My phone rang early Saturday morning. It was a call that every person who loves horses dreads.
Barn fire. Lebanon Raceway. Dozens of horses dead. Possibly two people.
You lose a bit of your heart every time this happens, even if you don't lose a horse. I don’t even want to think about the horror of horses trapped in a burning barn. It’s simply something I refuse to let myself dwell on. I can’t do anything about it, so why torture myself?
Remarkably, even though the fire was probably still burning at this early hour, my caller had many of the details correct. As they say, bad news travels fast, and yesterday it traveled very fast within the tight-knit Ohio horse community.
After I hung up the phone, I checked some web sites. Nothing. I made a few calls of my own. Although I know that some people wondered why they were getting an early Saturday morning call from me, they soon understood the urgency.
Two men and 40-50 horses lost their lives.
Fire is every horse owner’s nightmare. It happens so fast and horses are gone in a literal flash. A huge barn was reduced to rubble in an amazingly short span.
I’ve heard some stories about how the two men who died lost their lives, but nothing is official and I don’t want to speculate on that or pass on rumors. My sympathy goes to their families and to everyone affected by this tragedy.
Ohio racing has been plunging headfirst downhill in recent years. There are many reasons. The lacks of slots may be one reason, but everyone will acknowledge that slots aren’t really the answer. The problems go deeper.
To have a fire like this devastate the racing community in Southwest Ohio is heartbreaking. The people who race at Lebanon sure aren’t getting rich off the purse money there. The horses that died were likely not world champions. But the men who died, the people who lost horses, and the horses that lost their lives are the fabric of Ohio harness racing. They’re the warriors.
Efforts are already underway to assist those who suffered losses. It’s likely that those who have the least will be the most giving to those in need. They understand what small kindnesses can mean to someone who is down and out.
People in racing are resilient. They have to be or they don’t stay in the business long. Horse racing has a thousand ways to break your heart, but I can’t think of anything that shatters the heart of horse lovers more than a barn fire.