Tag: dr. sue stover

CHRB Notes Substantial Drop In California Equine Deaths

The California Horse Racing Board conducted a meeting by teleconference on Wednesday, July 21. The public participated by dialing into the teleconference and/or listening through the audio webcast link on the CHRB website. Chairman Gregory Ferraro chaired the meeting, joined by vice chair Oscar Gonzales and commissioners Dennis Alfieri, Damascus Castellanos, Brenda Washington Davis, Wendy Mitchell, and Alex Solis.

The audio of this entire Board meeting is available on the CHRB Website (www.chrb.ca.gov) under the Webcast link. In brief:

  • The Board approved three license applications for race meets, beginning with the Sonoma County Fair (SCF) meet, which will be run at Golden Gate Fields (GGF) on August 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15. SCF will be required to run Arabian races during the meet in compliance with statutes. In a related matter, the Board approved an agreement between SCF and the Thoroughbred Owners of California authorizing the racing secretary to establish conditions on races limiting the administrations of certain medications.
  • The Board approved the license application for the Pacific Racing Association (PRA) to conduct a thoroughbred meet at Golden Gate Fields with racing commencing August 26 and running through October 3. As one condition, Golden Gate must provide its race signals and access to its wagering pools to all simulcast outlets in California. Additionally, Golden Gate and the California Thoroughbred Trainers must enter into a race-meet agreement before the August 18 Board meeting.
  • The Board approved the license application for the Humboldt County Fair to operate a fair meet in Ferndale on August 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, and 29.
  • The Board set a January 31, 2022, date for San Luis Rey Downs (SLRD) to complete installation of its sprinkler system, though management expects work to completed by late December. SLRD has a fire clearance and complies with all local fire regulations.
  • Executive director Scott Chaney reported a full 50 percent reduction in the number of total training, racing, and other fatalities over the last two fiscal years. In furtherance of the CHRB's safety efforts, he pointed out that Dr. Jeff Blea assumed the role of equine medical director and Dr. Tim Grande assumed the role of chief official veterinarian on July 1, and noted, “Both Drs. Blea and Grande are accomplished veterinarians and have a specific understanding regarding veterinary medicine's intersection with the regulatory arena and the promotion of animal welfare.  In the three weeks they have been on the job, I have found both to be engaged, enthusiastic and committed.”
  • Dr. Blea reported that California will be well represented in industry oversight under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA). Dr. Sue Stover, director of the J.D. Wheat Veterinary Orthopedic Research Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, sits on HISA's governing board and also chairs its Racetrack Safety Standing Committee, while Dr. Blea is a member of HISA's Anti-Doping and Medication Control Standing Committee. Dr. Blea also reported that entry review panels, first established in 2019 at Santa Anita Park at the direction of Gov. Gavin Newsom to ensure that entered horses are fit to compete, now are in place at all tracks and that he and Dr. Grande are reviewing their processes to make them more efficient and standardized in the future.
  • The Board approved a regulation establishing rules for public participation at meetings, which largely reflect the procedures that have been in place, including limiting each unsolicited speaker to two minutes on each agenda item.
  • The Board approved an agreement with horse-racing-industry stakeholders modifying the distribution of Advance Deposit Wagering market access fees to supplement funding for CHRB support. The Board then approved the Fiscal Year 2021-22 agreement providing funding support for the CHRB.
  • The Board approved the change of ownership for the mini-satellite California Horse Racing & Sports, LLC, doing business as The Derby Room.
  • Public comments made during the meeting can be accessed through the meeting audio archive on the CHRB website.

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Study Links Bone Loss To Proximal Sesamoid Bone Fractures In California Racehorses

A recent study by Sarah Shaffer, Dr. Susan Stover and colleagues at the J.D. Wheat Orthopedic Laboratory at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine sought to characterize bone abnormalities that precede proximal sesamoid bone (PSB) fractures and determine if pre-existing abnormalities are associated with these fractures. The group retrospectively studied cases from California Thoroughbred racehorses that died from PSB fractures, and controls that died for other reasons.

The most common fatal injury in racehorses in the United States, PSB fractures account for 45-50 percent of such injuries in Thoroughbreds, and 37-40 percent in racing Quarter Horses. The PSBs are two comparatively small bones located in the fetlock that act as part of the suspensory apparatus. Fractures in these bones are likely due to the accumulation of repeated, stress-related processes. This is supported by evidence that racehorses in intensive training are at higher risk for PSB fractures, but the exact causes are not well understood.

Other repetitive overuse injuries in horses are known to be bilateral in nature, meaning that they are similar on both sides of the horse, with the more severely affected limb usually incurring the fracture. With this in mind, the study looked at both the fractured PSB and the intact PSB from the opposing limb of the same horse for all of the cases. The researchers hypothesized that horses with PSB fractures would also show evidence of stress in the PSB of the opposite limb and that the bone that sustained the break would show more severe changes than the intact bone.

The results showed that 90 percent of fractured PSBs from the cases had visible discoloration on the surface of the fracture, most commonly (70 percent of the time) in a characteristic crescent pattern. Directly below the cartilage, evidence of bone loss was noted in 70 percent of cases. This bone loss was located in the same region as the discolorations. Fractured PSBs had lower bone volume fraction and tissue mineral density within the lesion sites than comparable locations in opposing limbs and controls. These regions were contiguous with the fracture lines. Evidence of microdamage was also observed in fractured PSBs.

Overall, changes identified in the bones were more numerous in case horses than control horses and more severe in the fractured limbs than the opposing limbs in cases. Sampling from areas of bone distant from the lesions noted no significant differences in bones from case and control horses other than the presence of a lesion.

This data supports the role of microdamage and tissue remodeling in the formation of lesions in PSBs. It is important to note that all of the horses in this study were California racehorses, so it is currently unknown if the results will apply equally to racehorses in other areas. Future studies with larger sample sizes may provide further information.

Understanding the mechanism of PSB fracture is necessary in order to determine risk factors and prevent fractures. Combining this information with advanced technology, such as the recent introduction of positron emission tomography (PET scan) may facilitate identification of horses at risk for PSB fracture and inform management alterations to avoid injury.

* This work was supported with funding from the Grayson Jockey Club Research Foundation, Inc., the UC Davis Center for Equine Health, the Maury Hull Fellowship, and the Louis R. Rowan Fellowship.

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