As the Kentucky Derby Approaches, Horseracing Wrongs Highlights Ongoing Concerns About Horse Deaths

Animal advocacy group releases data showing over 11,000 confirmed racehorse deaths since 2014, raising ethical questions surrounding the Kentucky Derby.

LOUISVILLE, KY, UNITED STATES, May 1, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As millions tune in to the Kentucky Derby—widely known as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports”—animal advocacy group Horseracing Wrongs is urging the public and media to consider the welfare of the horses at the center of the industry. Behind the celebration and spectacle, the group points to years of data indicating a high rate of equine fatalities at racetracks across the country.

Since 2014, Horseracing Wrongs has confirmed the deaths of 11,325 racehorses at American tracks through our unmatched FOIA research —an average of roughly 1,000 confirmed kills every year. But due to chronic underreporting, we estimate the actual number is at least twice that, around 2,000 horses dead annually. These horses die from snapped legs, shattered spines, heart failure, internal bleeding, and other catastrophic injuries—many right on the track in front of spectators.

“Ignore all the propaganda on the declining death rates of racehorses coming from The Jockey Club and HISA,” said Patrick Battuello, founder of Horseracing Wrongs. “Fact is, the data collected (from state racing commissions) and reported by Horseracing Wrongs since 2014 is the only transparent, verifiable, and all-inclusive on the subject. And after accounting for changing industry metrics—less racing, fewer horses—our numbers have not changed in any statistically or, more to the point, morally, meaningful way.”

Patrick continues:
“Bottom line, from breeding for speed (massive torsos, spindly legs, fragile ankles), to employing pubescent/adolescent bodies, to the incessant grinding – not to mention commodification – of those bodies, to forcing them to run at an unnatural rate (breakneck), in an unnatural way (in close quarters; among an anxious, artificial herd), and through unnatural means (perched, whip-wielding humans), horseracing guarantees a certain level of killing. Guarantees. We know it. And they know it."

The Kentucky Derby may be the industry's biggest spectacle, but it is also a symbol of the animal exploitation and death that underpins horseracing. Behind the pageantry and celebration lies an industry that exploits, abuses sentient beings, who die inherently, and inevitably. The Derby is a reminder that horseracing is not a sport, but a system built on the pain and suffering of vulnerable animals.

Horseracing Wrongs is calling on compassionate people everywhere to reject the Kentucky Derby and the entire horseracing industry. This is not a sport to support—it's an industry built on the exploitation and death of innocent animals. No amount of pageantry or tradition can justify the suffering, and it's time to stop celebrating an event that profits from pain.

Horseracing Wrongs is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to end horseracing in the United States. Through documented research, public education, and grassroots activism, we expose the cruelty inherent in the industry and advocate for a future where horses are respected and protected—not raced, used, or killed.

Patrick Battuello
Horseracing Wrongs
+1 518-410-6192
patrick@horseracingwrongs.com
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