Around the world, the age-old sport of horse racing is facing existential threats from multiple sides. In the United States, some of those threats come in the form of legalized gambling, which has altered the landscape for racetracks and cut into their revenue. In Australia, the challenge takes a different form — specifically, a moral one, where advocacy groups raise issues over the risks the sport poses to the horses taking part in it.
The group Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses recently released the latest edition of its Deathwatch Report, which — as you might guess — tracks the deaths of racehorses each year across Australia. The data that the group has tallied is sobering, to say the least, with 175 deaths between August 1, 2024 and July 31, 2025. That’s the highest annual figure since the group began keeping a record of equine fatalities in 2014.
In comments made to The Guardian, Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses general manager Helle Erhardsen asked why a practice of CT scans for horses taking part in the high-profile Melbourne Cup is not more widespread throughout the sport in Australia. “[W]hy don’t they and all other state racing authorities require CT scans of all horses used in racing on every single race day year round?” Erhardsen asked.
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One track is slated to close next yearBased on the report, at least 98 of the horses that died this year did so as a result of a leg injury. For another 12, heart attacks were listed as the cause of death, while another nine had “collapsed and died” listed. It’s possible that all of these numbers could be greater — 28 of the horse deaths were for an “unspecified injury,” while another 10 were as a result of an “undisclosed reason.” The Coalition’s report also suggests that more horse racing deaths go unreported each year.
The report is especially critical of jumps raising, which is currently only legal in the state of Victoria. The Coalition’s report notes that, out of the 40 horses that died as a result of racing in Victoria this year, seven died while taking part in jumps racing.
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