Stormaway

Another veteran, Stormaway, had to be euthanized due to a catastrophic injury suffered in a race in Canada. Stormaway got his front leg tangled in the race bike of the horse in front of him during the $115,000 Masters Pacing Series Final at Georgian Downs and fell. While Stormaway is not a name well known in the states as he raced exclusively in Canada, he was quite the accomplished veteran. Earlier this year he won the $283,000 Molson Pace at Western Fair at the age of six and was a winner of 19 of 46 races lifetime ($616,423). This is the second renowned veteran that died this year in Canada as a result of a racing accident as Maltese Artist suffered a catastrophic injury earlier this year which also resulted in euthanasia.

Racing accidents are unfortunately part of the game. While we are fortunate that our standardbred athletes are less fragile than the Thoroughbred, we are reminded by incidents like last night that our athletes are not immune from fatal injuries. While incidents like this are part of the game we need to be like NASCAR; each time we have an event like last night, we need to review what happened to see if anything could have been done to avoid the accident and if not, are there any changes which could be made to help avoid these types of incidents in the future. We owe it to our horses as well as our drivers who could be seriously hurt in these types of incidents.

RIP Stormaway. May you never be forgotten.