Churchill is not the first track to suffer a jump in breakdowns.
Santa Anita's jump in breakdowns back in 2019 (before the idea for StrideSafe was ever conceived of) was worse than what Churchill just experienced.
A few days ago, comet52 posted an Article from USA today in the Churchill-Ellis Park thread
here.
Brown: Santa Anita has blueprint Churchill Downs should use to address rash of horse deaths:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...e/70196656007/
Quote:
The two areas Ferraro pointed out that have helped curve deaths at Santa Anita included more independent eyes on the horses.
The track began to utilize multiple exams from different veterinarians. It also added spotters to watch horses train and look for anything out of the ordinary. Horses that raced at Santa Anita were subject to a five-member panel that considered when horses were entered, their work pattern, and previous races to make sure there were no red flags that indicated the horse needed to be re-examined.
What Ferraro called the most obvious, yet hardest, change to make was to limit medication in racing. CHRB research at the time showed that nine out of every 10 fatal breakdowns occurred in horses that had pre-existing injuries.
Ferraro said when they moved pre-race medication allowances back to 48 hours before a race, it “made a big difference right away.” Ferraro is also against the use of intra-articular injections, which are administered into the open space between the bones in the joint capsule. The process is often used to give horses anti-inflammatory medication that reduces pain and increases range of motion.
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Quote:
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Since implementing its rule changes, Santa Anita had single digit racing deaths in 2020 (6), 2021 (9) and 2022 (4), according to the Equine Injury Database. Last year, that meant only 0.63 fatalities per 1,000 starts.
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If you ask me Santa Anita figured it out.
Fyi, at 0.63 fatalities per 1,000 starts, last year's Santa Anita numbers are right in line with Hong Kong's long term fatality stats (0.60 per 1,000 starts.)
Imo,
everything needs to be analyzed on a continual basis:
Tests for blood doping and new designer drugs, unannounced barn searches for prohibited substances, thresholds and withdrawal times for substances that are allowed, clamping down on joint injections, shockwave and O2 therapy, beveling angle of the hoof, horseshoes, pre-race vet inspections, racing surfaces, weather/wind speed, etc., --
AND stuff that's never been evaluated before such as wireless signals generated by 5G towers, transmitters attached to saddle cloths that are part of race timing systems, StrideSafe transmitters, and a thousand other things none of us has ever thought of before.
That said:
Imo, if wireless signals were truly wreaking havoc with thoroughbreds we should have seen evidence of that by now with the rollout of 5G.
-jp
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@
