By Bill Finley
The New York Gaming Commission (NYGC) has released its 2023 report regarding the high rate of fatalities upstate last year. Between May 26, 2023 and September 4, 2023, there were 17 equine fatalities at Saratoga Race Course, which again put the track's Thoroughbred safety record under scrutiny.
Several suggestions were made by the NYGC, none more surprising than the recommendation that NYRA should install a synthetic track at Saratoga. With the Spa already having two turf courses and main dirt course, it remains to been seen if there's any room to fit in still another course.
“The degree of inclement weather during the 2023 Saratoga Race Meet had a profound negative impact upon the safety of racehorses and confounded the ability of NYRA to complete its full racing program,” the report read. “Sixty-five surface changes during the 2023 Saratoga Meet disrupted much of the turf racing schedule. In many cases field size was severely compromised as the result of these surface changes with commensurate decrease in handle. Despite the use of extraordinary efforts and use of best practice racetrack surface management, it was extremely difficult to maintain safe and consistent racing surfaces.
The report went on to state, “The total number of fatalities at Saratoga was not out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary was how many broke down in races.”
New York Equine Medical Director Scott Palmer noted that the total number of equine fatalities during the 2023 Saratoga Meet was similar or less than that of meets in the previous five years. However, the number of racing fatalities during the 2023 Meet was three-times greater than the number of racing fatalities during the 2022 Meet.
The 179-page report also suggested that NYRA should support and participate in research efforts to critically evaluate current best practices to achieve improved consistency of the moisture content of the racing surface and to eliminate excessive moisture. The proposal aims to develop a “smart” watering truck that would measure moisture in the track surface and apply water to those areas in need of water and not in areas that did not need additional water, using control technologies, GPS data fusion and system integration
The commission would like to see NYRA test horses pre-race more than they do now. Their recommendation is that NYRA passes a house rule that all horses must be examined by their attending veterinarian between 72 and 24 hours of a race.
Among the other points included in the report are the increased use of wearable biometric sensors to minimize the incidence of equine fatalities going forward.
The NYGC report suggests that if these recommendations are followed there will be tangible results, including reduction of equine fatalities; fewer surface changes during the Saratoga meet; increased overall handle at Saratoga; improved attendance at Saratoga and improved public perception of Thoroughbred racing.
As has been the case when there is a rash of breakdowns followed by a study, investigators could not come up with the source of the breakdowns. But they believed that an exceptionally wet meet played a part.
“The most obvious environmental variable of the 2023 Saratoga Race Meet was the unprecedented amount of rainfall that occurred during July and August. Although the fact of relentless rainfall was not in dispute, the actual significance of this unusual weather event was among the primary focuses of this review,” the report read.
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