If you'd wanted to script last week's meeting of the Arizona Racing Commission as a public service announcement for Turf Paradise's continued safety issues, you couldn't have come up with something more startling than reality.
In a meeting that stretched on for nearly three hours, fueled by venting of frustrations between the horsemen and Turf Paradise management over cancelled racing days, the discussion of Turf's breakdown rate was more of a side dish than the main entrée. Still, in the minutes after state veterinarian Dr. Sue Gale gave her report on the track's fatality rate so far – 2.68 per 1,000 starts, roughly the same as last year's 2.72 and well above the national average of 1.39 – the racetrack saw another horse break down.
Here's how it went down.
The meeting took place during a regularly-scheduled day of racing at Turf. There haven't been many of those in December. At the time of the Dec. 15 meeting, there had been five race cards cancelled totally in December due to track surface concerns and another that was scrapped after the first race. The main culprit, according to Turf Paradise management and its track surface consultant, was rain.
Turf has retained the services of surface consultant Steve Wood, whose previous credits include a long stint as track superintendent at Santa Anita in the 1980s and 1990s. Wood explained that the track has some base issues that make it less amenable to rain than other surfaces. The track has also been made deeper to try to combat safety concerns from the previous year.
“The information I have gotten is that we're down fatality-wise this year to last year significantly,” said Wood. “Last year…we had horses fracturing sesamoids and cannon bones every other day. This was last year. And Mr. [Jerry] Simms [Turf Paradise owner] and Mr. [Vince] Francia [general manager at Turf] asked if I could do something that would reduce the fractures, which I have done, because fractures are down a lot. Now there's an off side to that – if you make it softer, you make horses struggle a little bit. It does make them sore behind, and you will have some suspensories and some tendons on some horses. It's a trade-off.
“Up this point you've not had a fatality that I'm aware of, now I'm not there every day, but you've not had a fatality that's created a wreck that's hurt somebody.”
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In fact, minutes earlier, Gale had informed the commission that the racetrack had seen nine fatalities so far in the 2022-'23 season, though six of them were related to illness or were otherwise not related to exercise. One, in October, was a training fatality, and November had seen two racing breakdowns. Gale had begun noticing an increase in non-fatal soft tissue injuries and sesamoid fractures too, and told the commission she was interested in learning more about how those were impacting the overall attrition rate.
Safety and oversight have long been an issue at Turf, which has had death rates well above the national average for years and, like many tracks, faces a veterinarian shortage. As the only state veterinarian on the books right now, Gale is tasked with doing pre-race examinations on every horse entered to run. The commission learned on the record last week that she is unable to complete all those examinations by herself, particularly on race days that have extra entries to make up for cancelled cards, so there are still horses going to the post in Arizona that have not been verified as sound prior to entering the paddock.
Mostly though, the public comment period was dominated by back-and-forth on the track's equipment. Some horsemen questioned whether Turf had enough reliable machinery to keep up with basic maintenance, debating with Turf owner Jerry Simms about how many working tractors there were, and how many working floats and harrows are on track ahead of rainy weather. Simms dug in, insisting that he had no problem paying for the necessary equipment to keep the track working, and that he had John Deere representatives out to service all equipment the previous week.
It's just not practical to expect that tractors wouldn't break down when they're used for so many hours a day, Wood suggested.
“We have adequate equipment if it runs,” Wood said. “We're incredibly hard on this stuff because it runs in the morning, and in the afternoon and half the night seven days a week. We run it hard; a hose runs out, a tire breaks, things happen which happen at every facility in the world.”
At various times, the equipment debate was punctuated by cries of unidentified speakers urging Simms to sell the facility, followed by Simms demanding the speakers identify themselves.
Roughly an hour into the meeting, Gale announced Arizona had seen its first fatality of December. In Turf's second race, Quarter Horse First Down Icon fell after entering the stretch with an injury that would require euthanasia. According to various people speaking at the meeting, the tractor responsible for pulling the equine ambulance failed, necessitating various people on the ground to pull the horse to the rear of the ambulance to hook up a winch to get the horse moved.
Dr. Mandy Holland, a practicing veterinarian at Turf Paradise who also gives third-party Lasix, was on site during the breakdown and said in the digital meeting chat board that “Equipment did not work. Ambulance wagon was hooked to a dolly on the tractor. Driver could not get wagon to horse correctly.”
Jockey Ron Beverly Jr. was transported to a hospital and was later diagnosed with a dislocated hip according to his Facebook page.
Later in the meeting, Arizona HBPA executive director Leroy Gessmann asked the commission what happened to the extra money in this year's budget that was to be used to hire additional veterinary personnel. Gessmann noted that the additional money into the budget was the result of a years-long lobbying effort by the Arizona HBPA.
Arizona racing commission executive director Rudy Casillas said the department has recently promoted an existing employee to safety steward, and is about to hire a veterinary technician. He also reported the department has had no applicants for the open veterinarian position it has advertised.
“We're having a very difficult time getting veterinarians who are interested in working in the horse racing industry at this point,” said Casillas.
Casillas said, in the meantime, the commission will keep looking for more help.
Turf Paradise's current meet is scheduled to continue through May 8, 2023.
The post Arizona: Turf Paradise Sees Another Breakdown During Commission Meeting Discussing Equine Safety, Missed Race Dates appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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