Stakes winner reportedly dies in training accident at Delaware Park | Latest from WDEL News

A Grade I-winning horse that just surpassed the $1 million mark in winnings in a stakes race at Delaware Park last month reportedly died in a training accident Wednesday.

Alva Starr, who easily won the Rehoboth Stakes on June 5, suffered a hindquarter injury during training this morning, trainer Brett Brinkman told the Thoroughbred Daily News.

The four-year-old won the Grade I Madison at Keeneland and finished second in the Grade I Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs, both in Kentucky, before competing in the unranked race in Delaware.

Grade I is the highest racing classification in North America.

Last July, she won her first stakes race, the 2023 Dashing Beauty, at Delaware Park.

Alva Starr finished 2nd in 10 career starts, with 6 wins and earnings of $1,028,450.

According to the Jockey Club, there were five deaths in the 85 days of racing at Delaware Park last year, a rate of 1.08 per 1,000 starts, one of the lowest since 2009.

This information does not include training incidents such as the one that reportedly occurred with Alva Starr.

The death occurred during the week that concludes Delaware Park’s biggest racing weekend, as it hosts the Grade III Delaware Oaks on Saturday and the Grade II Delaware Handicap on Sunday.

Alva Starr was not training for these races, but for more likely races to be held over the next two months at the Saratoga Race Course in New York.