If it had been a Hollywood script, Chad Harden would have returned to the Rangeland Derby Friday night, erasing memories of the previous night’s tragedy in which three of his horses died as a result of the chuckwagon event.

But instead of winning his heat — 24 hours after his left lead horse died from an aortic aneurysm, causing a chain reaction accident that lead to the deaths of two other horses — Harden came in third in the fourth heat of the night with a penalty-enhanced time of 1:24.86. The only blemish on his run was an early barrel mishap.

The Calgary Herald reports as Harden crossed the finish line, the crowd at the grandstand cheered the chuckwagon driver.

But a short distance away, a few dozen people were protesting the most recent tragedy involving horses in the popular Stampede event.

The Calgary Animal Rights Coalition claims 84 animals have died in Stampede rodeo and chuckwagon events since 1986. The group is planning another protest for 12:15pm Saturday at the Stampede-Victoria Park LRT Station on MacLeod Trail.

For its part, the Stampede issued a news release saying it planned to use the autopsy results from the horse that initially collapsed in Thursday’s incident to determine possible improvements to its pre-screening program for horses competing in the event.