DEl MAR (CNS) - State horse racing officials said Saturday that increased safety measure have led to a decline in the number of horses who died from racing and training injuries at California tracks in the 2022-23 fiscal year, while acknowledging that the number of "other" racehorse deaths increased slightly during that time.
The California Horse Racing Board said 26 horses died as a result of musculoskeletal injuries that occurred while racing or training in the fiscal year ending June 30, compared with 39 the previous year.
"That's still too many fatalities, but it shows that all of the new regulations, policies, and procedures that we've introduced in cooperation with the industry have had a significant effect," CHRB Chairman Greg Ferraro said. "Our efforts are focused primarily on preventable injuries, and that's what the numbers reflect. I don't know of any racing jurisdiction in the country that even comes close to matching this effort or result."
The CHRB also tracks fatalities caused by any non-exercise-related catastrophic injury. The most common cause of death in this other group is gastro-intestinal diseases, such as colic, colitis and enteritis, followed by respiratory disease.
"Unfortunately, the number of `other' deaths increased last year, and those 43 deaths, coupled with the 26 due to musculoskeletal injuries, brought the total to 69, or three more than the 66 the previous year," the CHRB said.
"I've considered several times the idea of not counting other deaths, the type that occur among horse populations anywhere in the world, including the popular riding stables and in the wild, but I've always decided that full transparency is the best way to go," CHRB Executive Director Scott Chaney said.
Locally, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club saw seven total horse deaths during the fiscal year.
Officials said equine fatalities at CHRB-regulated facilities have declined by 54% since 2019, including the "other" category.
The state board noted that approximately 30,000 race starts and more than 100,000 workouts occur each year involving 8,000 to 10,000 horses at CHRB- regulated facilities.
Some anti-horse racing activists saw the numbers differently.
"A 65% increase in `non-musculoskeletal' deaths in one year is pretty significant. And some of these `other and non-musculoskeletal deaths' are actually musculoskeletal deaths ... (for example), five accidents listed with fractures in 2022," Martha Sullivan of Kill Racing Not Horses said in a statement to City News Service.
"... Maybe this is why there are still so many deaths in 2023 still showing "pending" under notes (which generally has been cause of death)? To shield from public view how horses are dying?
... Finally, so far in CA's 2023 racing season, 37 fatalities have been reported by CHRB, up from 31 fatalities at this point in 2022, a 19% increase. Not a good trajectory, Sullivan continued.
The issue of horse racing safety made headlines again this spring, when 12 horses died in a span of six weeks at Churchill Downs, home of the famed Kentucky Derby. Another four horses died at Belmont Park, New York, in the weeks leading up to that track's Belmont Stakes.
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