Equine Injury Database

Horse racing is a sport genetically programmed in high emotion. It's hardly surprising then that the vet scratch-the ultimate sucker-punch after weeks and months of best laid plans-should prove such a test of nerves. The problem is, diagnosing subtle lameness can be such a subjective venture. And where there's uncertainty, doubt can quickly escalate to condemnation. A recent TDN compendium of data collected from around the country, however, shows that scratched horses run a much higher than average risk of harboring an injury. Numbers from California, Florida, New York, Kentucky...

According to numbers compiled by The Jockey Club for its Equine Injury Database (EID), there were 1.32 fatalities per 1,000 starts at North American racetracks in 2023. That was slightly worse than in 2022 when the number was 1.25, the lowest rate of fatalities since The Jockey Club started compiling numbers in 2009. It was the first time the number had increased year-over-year since 2018 when there were 1.68 fatalities per 1,000 starters. Nonetheless, the figures showed that the sport has made obvious strides since 2009 when it comes to...

The Jockey Club of America has added a link online to its Equine Injury Database (EID) page which provides an analysis of racing fatalities based on surface and track conditions for 2021 and 2022, the organization said in a release early Wednesday morning. Additional statistics will be added to the EID page as they become available.

Are wet tracks more dangerous than dry ones? According to statistics compiled by the Jockey Club, the answer is no. The TDN reached out to The Jockey Club and asked it to dig into the Equine Injury Database and provide us with statistics regarding breakdowns and various dirt track and turf course conditions. The study was conducted by Dr. Euan Bennet and Professor Tim Parkin and covered the years 2021 and 2022. On the dirt, there were 419 fatalities on tracks listed as fast during those years from 308,954 starts....

Editor's note: Bill Casner, a long-time participant in many facets of racing, is probably best known for founding WinStar Farm with Kenny Troutt and winning the 2010 GI Kentucky Derby with Super Saver. Among Casner's many roles in the sport have been founding director of the Race for Education and Kentucky Equine Education Program (KEEP). He has sold his interest in WinStar to Troutt and currently operates as Casner Racing. Horse racing is in a firestorm. We are at survival tipping point. The decisions that are made in the short...

The opening months of 2019 were still fresh in California lawmakers' minds when they passed a bill that summer giving the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) emergency authority to suspend racing at a track without the hitherto required 10-day public notice period. The precipitating event, of course, was the spate of equine fatalities that had covered Santa Anita, and the racing industry in general, under a pall of public condemnation--the exact same kind of scrutiny Churchill Downs has faced these past few weeks, culminating with the announced switch of racing...

After the TDN published two opinion pieces which recommended a return to synthetic surfaces, one by Earle Mack in the May 31 TDN and one by Bill Finley in this Monday's TDN, we have been inundated by comments, questions, and opinions about the relative safety of one surface versus another. Some of the questions asked for a year-by-year comparison, while other comments cited statistics that were not correct. Courtesy of The Jockey Club's Equine Injury database, here are the figures of racing fatalities per thousand starters, year by year for...

The rate of fatal injuries in 2022 was 1.25 horses per 1,000 starts, a 10.1% decrease from 2021 when there were 1.39 fatalities per 1,000 starts according to figures compiled by the Equine Injury Database (EID) and released Monday by The Jockey Club (TJC). It was the lowest number since the EID began covering the fatality rate in 2009, when the figure was 2.00 horses per 1,000 starts. "The data shows that since 2009, the risk of fatal injury during racing has declined by 37.5%, which is statistically significant," said...

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%...

The 10th Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit will take place June 22, 2022, in the Keeneland Sales Pavilion, the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation announced Feb. 28. The previous summit, held in June 2020, was a virtual webinar due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The event will be free and open to the public as well as being streamed online. The agenda will include a review of the Thoroughbred industry's implementation of safety recommendations developed at the first summit in 2006 as well as a presentation by Dr. Tim Parkin...

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...

In the fifth and final installment of a series of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation webinars that took the place of the canceled ninth annual Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, Drs. Tim Parkin and Mary Scollay examined Tuesday The Jockey Club's Equine Injury Database (EID) and its findings since being launched in 2009. "The genesis of the EID goes back to Barbaro," explained Scollay, the executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium. "When he was injured in the Preakness, a lot of attention and phone calls were...