At a special meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission on April 25, track management and the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association announced that they have come to an agreement about how to proceed with the facility at Laurel Park.
Craig Fravel, chief executive officer of 1/ST Racing, told commissioners that veteran track surfaces manager John Passero will be coming to Maryland to examine the Laurel Park racing surface at the urging of the horsemen. He is expected to begin his examination on Wednesday, according to the Daily Racing Form.
Passero served as senior vice president of racing surfaces for the Maryland Jockey Club earlier in his career, and his assessment was requested by the MTHA in a letter sent to track management earlier this week.
The agreement, as explained by Fravel and others to the commissioners, means that Passero will examine the surface and make recommendations on what, if anything, needs to be changed.
No date was set for the return of live racing to Laurel Park.
According to MTHA, five horses suffered fatal injuries in April at Laurel, including two on Thursday, April 20. Live racing was cancelled the next day, and neither of last weekend's programs were run. A card that was scheduled for April 27 did not move forward due to lack of entries. Track management has maintained that measurements of various components of the track surface currently fall “within industry norms” and also that the rate of fatal injury so far for 2023 is below that of the same period last year, at 1.3 per 1,000 starts as compared to 1.98 per 1,000 starts last year. The state has not yet responded to a request from the Paulick Report to learn how many fatal injuries have taken place over the surface since January.
Upon being debriefed on the current status of the relationship between the track and the horsemen, racing commissioners made little further inquiry. Chairman Michael Algeo did take a few minutes at the end of the approximately 20-minute meeting to make some comments on the commission's stance on the situation.
“Safety and welfare is the single most important thing,' said Algeo. “This commission is not making any judgment as to who is at fault.
“We cannot afford to get this wrong. We have to get it right. There is a young man who lost his life in Australia yesterday, a 34-year-old jockey. It's a dangerous sport. That's not in dispute. We have to shoot for the number zero [fatalities]. It's impossible but that has to be our goal. Safety and welfare is the most important thing we can do.”
Algeo said the commission will want to see Passero's report and hinted that live racing will not return to the track until the regulatory body is satisfied with the surface's status.
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