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FROM
Lohud.com
June 7, 2019
The jockeys walk the stewards through their ride in one of the most
controversial Kentucky Derbys in history. Louisville Courier Journal
When The Belmont Stakes is held on Saturday, it will be on what has been
statistically the least dangerous track among the Triple Crown locations.
But thoroughbred racing can be hazardous even on its safest tracks. It
remains a sport with the reality that sometimes its runners die.
This weekend's stakes, the final and longest leg in the Triple Crown, comes
as horse racing faces a new, national reckoning after a spate of horse
deaths at a prominent California track.
New York weathered its own controversy over horse deaths several years ago,
then enacted reforms that included putting limits on drugging horses ahead
of race days.
“These efforts have yielded meaningful results and led to demonstrably safer
racing operations at Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race
Course,” said Patrick McKenna, spokesman for the New York Racing
Association, which runs the three tracks.
Belmont, in Elmont on Long Island, had 0.98 deaths per 1,000 starts in
2018, according to The Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database.
By comparison, Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, had 2.73 horses
die per 1,000 starts in 2018, according to data compiled by the USA Today
Network.
Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, host of the Preakness Stakes, had 2.33
deaths per 1,000 starts according to data compiled by The Jockey Club, which
uses self-reported numbers.
All three NYRA tracks combined had a fatality rate in 2018 of 1.20 per 1,000
starts, well below the national average of 1.68 per 1,000 starts, according
to The Jockey Club.
Although New York may be ahead of the pack,no amount of change may be enough
to appease some critics of the industry, which include prominent animal
rights groups.
Even in a best-case scenario, injuries happen when animals weighing more
than 1,000 pounds are running in excess of 30 mph. And for these animals,
leg injuries are often a death sentence.
In total, some 604 horses died from race-related injuries at New York’s 11
racetracks since 2009, state data show. Those numbers include racing on all
surfaces and harness racing-related deaths.
More than 1,300 died over the last decade when factoring in training deaths
and other non-racing deaths tracked by the state.
Since 2013, the deaths have stabilized with an average of 115 horses dying
at New York's racetracks between then and 2018, according to state data.
Deaths at Belmont
Belmont itself already had two race deaths since the racing season opened
for spring in late April. Noble Cause died on May 11 and Anne's Song died on
May 24.
There have been 15 deaths when including non-race deaths and training deaths
at the track, state data show.
There hasn't been a death linked to the Belmont Stakes itself though in
several decades.
“There is always more work to be done and we are continuously enhancing all
safety protocols in the course of active dialogue with independent experts,
veterinarians and scientists in relevant fields,” McKenna said.
Drugging horses
A reported 27 horses died at Santa Anita racetrack in California since the
end of last year, temporarily closing the track and sparking a call by some
to shut down racing in that state.
Renewed scrutiny during the Triple Crown season has created a call for
national laws to oversee horse racing and to set limits on drugs used on
racehorses. There is no national governing body for horse racing, with
different states having different regulatory bodies and policies.
At the center of the post-Santa Anita discussion has been the drug
furomeside, known as Lasix, which is used on horses to prevent a condition
in which the animals bleed through the nose after high exertion.
Use of Lasix in racehorses is commonplace, with supporters saying it's
humane for the horses while critics view it as a performance-enhancing drug
that isn't widely used in other countries.
A coalition of major racing organizations, including NYRA, announced in
April it would phase out the use of Lasix within 24 hours of a race. That
effort will begin in 2020 on 2-year-old horses and extend to all stakes
horses in 2021, meaning Lasix will be banned in the Triple Crown races that
year.
Kathy Guillermo, senior vice president at PETA, said that is only a first
step and regulators need to go further. The group is calling for a ban on
all drugs for at least two weeks before a race, including more than a dozen
anti-inflammatory drugs.
The drugs make it so that horses don't feel pain and push through micro
injuries while veterinarians may not be able to identify them before races,
Guillermo said. "Stacking" multiple drugs allows horses to be drugged with
several medications but not exceed allowable limits of any one specific
drug, she said.
"We now have an entire generation of trainers who have used these
medications for their whole careers," she said. "And we have veterinarians
who are willing to dispense those medications. They are looking for any
competitive edge they can get to win a race."
Guillermo said there should be a "three strikes and you're out" policy when
there are violations from trainers or others involved in the industry. Whips
should also be banned, she said, because they urge horses forward that may
be hurt and trying to slow down.
The industry could use one unified set of regulations and one oversight
body, she said.
“It’s just been left up to each state and it’s been a kind of cowboy way of
enforcing rules and creating rules," she said.
New York ahead of pack?
The New York State Gaming Commission, which oversees racing in the state,
said it has already limited the use of certain drug therapies ahead of race
days. It's now conducting a survey on attitudes about Lasix to determine if
it should amend its existing policies.
Spokesman Brad Maione said that the commission values partnerships to
provide the best horse racing in the nation on state tracks.
“The Gaming Commission has long served as a steward of equine health and
safety and will continue to implement measures to help the sport thrive in
New York,” Maione said.
The Stronach Group, which operates Santa Anita, has a number of recommended
changes it's now undertaking, but the New York commission says it already
has policies on some of the same topics.
For example, the commission requires disclosure of all corticosteroid
injections and limits anti-inflammatory medication and shockwave therapy.
Some critics are calling for rules that would require a diagnostic machine
to scan horses prior to races to identify potential injury concerns. The
state commission doesn't require the equipment, and creating the new
regulation may face pushback from industry owners due to cost.
Still, PETA has criticized New York and other jurisdictions for not signing
on in entirety to the proposed changes in the wake of Santa Anita. The group
put out a statement criticizing New York regulators for the 15 deaths at its
tracks in the 2019 calendar year. It called to suspend all racing in the
country until stricter guidelines were adopted.
Some activists, such as Patrick Battuello, of the Albany-based Horseracing
Wrongs, say all of the proposed changes don't change the truth that racing
is deadly.
"The deaths can and do fluctuate, but they are constant," he told The New
York USA Today Network. "There is always death on the racetrack."
Battuello said the industry often spins the efficacy of its initiatives by
focusing on race-related deaths as opposed to the total number of horses
that dieoverall related to the industry. He said by his counts as many as
2,000 horses die in the country per year.
He said racing has been mostly exempt from backlash at a time when elephants
in circuses have been outlawed in New York and elsewhere, and SeaWorld
reduced its captive breeding amid criticisms. He believes Santa Anita, where
his group has helped organize protests, has opened modern audiences' eyes to
the sport.
"It can’t be fixed," he said. "It can’t be reformed and clearly I think
we’re seeing this shift in the American public. People are starting to look
at it through a different lens."
Scrutiny nothing new
NYRA said its maintenance of its track surfaces to ensure consistency is key
to running safe races. All three of its tracks are accredited by the
National Thoroughbred Association's Safety and Integrity Alliance.
Steve Koch, the group's executive director, said NYRA tracks are those he
often points other tracks to as an example of best practices.
"New York racing and Belmont Park in particular are easily industry
benchmarks," Koch said. "They put forward the finest racing with the finest
safety and integrity protocols across the board."
Koch said work such as public disclosure of incidents and new safety
measures in the last decade have resulted in a demonstrable reduction in the
amount of horse injuries, which have trended downwards by 16% since the
creation in 2009 of the Jockey Club's Equine Injury Database, according to
the group.
In New York, there is also a full-time equine medical director as a result
of reforms several years ago.
Many of the changes came after New York had its own horse-death controversy,
when 21 horses died at Aqueduct between November 2011 and March 2012. Gov.
Andrew Cuomo called for a review, and a state Task Force on Racehorse Health
and Safety released a report and recommendations for reform shortly after.
The task force found 11 of the 21 deaths may have been preventable because
the horses that ended up with injuries could have had pre-existing
conditions. Resorts World Casino opened at Aqueduct shortly before the
deaths, and as a result the purses in races shot up.
Low-level claiming races, where participants are available for sale at a
predetermined price, saw purses inflate to such a level that the purse
outweighed the value of horses. The task force concluded that increase may
have led to poor decisions on management of the horses.
It recommended limits on drugs used on horses in the days and weeks before a
race, and also recommended the equine medical director position.
New York provides an injury database that lists every incident on a New York
track over the last 10 years. It also lists every fine and suspension
regarding licenses on a rulings database.
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