Catastrophic Injuries

Like the wildfires fanned by this summer's hot winds, doomsday predictions of horse racing's demise have raged through the mainstream and trade press this year, fueled by a sickening spate of high-profile equine fatalities on the sport's highest-profile stages--tracks armed with some of the most stringent safety guardrails. This means these horses passed before the eyes of a slew of experts--from the riders to the trainers to the veterinarians and the regulators--deemed among the best in the business. If they can't single out these horses before catastrophe happens, who can?...

I wanted to add my voice to the growing chorus, led most recently by Amanda Luby and Lucas Marquardt, bringing attention to the existential crisis we face unless we make immediate and critical reforms to the way horse racing is conducted in this country. In the absence of any national body able or prepared to mandate change, it is incumbent on the racetracks themselves to undertake the requisite reforms. Those reforms need to address the interconnectedness between racetrack surfaces and the equine musculoskeletal system. Our access to technology and data...

Lisa Lazarus, the CEO of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), has written an open letter to industry participants, addressing the measures HISA plans to implement in the wake of a spate of fatalities during the first week of the Churchill Downs meet leading up to and including Kentucky Derby day. The statement, in its entirety, reads: Fellow racing participants, I wanted to take a minute of your time to share an update on HISA's role related to the events of last week along with a perspective on what's...

While the racing industry has made important strides forward in detecting horses at risk of suffering catastrophic injuries before they occur, that system is far from perfect. But better use and understanding of the various diagnostic tools at our disposal could help to plug those existing gaps--that's the main takeaway from a recent article published in the Equine Veterinary Journal. The seven-page paper provides a summary of the findings that came from a symposium held this past March at Newmarket, during which various veterinarians and experts shared their research into...