After noticing an unusually high number of horses stumbling at the start during the first month of the Delaware Park meet, the Delaware Racing Commission adopted an emergency regulation that allows toe grabs with a height of up to four millimeters to be permitted for racing on dirt.

The track had implemented a recommendation from The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Safety Committee at the start of its meet April 25 that called for an immediate ban on toe grabs other than two-millimeter wear plates, jar caulks, stickers, or any other traction devices worn on the shoes of Thoroughbred during racing or training.

The New York Racing Association, Churchill Downs Inc., and all Kentucky tracks had implemented the recommendation. Delaware Park is the first facility to adopt an emergency exception to the rule.

DTRC executive director John Wayne said it was after a week of racing that he first noticed a lot of notations in the stewards’ reports in which horses were stumbling at the start