Another horse died Saturday at Churchill Downs ahead of the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby.
Freezing Point was the seventh horse to die recently at Churchill Downs and the second on Saturday.
In the eighth race of the day, Freezing Point, a 50-1 long shot, pulled up along the back stretch of the dirt track. After leaving the chute, the horse pulled up sharply after taking a bad step near the six-furlong marker.
The horse was quickly loaded into an equine ambulance and vanned away for medical attention and was later euthanized, NBC announcers said on the national Derby broadcast.
Freezing Point was ridden by jockey Corey Lanerie, who rode Chloe’s Dream earlier Saturday. Chloe’s Dream was euthanized following a right front knee injury in the day’s second race.
“I have to look at the replay and don’t want to be rude but this is my best friend,” Freezing Point’s trainer, Joe Lejzerowicz, said in a text to The Courier Journal. “He was bumped and had taken a bad step.”
