CNN reporter Katie Bo Lillis, traditionally focused on national security, turns her attention to the alarming rise in racehorse deaths in 2023. Drawing on her personal experience in horse racing, Lillis combines her journalistic skills with her passion for Thoroughbreds to shed light on this often-overlooked issue. Her forthcoming book, 'Death of a Racehorse: An American Story,' promises to provide a thorough, moving perspective on the sport as it relates to the lives lost. Lillis aims to be a translator between racing enthusiasts and the broader public, filling a crucial gap in the narrative around horse racing fatalities.
Lillis knows this world firsthand, having grown up around horse racing. At 19, she got a job exercising racehorses at a stable in rural Virginia, and by her own account, she's never lost the sense of awe either for the Thoroughbred or the people who dedicate their careers to them.
I thought, I'm probably the only reporter alive who has both of these sets of expertise to tell this story in a professional and compelling way.
There's more to this story than is being conveyed in most of the articles that I was reading by very talented and well-meaning journalists. But this is just a hard, esoteric world.
Lillis said via a Zoom interview from her D.C.-area home two days before the 151st Kentucky Derby.
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