Two horses fell during the first full week of racing starting at the end of last month at Fair Grounds in New Orleans. That contrasts greatly with the recent experience at Del Mar and Santa Anita, which registered just a single catastrophic injury between them over the past few months of racing (and training) during late summer and autumn meets. A vote in favor of stricter rules, stricter monitoring, drug free racing perhaps?
Early days, but permitted levels of raceday non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) being eliminated is starting to look important. Another very important factor may be the voided claim rule.
Another very important factor may be the voided claim rule.
Voided claim rules, although first proposed over a decade ago, have only relatively recently been been introduced in some states, including California, Kentucky and New York. They vary a bit state-to-state but mostly they say that, if a horse in the veterinarian’s opinion is unsound or has suffered epistaxis after a race, then any claim made for that horse is void.
Louisiana has no such rule in spite of an unsavory incident at Fair Grounds last year, when a claimed horse was euthanized just minutes after its race,
Professor Tim Parkin, who collates the information from the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database (EID), has stated that, according to statistics gathered, horses running in claiming races are 20 percent more likely to experience a fatal catastrophic incident in such races compared with non-claiming races.
When, however, rules are introduced where claims are voided if the horse suffers a catastrophic injury during a race, then the injury rate comes down. And when stricter rules are introduced that state the claim is void if the horse is even lame or has bled after its race, then the injury rate falls again, by 25 percent.
I witnessed the two breakdowns in claimers, ugly incidents, off-putting. Both riders somehow were okay. My son Jack, who rides at Fair Grounds, claims Kody Kellenberger, one of the riders who fell, is made of rubber bands. The jockeys have to try to make light of it, otherwise how could they go out there and do their job? Snapping one off into the stands is how they sometimes refer to such breakdowns. Gallows humor.
One of the horses was vanned off, the other faller incredibly, it says, was walked off. I do not know what the condition of either is now. I suspect the worst for one.
It is hard to see why the voided claim rule would not be eagerly embraced. Where is the positive in a horse dying in a race? Of a rider at risk? Of a new owner maybe just taking possession of their first - dead - racehorse?
Wrong and immoral
This is the claiming rule published in the Louisiana Racing Commissions rulebook:
Title to a claimed horse shall be vested in the successful claimant at the time the horse becomes a starter.
The successful claimant shall then become the owner of the horse whether alive or dead, sound or unsound, or injured at anytime after leaving the starting gate, during the race or after.
It is a Stone-Age rule. Wrong, immoral, and callously written. Anyone who reads that and doesn’t see anything wrong has been in this industry too long.
This rule creates mortal moral hazard. It allows and implicitly accepts the possibility that trainers and their owners could engage in behavior of grossest negligence, and possibly profit from it.
Professor Parkin’s studies strongly suggests that some licensed trainers are entering injured horses into races, pumping them full of painkillers, then legging a rider onto them, and hoping to cash out for the owner.
There is no other way to interpret the statistics. When it won’t pay to enter a horse with a known injury, fewer horses die in races.
Fragile creatures
I am not suggesting for one moment this was the case with these two horses. Thoroughbreds can be fragile creatures. I had a horse back in the UK sustain a displaced fracture during a routine quiet gallop. I am saying that is precisely why it is imperative to observe the highest duty of care towards them and the riders on their backs.
Another recently concluded study of over 500,000 horses racing in South America by a Parkin graduate, Teresita Zambruno, has found that horses racing with NSAIDs are 50 percent more likely to experience a catastrophic racing injury.
What use is a pre-race veterinary inspection when the horses have been pumped full of painkillers?
California has a voided claim rule, and it has eliminated permissible levels of raceday NSAIDs. California has, so far, dramatically improved the safety of its racehorses and their riders.
Dr Rick Arthur, the equine medical director at UC Davis School of veterinary medicine, who is assigned full time to the California Horse Racing Board, introduced the first voided claim rules there in 2014. “I have had vets come to me and say it has been the biggest piece of regulatory reform in keeping horses safer.”
Fair Grounds is owned by Churchill Downs Inc. They were founder members of the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition. You cannot ally TSC’s mission statement and that claiming rule.
Concussion research
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy has cost the NFL a billion dollars in settlements, so far. Underplaying the risks to the athletes formed an important part of their case. A worldwide study has shown that jockeys suffer higher rates of concussion than any other athletes.
The sport of rugby was rocked last week with over 70 players coming together in group litigation against the sport’s rulers for exactly the same reason.
The UK has been at the forefront of concussion research in jockeys, led by Dr Michael Turner, who was the senior Jockey Club medical official for many years and now, endorsed by the British Horseracing Authority, heads the International Concussion & Head Injury Research Foundation and its research project Concussion in Sport.
He states, “We know that concussions can lead to depression, suicidal thoughts and early onset dementia. But there is little research. We don’t even know for sure yet when it is safe for an athlete to return to their sport after a concussion. The standard protocol of seven days we have come up with is not really proven.”
Baseline concussion testing, I believe, has only just started being utilized in the States over the past couple of years at Keeneland. I am not aware of other tracks or jurisdictions doing so to monitor riders’ well-being. And, as far as I know, there is no centralized collection of records of jockeys’ falls and injuries and concussions.
The good news is, so far there seems little direct evidence of early onset dementia and CTE in jockeys worldwide, but there are jockeys and ex-jockeys with substance abuse problems, depression and aggression, and these can be red flags.
A few years ago, I had missed Jack’s races one day, so I checked the results afterwards and saw he had ridden a winner. Then I saw that a couple of races earlier his horse had fallen. I was a bit shocked but knew he had ridden a winner afterwards so thought he must be okay.
I watched the race. A rider came across in front of him, causing Jack’s horse to clip heels and come down. Jack somersaulted down the track. He wouldn’t stop bloody somersaulting. I would estimate he somersaulted from the quarter pole to about three feet shy of the winning post (I do exaggerate a bit sometimes). If there is anything he should have been doing later that day, it wasn’t riding another race.
There is absolutely no reason not to change rules now and make things better for the competitors except apathy and indifference from many quarters within the industry. That could prove very expensive someday.