Two horses die during races over weekend at Bangor track

BANGOR – Horse owner Ken Gallant has been coming to Bangor Raceway since 1949 and said he had never seen two racehorses die on the same weekend.

That changed this past weekend.

On Sunday, Dustinyoureyes collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack during the fourth race. Two days earlier, during the third race, Sir-Toga had died of an apparent aneurysm.

“It was a freak [occurrence],” said driver Rusty Lanpher III of Bucksport who added he had seen just one horse die over the last 10 years.

Dustinyoureyes driver John Davidson and trainer Gary Hall said the horse didn’t give an indication anything was wrong with him.

“He seemed fine. He acted good all week. He actually seemed better this week than he did last week,” said Newport’s Hall. “Then, at the quarter-pole, he didn’t act normal. He acted like something was wrong with him. At the head of the stretch, you could see he was getting wobbly. It was just one of those things, I guess.”

“He passed a little manure and then a lot of gas and started losing coordination,” said Davidson. “I could feel something was going to happen. I didn’t know where he was going to lay down. It took a long time before he did go down. He gave me enough warning that he was going down and that gave me a chance to get off.”

Davidson, who hails from St. John, New Brunswick, has been driving for more than 25 years and said it was the first time he has had a horse die on him.

“It was an awful thing to happen, especially in front of the public,” said Davidson. “It was a bad day.”

Hall said Dustinyoureyes did not have chemicals or anything else in his system to enhance his performance.

“There was nothing in him to make him race beyond his capabilities,” said Hall.

Owner Stirling Hastings of Englewood, Fla. bought Dustinyoureyes following a claiming race at Scarborough Downs for $2,500 three weeks ago. The horse was 11 years old.

“It goes with the business. I’ve had it happen before,” said Hastings who owned the horse with Larry Reece of Trenton.

On Friday night, Sir-Toga was struggling at the quarter-pole and began hemorrhaging but driver Steve Mahar was able to get him off the track into the paddock area before the horse collapsed, according to on-lookers.

The horse was owned by Bernard “Chick” Charlton.