DR. Dionne Benson

News out of Churchill Downs last week that two of trainer Saffie Joseph Jr's horses had collapsed and died within days of each other has reignited talk around one of the most confounding--and by extension, frustrating--issues in racing: sudden equine death. More than four years ago in response to the death of GI-placed Bobby Abu Dhabi (Macho Uno)--what was initially suspected a sudden cardiac-related event--the TDN took a lengthy dive into the issue. In a nutshell, sudden cardiac deaths oftentimes leave no discernable physical sign for pathologists to piece together...

It's been some four years since Santa Anita suffered through some of the worst times in its long and otherwise glorious history, a prolonged period where horses were breaking down and dying at an alarming rate. Aidan Butler, the chief executive officer at The Stronach Group 1/ST Racing and Gaming, the corporation that owns Santa Anita, is still haunted by that period, so much so that he says he has nightmares about horses breaking down. "It was horrific," Butler said. "Can you imagine having bloody helicopters from the news stations...

   The TDN's 'Let's Talk'--a podcast series featuring TDN's Christina Bossinakis and TVG's on-air analyst Gabby Gaudet, offers candid discussion on personal and professional issues often faced within the racing community.    The latest edition presents a trio of successful veterinarians--The Stronach Group's Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Dionne Benson, equine surgeon Dr. Patty Hogan (Hogan Equine Clinic in Cream Ridge, NJ) and longtime racetrack practitioner Dr. Bill Hawk, who counts Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen among his vast clientele. Over the course of the last decade, racing has faced significant...

Sponsored by 1/ST Racing The TDN's 'Let's Talk'--a podcast series featuring TDN's Christina Bossinakis and TVG's on-air analyst Gabby Gaudet, offers candid discussion on personal and professional issues often faced within the racing community. The latest edition presents a trio of successful veterinarians--The Stronach Group's Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Dionne Benson, equine surgeon Dr. Patty Hogan (Hogan Equine Clinic in Cream Ridge, NJ) and longtime racetrack practitioner Dr. Bill Hawk, who counts Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen among his vast clientele.  

1/ST, owners of the Pegasus World Cup, will partner with Irish technology company Equine MediRecord to digitize veterinary records for this year's event, to be held this Saturday, Jan. 29, at Gulfstream Park. The Equine MediRecord platform that will be used allows for the full veterinary history of the horse to be collected digitally and recorded securely. Use of this platform will be mandatory and will provide all entrants, trainers and veterinarians with a user-friendly system to comply with the strict medication protocols for this year's event. Once the records...

Difficulties with the dirt track base repair and cushion resurfacing project at Laurel Park continue to mount, with the loose-ended timetable for the work now expected to extend at least until the start of July. Executives with The Stronach Group (TSG), which owns both Laurel and Pimlico Race Course, said during a Friday tele-meeting that they now need to pause work on the problematic and expensive project at Laurel until management can relocate of all horses stabled at Laurel to other facilities in Maryland. This news was delivered two weeks...

If pressed to pinpoint a single Achilles heel in the racehorse, it's probably a fair bet to assume many would zero in on the fetlock--the intricate joint mechanism that in a racehorse travelling at top speed proves especially vulnerable to system failure. Indeed, 19 of the 22 horses that suffered catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries at Santa Anita during its benighted winter-spring meet nearly two years ago had sesamoid fractures. In most cases, the prognosis for horses who suffer severe fetlock breakdowns is grim, but a procedure pioneered at the end of...

During the second installment of its ongoing webinar series, the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation presented the "Importance of transparency in medical records; monitoring horses between starts" Tuesday afternoon. Chief Veterinary Officer of The Stronach Group's Dr. Dionne Benson moderated the discussion and was joined by private racetrack practitioner Dr. Ryan Carpenter (Equine Medical Center, Cypress, Ca.); Dr. William Farmer (Equine Medical Director, Churchill Downs Incorporated) and Dr. Scott Palmer (Equine Medical Director, New York State Gaming Commission). Leading off the 1-hour discussion was the necessity of the transparency in medical...