Kentucky Derby 2012: Is it time to ban horse racing?

Horse racing's fatality rate has increased 30 percent or 40 percent over the last 20 years. The Jockey Club established an equine injury database to collect statistics on racetrack deaths. Since 2009, the death rate averaged 1.9 per 1,000 starts. The database has helped identify trends that put horses at risk of a breakdown. They include making numerous starts in the past six months and not having started at all in nine months. In the first half of the 20th century, horse racing was one of America’s big three sports. Most fans had ridden horses on farms or seen them pulling carts down city streets.