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CHRB Committee To Consider Penalties For Trainers of Fatally Injured Horses

The California Horse Racing Board conducted a meeting by teleconference on Wednesday, Aug. 18. 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 conditionally approved the license application for the Los Angeles Turf Club (II) to conduct a race meet at Santa Anita Park with racing programs beginning Oct. 1 and concluding Oct. 31. If Santa Anita does not finalize an agreement with the California Thoroughbred Trainers before then, this application will be reconsidered at the Sept. 15 meeting of the Board.
The Board approved the license application for a meeting of the Los Angeles County Fair at Los Alamitos Race Course with racing programs beginning Sept. 10 and concluding Sept. 26.
In conjunction with those meets at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos, the Board approved separate agreements between those two tracks and the Thoroughbred Owners of California authorizing those racing secretaries to establish conditions on races limiting the administrations of certain medications and certain procedures.
The Board authorized TVG to amend its advance deposit wagering application, so that TVG can process wagers placed in proposed handicapping contests at Del Mar this summer and fall. Those contests are the Del Mar Pacific Coast Betting Challenge, to be offered this Saturday on Pacific Classic Day, the Del Mar Handicapping Contest on Sept. 4, both the Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge and the Mini-BCBC on Nov. 5 and 6, and the Del Mar Handicapping Contest on Nov. 27.

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The Board received a report from its Race Dates Committee, which convened telephonically on Aug. 17 to consider the allocation of 2022 race dates. Vice chair Gonzales said he and commissioner Mitchell did not vote on any measures but noted that the groundwork was laid for a 2022 calendar that could essentially mirror recent calendars but might also include mandatory breaks in the racing schedules. The Board will consider approving a 2022 calendar at a future meeting.
Executive director Scott Chaney reported that “next month the Medication, Safety and Welfare Committee will begin the process of contemplating a regulation that would seek to penalize trainers for fatalities of horses in their care. “The regulation will seek to both recognize that there are some fatalities that are outside the control of trainers and would occur in any live animal population such as those due to some accidents and sickness, but also acknowledge that trainers are in the best position to prevent catastrophic musculo-skeletal failures,” he explained. “We will begin this process at the committee level because, as far as I know, this would be the first rule of its kind (anywhere in North America) and because we expect and anticipate a fair amount of discussion and input from all horse racing constituencies.”
The Board authorized the Los Alamitos Equine Sale Company to conduct a sale of yearlings and mixed stock on Oct. 2 and 3 at Los Alamitos.
The Board approved the nominations of six individuals to serve on the board of directors of the California Thoroughbred Horsemen's Foundation. Commissioner Castellanos recused himself from this discussion and vote because he is one of the directors.
The Board approved a request by the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Center for California to provide 15,000 blood samples from horses for one year to help understand the messenger RNA (mRNA) response to exercise and injury in horses. The goal is to determine whether mRNA can identify horses at risk for catastrophic injury. The samples will be collected in conjunction with blood already being drawn for other testing, posing no additional discomfort for the horse.
The Board gave final approval to a regulatory amendment prohibiting the use of corticosteroid injections to fetlock joints within 30 days of a race and within 10 days of a timed workout.
The Board approved a regulatory amendment clarifying the usage of furosemide for certain races.
The Board authorized WatchandWager.com to distribute $4,000 in race day charity proceeds to five beneficiaries.
Public comments made during the meeting can be accessed through the meeting audio archive on the CHRB website.

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Desormeaux Sidelined With Back Fractures

Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux suffered fractures in his back when going down in a spill in Saturday's fifth race at Santa Anita. In a post on his Facebook page, Desormeaux said the spill caused a “couple little bone cracks” in his back, but that he will not need surgery. Desormeaux added that his doctor “says it's completely a pain management situation.”

The 50-year-old three-time Eclipse Award-winning rider was aboard Scat's Choice (Scat Daddy) for trainer Vann Belvoir in the $25,000 claiming event when the 3-year-old filly broke down, throwing Desormeaux to the track. He was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena complaining of hip pain. Scat's Choice was euthanized and is the first racing fatality at Santa Anita since 2019.

Desormeaux had just recently returned to riding at the start of the Santa Anita winter meet after a five-month hiatus that included a stay in an alcohol rehabilitation center.

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CHRB Extends Los Alamitos’ License To Full Year; Gonzalez Pledges Closer Scrutiny Of Horse Safety

Despite Wednesday's Los Angeles Times report on a pair of equine fatalities at Los Alamitos on Jan. 17, the California Horse Racing Board voted to restore the track's full-year license during its Thursday meeting.

Back in December, the CHRB had deadlocked 3-3 in a vote to grant Los Alamitos a full year license for Quarter Horse racing, primarily due to concerns about horse safety after 29 fatalities were reported at Los Al from Dec. 27, 2019 through the end of 2020. Vice Chair Oscar Gonzalez recommended granting the track a six-month license, and the measure was eventually approved 5-1.

Los Alamitos' owner Ed Allred responded to the license ruling by threatening to shut down the track completely, arguing that he couldn't operate with a six-month license because horsemen need to be able to plan for an entire year.

According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, the CHRB heard over three hours of testimony and public comment before voting on the license. Chairman Gregory Ferraro, the lone nay vote in December, argued during Thursday's meeting that granting a six-month license was unnecessary since the CHRB can suspend licenses over safety issues at any time, but the final tally was 4-3, restoring Los Alamitos' year-round license.

Commissioner Alex Solis, absent from December's meeting, voted for the year-round license, along with Gregory Ferraro, Dennis Alfieri and Damascus Castellanos. Voting against were Gonzalez, Wendy Mitchell, and Brenda Washington Davis.

“This phase of engaging with Los Alamitos is a new one,” Gonzalez told his fellow commissioners. “And I don't want anyone to think for a minute that the powers that have been vested by the state of California in the CHRB, that [horse safety standards] are going to be compromised in any way. In fact, [enhanced scrutiny] is just a start if we don't see immediate and quick improvements when it comes to horse safety and the welfare of workers at Los Alamitos.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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Fatal Injury Mars Opening Night Of Tapeta Era At Turfway Park

Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., ushered in a new era on Tuesday with the opening night of its first race meet since the installation of the Tapeta Footings synthetic track, but a second-race incident showed that even the safest of surfaces cannot prevent all injuries or fatalities.

In that race, the 3-year-old gelding Dream High was pulled up by jockey Deshawn Parker midway down the backstretch of the 6 1/2-furlong sprint while trailing the field. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission confirmed Wednesday morning that Dream High was euthanized because of the injuries he sustained.

“It was an open fracture and very serious,” said equine medical director Dr. Bruce Howard. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission conducts necropsy reports on all racing fatalities.

Dream High was making his fourth start since debuting at Indiana Grand Sept. 24 for trainer Randy Klopp, who co-owned the Honor Code gelding with Spiess Stable LLC. He was carrying a $30,000 tag in the maiden claiming event. The gelding was coming off a second-place finish at Indiana Grand on Nov. 5 in a $25,000 maiden claiming event.

A $370,000 weanling purchase by Mayberry Farms at the 2017 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, Dream High was produced from the Unbridled's Song mare, Ecology, who was a non-winner in two starts as a 3-year-old. Dream High recorded six workouts for trainer Peter Eurton at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., from Jan. 18-March 28, then surfaced at the Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, Ky., where he was credited with two workouts in late June and early July. He then was entered to sell at the July 13 Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale but was bought back by his consignor for $10,000. He began working again in late July, recording five breezes at Indiana Grand prior to his Sept. 24 racing debut there. He has no recorded workouts since then, according to Equibase, the industry's official data base.

Churchill Downs Inc., which purchased Turfway Park in October 2019, invested $5.6 million to install Tapeta Footings – a mixture of silica sand, wax and fibers.– as a replacement for Polytrack, which has a similar composition. The latter was installed in 2005, when Turfway became the first North American track to race over synthetics since Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla., opened in 1988 with Equitrack, a sand and oil-based polymer surface. That track was removed after several years.

Tapeta is now in place at Presque Isle Downs in Pennsylvania (installed in 2007), Golden Gate Fields in Northern California (2007) and Woodbine in Ontario, Canada (2015). Tapeta Park in Tasmania, and British tracks Wolverhampton and Newcastle also have Tapeta surfaces, as do several major training centers.

The other remaining synthetic racetrack in North America is the Polytrack installed at Arlington Park in 2007. Keeneland, Del Mar and Santa Anita installed, and then removed, synthetic racing surfaces.

According to The Jockey Club's Equine Injury Database, which monitors and analyzes racing fatalities at North American tracks, the Tapeta surfaces at Presque Isle, Golden Gate and Woodbine have produced fewer fatalities per 1,000 starts, on average, than the aggregate of all tracks. Golden Gate, for example, had 0.64 deaths per thousand starts in 2019, compared to an overall North American fatality rate of 1.53. Woodbine had 1.32 per thousand for 2019. Presque Isle in 2018 (the most recent year available) had 0.34 deaths per thousand.

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