Hundreds of elite thoroughbred race horses sprinted away from flames Thursday as one of California’s major wildfires tore through a training centre in San Diego County.
Not all made it.
There was no official count of how many animals were killed in the hazy confusion as both horses and humans evacuated, but trainers at San Luis Rey Downs estimated that at least a dozen had died, possibly many more.
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Horses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars who are usually carefully walked from place to place were simply set free and encouraged to run away as flames engulfed the centre near Bonsall, which is just a few kilometres from where the fire broke out.
Arturo Castaneda climbs into a stall to collect horse shoes from his dead horse, Petacas, as fellow worker Anthony Martin looks on, after 29 horses at Rancho Padilla died in a wildfire on Wednesday near Sylmar, California. Photo: AP
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The scorched hoof of a horse killed at a ranch in Sylmar, California. Photo: Agence France-Presse
Mac McBride, who was working with the centre’s trainers, said it was “total pandemonium when several hundred horses were cut loose,” but he believes most of the about 450 horses stabled there survived. McBride, who works at the Del Mar racetrack, said some horses were evacuated to the nearby track where many of them compete.
