Friday,  and was "unsaddled nearing the clubhouse turn and vanned off," according to Santa Anita racing information. He was euthanized under the recommendation of the attending veterinarian.

RELATED: Santa Anita Park Introduces New Tech To Keep Horses Safe In Wake Of Deaths

The race track released a statement Saturday, touting it's safety record:  "Santa Anita remains committed to transparency. Our safety statistics and incident reports are publicly available on our website at SantaAnita.com/safety. Home to 2,000 horses, Santa Anita Park is one of the largest equine training facilities in the United States. Horses raced or trained at Santa Anita Park more than 420,000 times over the last year with a 99.991% safety rate."

Four horse have now died at Santa Anita's winter/spring meeting, which began Dec. 28.

Golden Birthday, a 4-year-old gelding, sustained a hind pastern fracture with sesamoid involvement on New Year's Day after possibly making contact with another horse on the turn during a race on the main track, according to an incident report from Santa Anita Park.

The first horse death of the season happened Dec. 26, before the track officially opened. Truest Reward, a 3-year-old gelding, sustained a broken left front leg while on the training track.

The California Horse Racing Board is expected to release the results of its investigation into the deaths at Santa Anita sometime this month.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office found no criminal wrongdoing in its investigation into the fatalities.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)