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Horse's Death Latest Black Eye For Churchill Downs

Kevin Willis

When California Chrome crosses the finish line in the Belmont Stakes next month, win or lose, his bid for a Triple Crown will be over and horse racing will begin its annual retreat from the mainstream.

For once, that could come as a relief to the people who run Churchill Downs. Their biggest weeks of the year are the run up to and right after the Kentucky Derby, which California Chrome won back on May 3.
 
But it's been a rough stretch for the track's image, the latest issue being the death of a horse Thursday in a fall on the track that her trainer immediately blamed on the sound system attached to Churchill's vaunted new video board.