The last race at Santa Anita earlier today

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by Honu

Actually its not that hard to pop the front doors of the starting gate open, they are held together with magnets.

Yes. It takes between 350 to 500lbs of force to break the gates open. I believe a horse leads with the face.

I have seen horses over the years win after breaking through the front of the gate... however, they are a lot more likely than normal to run dismally after doing it and even on the win-end they are bad bets. I always note it when I see it. Sometimes the chart callers don't even publish it in the result chart.

The last race at Santa Anita yesterday was a much more extreme example. That horse got TKO'd.