Tuesday, June 29, 2010

“Horse racing summit recommends tracking injuries to jockeys” plus 3 more

“Horse racing summit recommends tracking injuries to jockeys” plus 3 more

Horse racing summit recommends tracking injuries to jockeys

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 06:44 PM PDT

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The racing industry should record injuries of riders similar to the way it already uses a database to track injuries and deaths of horses, participants in the third Welfare Safety of the Racehorse Summit said Tuesday.

"The safety of our human athletes (is) the No. 1 priority of the industry," said Nick Nicholson, president of Keeneland Race Course, which hosted the two-day summit of leaders in the sport to discuss a variety of horse safety and welfare issues.

The original summit in 2006 made a similar recommendation to create a human injury database, which was paired with the recommendation that led to the Equine Injury Database, which now receives reports from 86 racetracks. Those racetracks represent more than four-fifths of thoroughbred flat races and all steeplechase races.

The equine database started after racing officials were unable to provide reliable statistics on injuries following 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro's breakdown in the Preakness Stakes.

The recommendation to track injuries to riders didn't advance then, but summit leaders hope it will be easier now based on the history of establishing the equine injury database.

According to Jockeys' Guild statistics, 128 riders have died since 1940 from injuries suffered on racetracks in the United States, The Courier-Journal reported in April. Currently, about 60 riders who suffered brain or spinal-cord injuries receive modest aid from the racing industry's Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.

Veterinarian Rick Arthur, the equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board, said he recently asked a Jockeys' Guild official for a presentation about the nature of the incidents where the riders were permanently disabled.

Knowing the causes -- whether it was the result of horses clipping heels or something else -- could help "identify where the risks are so that you can hopefully develop strategies to reduce that risk," Arthur said. "That's what all this is about, whether it's risk to jockeys or risk to the horses."

Mick Peterson, the University of Maine track surfaces expert who led the summit committee that will work on creating the jockey database, said that an already existing California human injury database would be a starting point.

Nicholson said that insurance companies may cooperate by providing information, but acknowledged that the database would have to respect privacy laws.

On Monday, Jeff Johnston, a retired rider and current regional representative for the Jockeys' Guild, expressed support for the creation of the rider database.

Other recommendations from the summit included:

- encouraging racetracks to create a liaison's position -- or assigning an existing employee -- to assist with finding homes for horses being retired from racing in an effort to prevent them from being slaughtered

- establishing an accreditation program for horse retirement and rescue facilities

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National Tracking System Proposed To Make Horse Racing Safer

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 07:38 PM PDT

Posted: Jun 29, 2010 9:10 PM
Updated: Jun 29, 2010 10:25 PM

LEXINGTON (AP) - Horse racing safety advocates are proposing national systems for tracking jockey injuries and sharing horse pre-race medical records in an effort to reduce accidents.
     
The third annual Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, sponsored by the Jockey Club, focused Tuesday on better interstate cooperation - including a push for a national compact that would allow multiple states to more easily enact the same safety changes
as others do.
     
While states work together on some things in horse racing such as licensing the animals, there is no central governing body. Instead, individual state racing commissions approve their own rules on everything from drug testing to the type of shoes horses are allowed to wear in a race.

However, the fatal breakdown of the filly Eight Belles after the 2008 Kentucky Derby helped shine the light on safety problems in the industry and raise the call for it to speak with one voice. At
the summit, many praised the industry for making strides recently.

"I think the industry really pulled together after Eight Belles went down, and I hope we will continue pulling together," said Lisa Underwood, executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing
Commission. "We had so much cooperation because there was a sense of urgency, and I hope we maintain that sense of urgency."

Among the most noticeable changes enacted at a previous safety summit was a database that monitors fatal injuries to racehorses, the first details of which were announced during Monday's session.

A logical next step, according to some of the trainers, track owners, veterinarians and regulators who attended the summit, was to create a similar system to learn why riders get hurt and how to
best reduce those injuries.

Mick Peterson, an engineering professor at the University of Maine who has focused on racetrack safety issues, said no specific national proposal has been written. He says it would likely
eventually include jockeys and exercise riders as well as accidents that happen during races and morning training.

Keeneland president Nick Nicholson said there were some privacy concerns that needed to be addressed before the jockey database could be implemented, but he said many states and tracks are already doing a form of the system on their own. Keeneland, for example, recently required jockeys to submit their medical information for its computer database before being allowed to ride.
     
Among the other changes advocated Tuesday was better cooperation between state veterinarians and racing stewards when it comes to sharing information about the health of horses. Rick Arthur,
California's equine medical director, said if a horse is scratched in one state because of a health concern, no other state should allow the animal to run - even if that state's laws are more lax.
     
"There are going to be problems," Arthur said. "It's not an easy issue to solve, but before we can look at all the parameters, we have to have better facts."

Many racing officials would like to see the industry go even further by signing onto an interstate compact that would allow rules to be proposed on a national basis. While states would still have the ultimate say on their own laws, they would have more ability to push the changes through the process if others are doing so concurrently, Peterson said.
     
However, it takes six states to sign onto that compact, and so far only Colorado has gone through the process.

Ed Martin, president and CEO of Racing Commissioners International, said states should be more eager to sign up. The alternative, he said, is for Congress to assign a federal regulatory body to oversee the sport if there is more public outcry over safety problems.

"When there's a blip on the radar screen and you don't address it, it potentially gets bigger and bigger," Martin said.
     
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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Jockey injury database, shared equine medical records are proposed at horse racing safety meet

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 01:04 PM PDT

 


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Horse racing-Eight Belles trainer not surprised by equine study

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 09:54 AM PDT

The trainer of ill-fated Eight Belles said Tuesday he was not surprised by a study that showed the number of thoroughbred fatalities at North American tracks is consistent regardless of the racing surface.

"I can believe it," Larry Jones told Reuters. "What so many people don't want to understand is that a lot of our injuries are from them being athletes in general.

"If we had swimming races for horses, somehow a certain number of them would be getting hurt. Look at how many humans get hurt at track and field and that's a no-contact sport."

Eight Belles's breakdown after finishing second in the 2008 Kentucky Derby helped trigger an industry-wide movement to curb the number of on-track fatalities.

According to a year-long study released Monday at the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit in Lexington, Ky., there were 2.14 deaths on dirt tracks per 1,000 starts, while both synthetic and turf tracks each had 1.78 fatalities.

Although study authors caution the results are preliminary and need further examination, Jones is convinced the conclusion will remain the same.

"Anytime you're an athlete and you're competing at as near-100 percent capacity that you can, injuries happen," he said via telephone from Delaware Park. "The study doesn't surprise me because that's the way I've found it in my barn.

"I had already come to my conclusion a couple of years ago that the synthetics were not any safer than the dirt course. Surfaces do not matter when it comes to injuries."

Many tracks in North America switched their racing surface from dirt to synthetic over the last few years on the belief that horses would be less likely to break down.

TRAINER VILIFIED

Jones was vilified by animal rights groups after the champion filly Eight Belles collapsed while a national television audience looked on in horror.

The tragedy occurred two years after Kentucky Derby champion Barbaro was injured during the Preakness Stakes and ultimately had to be euthanised.

"Being so close to the Eight Belles issue that we were, we found out through a not-so-pleasant situation that there was a whole lot of people that had ideas about this game that did not know what they were talking about," said the 53-year-old Jones, who is no longer a trainer.

"I don't mean anything cruel to them but it would be like me trying to tell NASCAR what do do because I've watched a car race or two, you know?"

Jones insists thoroughbreds are treated well.

"They have no much of a better life than people realize," he said. "I've seen horses in the wild, horses on farms -- horses that have to fend for themselves. Trust me that ain't good.

"I've had more horses have to be euthanised at the farm than I've ever had at the racetrack."

(Editing by Justin Palmer; To query or comment on this story emailsportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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