14 Horses Drop Dead Before Polo Match

Sources believe they reacted to tainted steroid cocktail
By Ambreen Ali,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 20, 2009 2:49 AM CDT
14 Horses Drop Dead Before Polo Match
Players thunder toward a ball in a polo championship in Buenos Aires last year.   (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A mystery death claimed the lives of 14 horses from a Venezuelan team yesterday shortly before they were to compete in the US Open Polo Championship in Florida. The $100,000 horses suddenly struggled to breathe as vets fought to revive them, the Palm Beach Post reports. Onlookers wept after the animals "dropped to the grass," said a witness. Test results are pending, but sources believe the horses may have reacted to a tainted "steroid cocktail" illegally administered by the team vet to enhance performance.
(More polo stories.)

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