Future Hinges On 'Big Data'

When the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit opens Wednesday at the Keeneland Association sales pavilion in Lexington, it will mark the first time that the summit will be held in consecutive years since the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and The Jockey Club began the event in 2006.

Considering the expanded emphasis on equine safety within the racing industry over the past decade, the switch seems both appropriate and warranted.

“When you turn, it's like turning the Titanic,” said Jamie Haydon, the manager of industry initiatives for The Jockey Club, using the analogy of steering a large ship to underscore how unwieldy it can be to get industry stakeholders to align and take action on significant issues.

But, Haydon continued, once a change in direction has been initiated, that same large ship can generate an enormous amount of forward momentum.

“Now that we have people in this [welfare-first] mindset they are used to it,” Haydon said. “So we've gone to a yearly format to get that exchange of ideas out there.”

Presentations on racetrack surfaces, jockey safety, continuing-education courses for trainers, the Equine Injury Database, and lessons learned from post-mortem veterinary examinations will be spotlighted on the one-day agenda (condensed from two days in previous years).

In speaking with moderators and panelists in advance of the summit, it is apparent that the various topics share a common theme: The next big thing in the pipeline for improving the lives of racehorses isn't a captivating, bombshell idea. It's the basic, often mundane, and always laborious process of compiling data sets to use as benchmarks to help determine best practices and set proactive policies.

“It's the boring stuff right now that's front and center, and that's electronic records, the ability to look at things and see what matters,” said Dr. Michael “Mick” Peterson Jr., the executive director of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory.

Peterson, a mechanical engineer who will moderate a panel of five track superintendents from the nation's top racing associations, called the acceptance of “big data” and detailed electronic recordkeeping “the hardest sell in this sport” because the concept of crunching numbers doesn't come across as scientifically glamorous.

Peterson recalled how when he was asked to consult for the New York Racing Association in 2011 after a rash of catastrophic injuries, the first thing he did was examine the daily track maintenance logs to see if he could pinpoint a problem with the track surface at Aqueduct. He found no deficiencies in protocol.

“They were doing everything right,” Peterson said. “But [the records] looked like 1960. They were literally on yellow lined paper. It just seemed to me it was time to start doing electronic records so we could begin to draw conclusions.”

NYRA, Peterson said, stepped up and spent the money to convert to electronic track maintenance records. He described other tracks as “painfully slow” to modernize recordkeeping, “but overall, the industry is making progress,” he said.

“Mick is exactly right,” said Haydon. “It's a series of singles and doubles, not home runs…If we could wave a magic wand to save horses, we would do it.”

Dr. Carl Mattacola, an associate professor and division director of athletic training at the University of Kentucky, oversees the data collection and analysis of the Jockey Injury Database. He will be speaking about patterns in the 700 incidents he has logged since 2012, consisting of everything from riders getting thrown at full speed to smashing knees and knuckles in the starting gate.

“The better that we can gather momentum for the systematic collection of data, that's probably my hardest thing right now,” Mattacola said. “In the NFL, [teams are mandated to] participate in terms of providing concussion data. The challenge with horse racing is some states and tracks can elect to [report injuries] and some do not. Unfortunately, we're probably not getting the best data that we can from some of the smaller tracks.”

Haydon said “it's going to be [the industry's] responsibility to bring these various databases to maturity and then use them in a coordinated, integrated functionality.” He said he thinks of this concept in terms of “the more data points we have, the more points that we can intervene in a horse's career before he makes that [potentially catastrophic] last start.”

Peterson said that to implement his maintenance program from scratch at a racetrack, it takes about $50,000 worth of hardware and several days of manpower to gather baseline readings that make up a map of the track that shows both surface and sub-level hardness of the ground and related moisture levels. That data is then compared to 12,000 known data points on all the different North American tracks whose measurements have been recorded over the past decade.

But that's just the start, Peterson said. Comparative data has to be collected every day, and track superintendents must detail every drop of water that either Mother Nature or a water truck puts on the track, plus every single pass of the harrows or graders, recorded down to the depth and angle of the equipment that rakes the surface.

“The challenge is, the measurements that they're doing, day-in and day-out, the tracks that are doing them, they are very labor-intensive,” Peterson said. “We're still struggling with some of the tools, honestly. What we're working on right now is a tool to help it more efficient for superintendents to make measurements on a daily basis.”

Peterson said that in working with superintendents around the country, he is continually amazed at how intuitively some of them can identify trouble spots. His method of data collection helps them understand the “why” behind the “what.”

“These guys are smart. They're paying attention,” Peterson said. “When you start giving them the data, they start matching it to their experiences. They say, 'Oh, this is where the tractor bogs down.' Their observations tie into the data, and they say, 'Yes, this means something.'”

To illustrate how far advances in racetrack maintenance have come in the past decade, Peterson said he is now working with Olympic-level dressage and eventing organizations that want to put together course maintenance programs based on the plans Peterson has devised for racetracks.

“That's coming a long way, when other equestrian sports are actually looking at American racing as a model,” Peterson said.

“It's a design-maintenance-support mechanism. We're trying to take the mystery out of it,” Peterson said. “My hope is that we'll eventually have a standard protocol that we can use for all the tracks. Honestly, right now, it's just the top tracks. If we can expand that into the rest of the industry, I think we'll make a difference.”

Mattacola said that in safety issues pertaining to jockeys, it can be hard to bring about “drastic changes” because of longstanding perceptions. After all, this is a sport where the advice to “get back on your horse and ride” right after a spill is offered and taken literally.

“I think any time you take anybody who's a competitive athlete like a jockey, it's going to be hard for them [to self-report an injury and opt out of participating],” Mattacola said. “Because in racing, if you don't ride, you don't get paid. But jockeys are becoming much more cognizant now that if they do get hurt, it could be a life-threatening, career-ending opportunity.”

Mattacola continued, “The national spotlight certainly helps, especially with the emphasis that's being placed on concussions relative to major league sports and youth sports. I think people are now beginning to say, 'Wow, we have to pay attention and begin to think up ways to protect all of our assets, whether they be human or equine.'”

Mattacola said he's been working with jockeys on what factors in their profession are modifiable to prevent injuries.

“We can modify nutrition, we can modify strength, we can modify preparation, we can modify helmets,” Mattacola said. “But there are inherent risks in the sport. You're not going to modify a horse from flipping over every once in awhile. Accidents are going to happen.”

Mattacola said he envisions the industry parlaying its wealth of data into a partnership with insurance companies. Insurers want to pay out on fewer claims, and the industry has a vested interest in keeping insurance costs down by making sure there are fewer injuries.

In an effort to nudge states toward requiring trainers to pursue continuing education as a condition for license renewal, Haydon said The Jockey Club will detail the online learning system it launched June 9 that provides both educational content and a tracking mechanism to prove trainers took the courses. This will come up in a panel titled “The Importance of Continuing Education” moderated by Dr. Scott Palmer, the equine medical director for the New York State Gaming Commission.

Dr. Mary Scollay, the equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, will moderate a panel titled “Proper Diagnosis: Lessons Learned from Post-Mortem Programs.”

Haydon said when owners, trainers and veterinarians are called in by racing authorities to answer questions about horse deaths, it's important for them to understand that the post-mortem programs that are just now starting in some states are “not the Spanish Inquisition.” Rather, he explained, “it's about helping people learn to not make the same mistakes twice.”

The summit will also feature a one-on-one discussion with Dr. Larry Bramlage, a surgeon and partner at the Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, and an update on the Equine Injury Database provided by Dr. Tim Parkin, senior lecturer and associate academic at the University of Glasgow.

The summit is open to the public and will be streamed live online starting at 8:30 a.m. The TDN will have a panel-by-panel recap in Thursday's edition.