Welfare and Safety Summit at
Keeneland held for sixth time
The sixth Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit was held Wednesday
afternoon in Lexington, Kentucky, and this one placed an emphasis on racetrack
surfaces, equine and jockey injury databases, continuing education and
post-mortem programs.
The conference, held in the Keeneland sales pavilion, once again brought
together a cross-section of the Thoroughbred industry, including owners,
breeders, horsemen, veterinarians, jockeys, track managers, and regulators.
Approximately 200 people attended the summit and an international audience
watched the entire program on a live video stream. All slide presentations from
the summit are available at grayson-jockeyclub.org/WelfareSafety/default.asp?section=48
and a video replay is expected to be available July 9.
Like the five previous summits, held in October 2006, March 2008, June 2010,
October 2012 and July 2014, this summit was underwritten and coordinated by The
Jockey Club and Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and hosted by Keeneland
Association.
“Today’s summit proved once again how initiatives created at prior summits
are benefiting our athletes and our industry today,” said Edward L. Bowen,
president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. “I believe that those
initiatives and some of the ideas and technologies discussed at this summit will
have a positive impact on the welfare and safety of racing’s athletes in the
years to come.”
“The Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit consistently proves to be a
source of invaluable information and significant initiatives to improve the
welfare and safety of our athletes,” said Keeneland President and Chief
Executive Officer Bill Thomason. “Keeneland is proud to have once again hosted
an event that is so important for protecting the human and equine athletes in
our sport.”
Dr. Tim Parkin, an equine epidemiologist from the University of Glasgow and a
consultant to the Equine Injury Database, discussed risk factors associated with
fatalities. He said the risk of fatal injury increases by 30 percent if a horse
has suffered a previous injury that was recorded in the Equine Injury Database.
Parkin also said that there is widely held misconception that horses should
not run as two-year-olds when in fact it is better for bone development when
they do run at two. He added that the highest risk of fatalities in the U.S.
occurs in sprint races (six furlongs or fewer).
In a segment devoted to track surfaces, Glen Kozak, vice president of
facilities and racing surfaces for the New York Racing Association, discussed
how equipment for track maintenance has evolved and said track superintendents
“can always do more” to improve maintenance and safety.
“One of the biggest safety factors for track superintendents is evaluating
the cushion of the track and the moisture content and the Racing Surfaces
Testing Laboratory helps us do that,” Kozak said. “Sharing information with our
colleagues at conferences like this is also immensely helpful to all of us.”
In a segment on continuing education, Dr. Rick Arthur, the equine medical
director for the California Horse Racing Board, said “there has been a cultural
change (in recent years) and we have to prove to the public that we are doing
our best to care for our horses. We have an obligation to protect both the horse
and the rider. We have to care and we have to be proactive. Continuing education
is a way to do that; many injuries are preventable.”
Dr. Larry Bramlage, the noted equine surgeon and partner in Rood & Riddle
Equine Hospital in Lexington, discussed bone issues and safety in a one-on-one
conversation with Bowen.
“Good trainers seem to have a sense to push a horse to fitness without
pushing him to injury,” he said. “Trainers can sense when horses are thriving
and doing well.”
Bramlage also emphasized the importance of keeping horses moving and the huge
advantage of keeping horses in a field because it keeps their circulation
moving. He believes that today’s horses aren’t as tough as they used to be
because they are handled differently.
To close the summit, Dr. Mary Scollay, the equine medical director for the
Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, moderated a panel focusing on lessons learned
from post-mortem programs.
She talked about detecting medication usage patterns through the use of out
of-competition testing and expressed concern that medication usage masks
unsoundness during high-stress exercise in workouts.
“Losing an opportunity to see if horse has orthopedic disease, I would
submit, does not represent acting in best interests of the horse,” she said.
Scollay encouraged regulators to use out-of-competition testing and study the
medication usage patterns they observe.
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