Seventeen horses were killed in an overnight fire early Tuesday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., local officials said, leaving workers from the Saratoga Casino Hotel and nearby Saratoga Race Course rushing in the predawn hours to move horses to safety from neighboring barns.
The fire broke out around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday in a barn on the backstretch of the harness racing track at the casino, according to the Saratoga Harness Horseperson’s Association. The Saratoga Casino Hotel runs a track for harness racing, where drivers steer horses from a trailing two-wheeled cart. The fire led the casino to call off its races for the day.
Races run nearly year-round at the casino track, which is just down the road from Saratoga Race Course, the famed track for thoroughbred racing. Saratoga Race Course — which just hosted the Belmont Stakes while the host track for that Triple Crown race undergoes a major rebuilding project — is closed before its summer meet.
Around 350 horses are typically kept in the old wooden barns for the harness track, according to the casino.
“This is a sobering day in our industry, a horse person’s worst nightmare,” Henry Westbrook, president of the association, said in a statement.
An online fund-raiser for the two trainers who lost horses, Robyn Mangiardi and Timothy Benson, had raised over $55,000 in its first 11 hours. Neither trainer immediately responded to requests for comment.
“Employees were just arriving to feed and start cleaning stalls when they saw the fire,” Jessica Hallett, a racing photographer, said in a caption for the fund-raiser. “Unfortunately, the fire spread too fast and too quickly.”
No people were injured, according to the local fire department. Aerial news footage showed the barn reduced mostly to ash by daylight.
The dead horses ranged in age from 3 to 13, according to an image Ms. Hallett posted on social media. There was one surviving horse, Twin B Speed Dial, who broke out of his stall and escaped the barn with burns to his ears, she said. The surviving horse had “minor injuries,” according to the casino.
The fire department said that the blaze had not spread past the one barn but had become “advanced” by the time firefighters arrived, leading them to take only a “defensive” position to contain it.
The area is closed for an investigation into how the fire started, according to the casino, which plans to hold a memorial service for the horses.
“The loss suffered today is heartbreaking for our racing community,” Sam Gerrity, chief executive of the casino, said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful to the security personnel, first responders and racing staff whose swift actions helped protect the horses and people in the surrounding barns.”
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