The Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission announced Tuesday a 10-step action plan to improve equine safety and welfare in the state, with March 1, 2022 the targeted implementation date. Thomas Chuckas, director of Thoroughbred Horse Racing for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, revealed the list during the commission's regularly-scheduled meeting.
“This list is a living and breathing list,” Chuckas said. “There are going to be changes obviously, it is not the end-all, be-all. It's a start, but it is an important start.”
The action plan is a result of the late-summer formation of a working group to address equine welfare, as well as examinations of what has worked in other states and the upcoming federal regulations.
The PSRC action plan is as follows:
- Tracks will conduct an independent third party analysis of the racetrack two times per year. The first analysis for the Thoroughbred tracks is to be completed within 60 days and submitted to commission.
- Increased monitoring and oversight of AM works, employing additional veterinarians to conduct oversight and examination. That will require a reshuffling of some of the vets and putting more vets in place, but the commission believes that what occurs in the morning is important to racing and moving forward.
- Require the practicing veterinarians to attest that the horses are in fit, serviceable, and in sound condition and suitable to race.
- Trainers must submit a pre-entry form to a racing panel for permission to race. It will require the submission of the most recent 30-day medical reports for the horses. The panel should consist at a minimum of the race secretary, commission vet, steward, and horsemen's representative.
- Institute a rule for lower-level conditions or classes: a horse that doesn't finish in top four positions in five consecutive races is deemed non-competitive and not eligible to race in Pennsylvania.
- Requiring the practicing veterinarian to conduct an examination within 48 hours of a horse being placed on the vet's list due to lameness. This examination will assist in determining the cause and if diagnostics are warranted. The practicing veterinarian will provide a verbal report to the commission vet.
- Intra-articular injections: The initial injection is permitted based on the practicing veterinarian's examination and recommendation. Any additional injections require diagnostics to support further injections. If any injection is a corticosteroid, the horse is placed on the vet's list for 30 days.
- Establish stricter criteria for removal from the vet's list, utilizing diagnostics, scanning, and imaging.
- Establish a program to install either a pet scan machine or an MRI or the like at the racetrack in effort to detect issues.
- Create a fatality database.
Chuckas added that some of 10 action items might be made via commission regulation, while others might be made by individual racetrack policy.
The PSRC also plans to create an integrity hotline which whistleblowers can call to report violations.
“We're not proposing anything that's never been tried before,” said commissioner Thomas Jay Ellis. “These are the best ideas to protect our horses, not some pie in the sky concepts, but things that can actually be done.”
Commissioner Dr. Corinne Sweeney motioned to approve the action plan, and commissioner Thomas Jay Ellis seconded. The motion carried.
The post ‘An Important Start’: Pennsylvania Commission Approves 10-Step Action Plan To Improve Equine Safety; Implementation Targeted For March 1 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
