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| Firemen investigate the remains of a horse barn at Riverside Downs. Photo: Associated Press |
A barn fire that broke out the morning of Nov. 20 killed 27 horses at Riverside Downs, a former harness track that is being used as a Thoroughbred training and boarding facility in northern Henderson County, Ky.
Bill Shaw, chief of the Baskett volunteer fire department, said emergency dispatchers were called to the scene at around 4:30 a.m. EST., according to the Evansville Courier. Though no cause or origin of the fire has been determined, arson is not suspected, the newspaper reported.
Marty Maline, executive director of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, told The Blood-Horse that trainers Bobby Larue, Benjie Larue, Jerry Joe Greenwell, Shirley Greene, Kim Nesbitt, Kenny Miller, and Billy Stinson all lost horses in the fire.
Four horses, three of which were rescued by Benjie Larue, fled the barn before it was engulfed in flames, Shaw said. One horse that survived the fire was later euthanized. Two veterinarians were called in to treat the horses that were spared from the fire.
“(Larue) got two of (his horses) out, and went after the third, but she refused to come out of her stall,” said Maline. “Finally, the heat and smoke were getting overpowering and (Larue) had to get out of there. He felt so bad that he couldn’t save her, but then he turned around and realized she had followed him out!”
Maline said the horses had been running at tracks in surrounding areas, such as Hoosier Park Racing & Casino in Indiana, Churchill Downs in Kentucky, and Beulah Park in Ohio.
The Nov. 20 fire marks the fourth in the past five years at Riverside Downs. A fire last January killed six horses and caused $70,000 in damage to one of the barns. In December 2003, 22 horses died from a fire that swept through a barn. Both of those fires were thought to be electrical in nature.
The fourth fire, which occurred in November 2005, burned the harness track’s old grandstand. Four people were charged with arson for causing that blaze.
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