The upcoming weekend in horse racing is highlighted by top-level turf racing at Kentucky Downs and the final days of Del Mar’s summer meet in California. Kentucky Downs will host live racing on Thursday, Sept. 7, Saturday, Sept. 9, and Sunday, Sept. 10, the last of which is also Del Mar’s closing day.
Author: News
With Saratoga Slumping, National Handle off 7.3% in August
Betting on U.S. horse racing had its worst month so far this year in August as handle fell by $87,216,418 when compared to August 2022 figures. The decline was 7.3%, the sharpest drop in a month since December 2022.
A total of $1,107,146,014 was bet on the sport during this August, while the 2022 handle figure was $1,194,362,432. In month-over-month figures, it was the sharpest drop since December when handle fell by 7.52%.
While the Saratoga meet spills over in to July and September, the majority of it is run in August. That handle fell so sharply, by 9.0%, during the meet at Saratoga, no doubt impacted the national figures. While national handle was off by $87 million in August, handle for the Saratoga meet alone fell by $78,982,675.
The monthly Thoroughbred Racing Economic Indicators report issued each month by Equibase continues to offer bad news when it comes to the handle front. Through August, handle is off 4.09% for the year. It has also fallen for six straight months after posting a slight increase in March.
As is often the case when the monthly reports come out, there was good news on the purse front. While the total amount of purse money paid out was virtually identical to August, 2022 numbers, the average available purses per race day figure was $324,561, a 12.62% increase from last year. For the year, $819,846,264 in purses have been paid out. In the category of average available purses per race day, that number has risen by 10%.
Average field size has actually shown a slight increase this year, going from 7.18 starters per race to 7.30.
The post With Saratoga Slumping, National Handle off 7.3% in August appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
Michigan State To Install Powerful New MRI That Can Assist Equine Patients
This fall, the Michigan State University Veterinary Medical Center will begin installation of a state-of-the-art MRI system that will allow the hospital to take clearer-than-ever images of patients, providing a superior tool for veterinarians to diagnose medical issues accurately and to determine targeted treatment plans.
The PHillips MR 7700's magnet has twice the field strength — going from 1.5T to 3T — of the Hospital's previous MRI.
“The Philips MR 7700 is the first that Philips will have installed in a veterinary setting,” says Rebecca Linton, who manages the Hospital's Radiology Service. “This puts us at the forefront of clinical imaging. MRI technology is constantly developing and advancing — with the new system's features, we'll be positioned to perform any type of imaging study that may be desired over the next 20 years.”
The system's magnet has twice the field strength — going from 1.5T to 3T — of the Hospital's previous MRI. (T, short for “Tesla,” is the unit that defines a magnet's field strength.) The system also will use artificial intelligence and deep learning to refine both the scanning process and image quality. The machine is even capable of multi-nucleic imaging, a scanning innovation currently in its earliest stages.
The system, which will begin scanning patients of the MSU Veterinary Medical Center in early 2024, will be among the best available to veterinarians in the region. Patients will be referred by veterinarians near and far to take advantage of its capabilities.
Clear images, clear care pathways
Like in human medicine, MRI systems are used in veterinary medicine to diagnose pathologies such as tumors, strokes and injuries to bones and soft tissues. At the MSU Veterinary Medical Center, MRI is most often used to scan the brains and spines of neurology patients and to image tumors in oncology patients, but it has applications in other medical specialties.
“A 3T MRI is very powerful, with a high signal-to-noise ratio,” says Linton. “This means it gives great image quality, with more data points per voxel — the cube of tissue we're imaging. This gives us the ability to scan even extremely small animals, like mice, to the largest subjects, like horses or wild cats.”
The new system's power will likely expand the utility of MRI for medical specialties that historically have not utilized MRI as heavily.
“MRIs are the modality of choice to scan soft tissues, including body fat and water. When it comes to animals like horses, whose limbs are full of tough, difficult-to-image ligaments and tendons, a high signal-to-noise ratio provides better image quality,” says Linton. “This is going to open avenues for orthopedics, cardiology, abdominal and thoracic imaging — areas that the new MRI can image far better than before. This system will build out what we can do clinically for years to come.”
Improved image quality will give doctors more information that they can use to diagnose and prescribe treatments.
“Say for example we must scan a tiny cat patient in which some structures are sub-millimeter in size,” explains Jody Lawver, veterinary radiologist with the Hospital's Diagnostic Imaging Service. “A higher signal-to-noise ratio provides the resolution needed to better see tiny structures, like nerves and cartilage; to identify whether they're normal or abnormal. This additional diagnostic information helps us more fully characterize the condition and ultimately better guide therapeutics.”
With greater field strength and added technology, the new MRI will provide superior image quality 30–50% faster than before.
“Because we will be able to complete a standard brain study in, say, 20 minutes, we can add more MRI sequences to get more information in less time,” says Linton.
“These time savings can also be important for patient care,” Lawver adds. “Animal MRI requires general anesthesia, which can lead to a decrease in the patient's body temperature and other problems like myopathy in horses. For heavy animals and patients that require surgery immediately after the MRI, it's important to minimize MRI procedure time to ensure our patients remain warm, limiting complications. Our expert imaging, surgery, and anesthesia teams work closely together to balance imaging needs while maximizing patient care.”
Lawver points out how the new MRI capabilities will foster further innovation within veterinary medicine.
“Vet med is in the infancy state of some things that are mainstay in human medicine, so having extra time, superior image quality, and next-level technology from this machine allows us to achieve more clinical and research investigations. This allows us to collaborate with other leading universities with 3T magnets, which will undoubtedly move animal imaging forward.”
The post Michigan State To Install Powerful New MRI That Can Assist Equine Patients appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
BLM Provides Funding For Local Level Action To Protect Wild Horses And Burros
The Bureau of Land Management has awarded more than $1 million in grants to six entities in Colorado, Oregon and Utah to encourage community-level action to support the protection and management of wild horses and burros on public lands.
It is hoped that the funding will promote partnerships and collaborative initiatives toward the sustainable management of wild horses and burros, and their habitat.
As of March 1, there were more than 82,000 wild horses and burros on BLM-managed lands. This is more than three times the level that is healthy for the animals and their habitat.
The following projects will receive grant funding for 2023. Future funding opportunities will be dependent on annual Congressional appropriates and budget availability. All of these projects must adhere to the BLM's policies and regulations regarding the handling of wild horses and burros.
Colorado:
Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University
Creation of a K-12 curriculum for local schools that will also be available nationally. Curriculum to include virtual field trips and educational videos related to biology, behavior, management, ecology and history of managing wild horses and burros as part of the American Western Landscape. Educational content will be paired with a teacher training program and public engagement in Colorado.
Meeker, CO: Piceance Mustangs
Support of ongoing efforts to manage herd growth through a fertility control darting program. Project also includes improvements to range resources, including running pipe and construction of two new water tanks, as well as refurbishment of a pond used by wild horses in the area.
Oregon:
Vale, OR: High Desert Strategies Fertility Control, High Desert Strategies
This project will include in-depth monitoring, data collection, planning, and application of fertility control vaccines via remote dart delivery in wild horse herds in southeast Oregon.
Utah:
Logan, UT: Utah State University Cooperative Extension
The Healthy Lands and Healthy Horses program is a one- to two-day camp model that provides hands-on, cross-disciplinary experiences about wild horses and burros, wildlife, and range management.
Salt Lake City, UT: American Wild Horse Campaign
Funding will support activities first initiated under a volunteer agreement to document, dart horses with a fertility control vaccine and monitor horses and habitat health in the Cedar Mountain Herd Management Area.
Western Desert, UT: Wild Horses of America Foundation
This project will focus on treating wild horses of the Onaqui Mountain herd with fertility control.
The post BLM Provides Funding For Local Level Action To Protect Wild Horses And Burros appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
