equine fatality rates

The equine fatality rate in North America has shrunk significantly over the last 15 years, from 1.98 per 1,000 starts in 2009 to 1.32 last year. Still according to officials, that number remains higher than other racing jurisdictions around the globe such as Australia, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Japan, and New Zealand. If there was a unifying theme running through Tuesday's Jockey Club Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, however, it was that the industry has all the tools necessary to uniformly reduce fatality rates to meet and beat...

You have to root for the people who strive so hard to make a go of racing in Northern California after Golden Gate Fields shut its doors for good June 9. Racing has a rich history in Northern California and there are hundreds of people, from hotwalkers to grooms to trainers to breeders, and everybody in between, who depend on the sport to put food on the table. They deserve better than the uncertainty that has left most everyone worrying about their futures after The Stronach Group announced it was...

I have enormous respect for TDN writer Chris McGrath and Wayne Lyster. One's an outstanding journalist and eloquent writer who works for an essential trade publication; and, the other's built a highly-successful breeding operation. I, nevertheless, must respectfully disagree with their characterization of calls for replacing dirt tracks with synthetic surfaces as "hysterical." While I cherish racing's dirt traditions (my goodness, Man o' War is my favorite horse of all-time), I'm also mindful of existing data that explicitly show that synthetic racing is the safest surface in the U.S. Numbers...

When it comes to breakdowns, the Tapeta surface at Woodbine isn't perfect. But it might be as close to perfect as any surface on the continent. While horses throughout North America broke down on the dirt at a rate of 1.44 per 1,000 starts in 2022, the rate of breakdowns over the synthetic surface at Woodbine was 0.42. This year, after about 4,500 starts over Tapeta there have been only two fatalities during races. Also, there have been about 14,000 published workouts over Woodbine's synthetic tracks and only two fatalities...

The closer the clock ticks down to Nov. 4, when Turf Paradise's latest 130-day meet is scheduled to launch, the louder will the questions resound about the facility's historically checkered approach to equine welfare and safety. Near the midway point during last year's Turf Paradise meet, its equine fatality rate was more than 2.8 deaths per 1,000 starts. This compares to the national equine fatality rate of 1.39 per 1,000 starts last year. Between Oct. 10, 2021, and May 7, 2022, 11 horses were fatally injured during morning training at...

An analysis of data from the 13th year of reporting to the Equine Injury Database (EID) shows a decrease in the rate of fatal injury in 2021 (1.39 per 1,000 starts) compared to 2020 (1.41 per 1,000 starts), The Jockey Club announced Tuesday. This is the third year in a row that the number has decreased, and the 2021 rate of fatal injury is the lowest number since the EID started collecting data in 2009. The risk of fatal injury in 2021 declined 1.4% from 2020 and has dropped 30.5%...

According to the Equine Injury Database, released Monday, there were 1.41 fatalities per 1,000 starters at North American racetracks in 2020, the lowest number recorded since The Jockey Club began compiling injury rates in 2009. The number of fatal injuries declined by 7.8% from 2019 and 29.5% overall since 2009, when the rate was 2.0 per 1,000 starters. "Overall, there was an 8% decrease in the risk of fatal injury from 2019 to 2020," said Dr. Tim Parkin, a veterinary epidemiologist. "Since 2009, risk has declined by 29.5% or equivalent...