What's Going On Here: Before Our Eyes

When it comes to equine safety, there likely will never be a day to fly the victory flag of mission accomplished but let's pause for a moment to think about how far the sport has come. Racing today is safer than it was 15 years ago and, thanks to an unprecedented wealth of data, the sport has real opportunity to make further strides. Let's begin with Aqueduct Racetrack and Santa Anita Park, two tracks that thrust the equine safety issue to the forefront in the winter months of 2012 in New York and then in the winter months of 2019 in Southern California. New York responded with the well-received New York Task Force on Racehorse Health and Safety report that noted many risk factors beyond the racing surface and helped get the ball rolling on addressing such issues; and Southern California responded with sweeping changes for racing and workouts that have keyed a turnaround. A look at statistics from this year points to progress for both. According to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, in the first quarter of 2024—those same potentially problematic winter months—Aqueduct did not see a single equine fatality in 2,693 starts from Jan. 1-March 31. In June, Santa Anita reported a 90% reduction in racing fatalities over the past five years since putting its reforms in place through an effort of track owner 1/ST Racing, the California Horse Racing Board, and industry stakeholders. "The changes that took place were—and are—something that I'm very proud of," said Southern California-based trainer Tim Yakteen June 25 at the 11th Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit in Lexington. Tim Parkin, who has been studying The Jockey Club Equine Injury Database since its launch 15 years ago and heads the Bristol Veterinary School, noted that those EID figures can point to initiatives that are delivering added safety. The industry has been embracing those effective approaches. With the full launch of HISA last year, the industry is beginning to see the benefits of consistent regulatory standards in anti-doping and medication control policy, drug testing, and safety rules. HISA will post quarterly reports of equine fatality rates and its recap of the first three months of 2024 documented a 38% decrease in racing-related equine fatalities year-over-year. With such incidents occurring 0.84 times per 1,000 starts in the first quarter, that rate could be expressed as these incidents did not occur 99.92% of the time. And keep in mind that this was accomplished largely during the winter season. Again, there's never a time to rest on equine safety but it's also important to note that racing's investment of untold hours and millions of dollars on these changes is paying dividends. The Jockey Club has been among the leaders in this safety investment. Its recent backing of a McKinsey & Company study resulted in the identification of several more pathways for improving equine safety in the years to come as the sport works to build on the 34% reduction in such incidents since 2009. McKinsey looked at data from race starts, the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory, the EID, and HISA in a search for areas that could provide a path forward. The areas identified include a move of every U.S. track to top-level post-entry screening, further study and use of wearable technologies to monitor horse health, further protections for horses in claiming races, an improved approach to surface management, transforming some tracks to all-weather surfaces, and adding transparency on the safety performance of trainers as well as breeders. Speaking specifically to that added transparency, we think that in many ways what McKinsey's Dan Singer said at the Safety Summit could apply to all of these efforts. "Our belief is, and this is based on a lot of interviews at tracks that have this, is that when you have accountability for fatalities you start to build a culture of safety where everyone works together to end or avoid fatalities," Singer said. "There's more awareness, there's more teamwork. The attending vets can work together to help trainers make good decisions for the health of the horse." This sport is building a culture of safety.