There really is no reason for the racing industry to ignore the fact
that not only horses have been euthanized because of incidents
in the starting gate, but how about these situations:

• assistant starters dying (happened at Penn National)
• jockeys being thrown after the horse injures itself at the start
• assistant starters holding onto the reins too long
• horses from the outermost post shy away from the field at the break
• tractor that pulls the gate in two turn races fail to start

And on and on.
Does the current gate procedures really offer cleaner - fairer - safer races ?
I seriously doubt.