The following statement was issued by Ed Martin, President, Association of Racing Commissioners International:
For well over a year we have been told that the HISA Act was legally bulletproof and within the parameters of the US Constitution. According to a unanimous decision of a three judge panel from both political parties issued last week, such assertions may not be so.
The ARCI has not taken sides in this legal dispute, although some of our member agencies have as there are serious issues involving States rights, taxation without representation and commandeering that are at stake. The final outcome of the legal process may not be known for quite some time, creating an uncertainty for everyone involved with thoroughbred horseracing.
Conflicting legal opinions will determine what happens next in the individual States.
Some States, like California, will honor a written agreement they have executed with HISA to enforce their racetrack safety rules. Other States, upon the advice of counsel or Attorney General, will revert to state rules that remain on the books, not wanting to jeopardize the outcome of a court challenge to any enforcement action.
Not all states have written agreements. Many have sent letters informing HISA as to what they will or will not do. Those can be withdrawn or modified at any point if a State believes it's a roll of the dice as to whether enforcement actions will hold should the current ruling stand.
Last Friday, most US racing commissions participated in an emergency meeting convened by the ARCI. The commissions have and continue to work with HISA and HIWU representatives in a cooperative effort. While that will not change it should not be assumed that there are no concerns or limitations as to what an individual commission may or may not do.
What happens next is unknown and there currently is a storm cloud hanging over regulatory actions taken by HISA. It is not unreasonable to expect that those sanctioned for HISA crop rule violations will go to court as there now is reason to question the legality of the HISA Act itself.
We are but a few weeks away from when HISA plans to take over the anti-doping and medication control enforcement. That's huge and state regulators are concerned about whether a HISA drug violation levied after January 1, 2023 is valid if HISA itself is not legal.
Most State Racing Commissions believe the HISA Act is in need of modification to restore the financial, operational and rulemaking transparency and accountability this industry has now lost with the private entity. In addressing this Congress can eliminate the legal problems as well as mitigate the enormous cost about to be levied on the thoroughbred racetracks, owners, and horsemen. I was on a panel in August with Lisa Lazarus and proposed that HISA and its proponents get “everyone” in a room and reach an agreement in order to make this work to avoid the mess we are now in.
We should all be working together to salvage the many good things that can come out of this. But that might require an amendment to the HISA Act or short-term delay. Some people refuse to even consider that.
There are many who believe the current animosity of the US political divide is killing the country. We should not let that happen to this great sport.
Bo Champlin was watching on television at his home in Visalia, Calif., when Rick's Dream and 11 other horses left the starting gate in the fourth race on the closing-day card at Del Mar on Sept. 7, 2020.
A California-bred gelding by Coil, Rick's Dream had given Champlin's Big Iron Racing its first winner nearly a year earlier when trainer Reed Saldana sent him out for an allowance/optional claiming victory at Santa Anita. Saldana and Champlin claimed Rick's Dream for $12,500 in his previous start at Del Mar in August 2019, and he was entered for a $10,000 tag at the seaside track just over one year later.
Early September is a busy time for Champlin, who grows alfalfa, corn, cotton, wheat, and pistachios on his 2,900-acre farm in the San Joaquin Valley. Visalia is located between Fresno and Bakersfield, about 300 miles north of Del Mar.
“I wasn't able to go down there for the race,” Champlin recalled. “It's a 4 ½- to seven-hour drive, depending on traffic, and it's just a busy time of year at the farm.”
Rick's Dream, sent off as the fourth betting choice at 5-1, raced just off the early leaders under jockey Heriberto Figueroa in the 6 ½-furlong test. When the field straightened away in the stretch Rick's Dream had about two lengths to make up, but something went amiss. Figueroa quickly pulled the horse up, and he was attended to by veterinarians and taken back to the stable area in the horse ambulance.
Rick's Dream giving Bo Champlin his first win as an owner in 2019
“I knew something was wrong,” Champlin said. “Reed texted right away and about 30 minutes later a veterinarian called, describing the injury.”
It was what Southern California veterinary surgeon, Dr. Ryan Carpenter, called a “typical fetlock breakdown,” an injury that for many years almost always led to the horse being euthanized – especially when that horse is a bottom-level claimer. When Santa Anita experienced a spike in racing and training fatalities in 2019 that would eventually lead to significant safety reforms in California and other racing jurisdictions, Carpenter said 19 of the 21 fatal injuries were fetlock fractures.
“That gave us a specific injury to target,” he said.
The attending veterinarian who called Champlin said Rick's Dream was a good candidate for a surgical procedure for fetlock injuries, arthrodesis, where sesamoid fractures are repaired by fusing the bones in the ankle joint with a metal plate and screws.
The surgery and rehabilitation can be expensive, Carpenter explained, costing from $20,000 to $30,000. Owners of a stallion prospect or a filly destined for the breeding shed can justify the expense from a financial standpoint, but that may be a different matter for a $10,000 claimer. The procedure leaves a horse pasture sound and comfortable, but the horse is left with a mechanical gait that will preclude it from having a second career as a sporthorse.
That's where the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and Thoroughbred Owners of California come into the picture. Following a similar program launched in 2019 by Santa Anita and other tracks owned by The Stronach Group, Del Mar and TOC provide financial assistance for the type of surgeries that can save a horse from euthanasia and provide a good outlook for a life after racing.
“It's a cooperative deal between the track, TOC and the horse owners,” said Tom Robbins, Del Mar's executive vice president of racing. “Everybody takes part.”
Satisfied over the prospects that Rick's Dream could have a good quality of life, Champlin agreed to have the surgery done to try and save the horse that gave him and his family the thrill of their first win.
“I feel like if you're going to be in this sport, you've got to accept what happens and do the right thing,” Champlin said. “I felt it was the right thing to do.”
Rick's Dream became the first horse at Del Mar to have surgery funded jointly by the track, TOC, and an owner. Robbins said there have been four others since the program began in 2020, three which were injured during racing and one during training. Those low numbers reflect the success of initiatives by Del Mar and the California Horse Racing Board that make it one of safest tracks in North America.
Radiographs of Rick's Dream following arthrodesis surgery
And how is Rick's Dream doing more than two years after the surgery?
“He's just a happy guy,” said Champlin, who quickly built a corral and barn and seeded a pasture on his farm while Rick's Dream was recovering from surgery at San Luis Rey Equine Hospital. “He rules the roost out here. Such a cool horse, though we've spoiled him a little bit.”
Rick's Dream shares a paddock with two goats and a longhorn steer, said Champlin. Irish-bred Liberal, another runner for Big Iron Racing, recently joined Rick's Dream in the paddock while getting some turn-out time away from the track.
“Dr. Carpenter and his staff have been really great,” Champlin added. “They really took a liking to the horse. He kept following up and following up to see how he was doing.”
If it weren't for a trip Carpenter took to the East Coast in 2017, the outcomes for this type of surgery would not be as successful.
Carpenter got a call from Paul Reddam after the California-based owner's Irap suffered an injury past the wire after finishing second in that year's Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby. Reddam wanted Carpenter to fly east to perform surgery.
“The horse needed a fetlock arthrodesis,” Carpenter recalled. “I told him Dean Richardson was the best person to take him to.”
Richardson, the chief of large animal surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine's New Bolton Center, is best known as the veterinarian who performed surgery on Barbaro and tended to the colt after he suffered a severe injury in the Grade 1 Preakness in 2006.
Reddam persisted, and Carpenter agreed to go in to surgery with Richardson, taking a red-eye flight that night and joining the surgical team the following morning.
Dr. Dean Richardson (photo courtesy of American Association of Equine Practitioners)
“Dean certainly doesn't need my help, but from a personal and professional standpoint, this was the best continuing education I could ever have gotten in my career,” Carpenter said. “I had done this surgery before, but seeing the master at work and how he did things a little differently led me to change my style from the way it was.
“I credit that experience to why we have the success we have here today,” he said. “If I had stayed in California and not gone to see his work, I wouldn't have learned what I did.”
With Richardson now retired, Carpenter has been refining the fetlock arthrodesis surgeries in ways that avoid some post-surgical complications, including subluxation of the pastern. The latest improvement involves use of a human distal femur plate that incorporates the pastern. “We are not seeing the subluxation problems now,” Carpenter said. “This is going to have a positive impact on our profession moving forward.”
Not to mention the positive impact it has had on horses.
“The philanthropy of the racetracks and other stakeholders has allowed us to take finances out of the equation,” Carpenter said. “That permits us to make decisions based on what's in the best interest of the horse. The surgeries and techniques have advanced over the past 20 years to give these horses a chance for a successful outcome, keeping in mind the importance of their health and welfare. If it's good enough for a champion, it should be good enough for Rick's Dream.”
After reading both the Bennet and Parkin article published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association entitled “Fifteen risk factors associated with sudden death in Thoroughbred racehorses in North America (2009–2021)” followed by the TDN analysis of that article, I have become increasingly aggravated over the last three weeks from the implied message portrayed by each.
The dramatic click-bait headline “Horses on Lasix at Increased Risk of Sudden Death” is unwarranted by the facts. When compared to the end of the article, one becomes more frustrated with the headline since the statement “Further work is required to determine which, if any, clinical signs are potential indicators and, indeed, whether such a rare outcome could be reliably predicted” provides more realistic information than the sensationalistic title.
The authors of the JAVMA paper claim no conflict of interest, but it is funded by the Grayson Jockey Club Foundation, and “help in interpreting the Equine Injury Database” was provided by two long time employees of The Jockey Club. The Jockey Club has a long history of both funding Lasix research and also pressuring the recipients of this funding to interpret findings in a manner consistent with their long-held goal of the elimination of race-day administration of Lasix in American racing.
My first concern: “Sudden death” as defined in this paper deviates from accepted definitions. Exercise associated sudden death (EASD) is typically defined as acute death in an apparently healthy animal within 1 hour of exercise. Bennet and Parkin define sudden death as any horse that perished from non-musculoskeletal causes within 72 hours of racing, using five “codes” unique to the Jockey Club's Equine Injury Database (EID). Left undefined are the facts behind how a horse becomes classified into one of these categories.
Even the authors of the paper agree that “it would be reasonable to assume that several of the listed codes would not be accurate.” By the authors' own admission, using the EID with undefined codes that may have very different meanings in different jurisdictions result in conclusions that are not accurate.
More importantly, only 5.6% of the horses in this study started without Lasix. No effort is made on the part of the authors to determine what, if any, other factors are associated with not using Lasix. For example, they have determined that older horses are at higher risk of EASD, and this age group also consists of almost all horses who race on Lasix. The younger age group is the only age group where any number of horses can be found that race without Lasix.
The bigger question — completely ignored by the authors and their study funded by the Jockey Club — is why do horses in North America suffer EASD at a substantially lower rate than their counterparts in other parts of the world? In this paper, EASD (with all the caveats previously mentioned about its definition) occurs at a rate of 0.13/1,000 starts, which is close to 10% of the total deaths of racehorses. In Australia, this rate is more like 25% of the total, with a whopping 37% of these EASD a result of Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH). In a similar study in the United Kingdom, published by the same researchers in 2011, the rate of EASD was 0.3/1,000 starts.
Bennet and Parkin — of all people, being well familiar with the principles of epidemiology — should know full well that correlation does not equal causation. Yet, they offer in the conclusions of their paper that “The association between furosemide and sudden death prompts further study to understand which biological processes could contribute to this result.”
What we do know however, is the presentation of information can greatly impact the public's reaction, as we have seen in these recent headlines. As presented in the TDN article and others on this topic, the odds ratio was presented as furosemide increases the risk of sudden death in horses by 62%. Yet as noted by James C Meyer DVM MSc in his recent paper, if stated as an increase in the absolute risk, it would be 0.005%. That figure as you can see does not have the sensationalized purposeful negative effect as saying 62%.
I implore the readers of this op-ed along with the authors of the JAVMA article to consider that the biological process is simply the passage of time. The most obvious association between Lasix and EASD is that the majority of horses not racing on Lasix during the time of their study were two-year-olds.
We know there is a mountain of evidence demonstrating that Lasix mitigates EIPH. When combined with further evidence that EIPH remains the most common cause of EASD in other countries, it is beyond irresponsible to use this Jockey Club-funded study as the basis for any policy intended to safeguard the health and welfare of our racehorses.
Dr. Doug Daniels is president of the National HBPA and an equine practitioner who owns Virginia Equine. He owns and breeds Thoroughbred racehorses.
William T. Young, the late Kentucky philanthropist, businessman and Thoroughbred owner and breeder who stood Storm Cat at his Overbrook Farm, was never one to mince words. When discussing issues that challenged business, society or the horse industry, Young might come to the unusual conclusion that “what you've got here is an unsolvable problem.”
That perspective might apply to the retirement to stud of successful racehorses at the height of their popularity with the public. Just as they build a following inside of the sport and even break through with some who don't follow racing, they are whisked off to the breeding shed.
Such was the case with Flightline, the son of leading sire Tapit whose racing career at ages 3 and 4 included six consecutive victories – culminating with his Nov. 5 triumph in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic – under the skillful management of trainer John Sadler and his staff.
If such retirements truly are a problem, can anything be done to change the dynamics that lead to them? That's the topic of this week's Friday Show discussion between Ray Paulick, Joe Nevills and Jonathan Horowitz, the latter of whom this week launched the first in a series of commentaries meant to encourage dialogue in addressing problematic issues facing the game.
Watch this week's episode of the Friday Show below:
