A barn fire late Monday night killed two horses at The Thoroughbred Center near Lexington, KY. The fire, which was contained to two stalls of a 20-stall barn adjacent to the training track, is suspected to have started near an electric fan being used to cool one of the horses.

Jim Pendergest, general manager of The Thoroughbred Center, said an additional 17 horses stabled in the barn were not injured, and have been relocated to a nearby barn while damage estimates and repairs are made.

The owners of the two horses that perished were unknown, but Mark Taulbee was the trainer.

“What happened was two stalls basically burned, but the remainder of the barn was saved,” Pendergest said. “There’s not a lot of damage outside the two stalls. We were very lucky to have had a lot of help from our staff and local residents. The fire department responded quickly, and we were fortunate to have saved 17 horses, but it hurts to have lost the two