Commentary: Using a ‘Checklist’ Mindset for Racehorses

Eric Mitchell, editorial director and editor-in-chief of The Blood-Horse, shares his thoughts about how a simple checklist could benefit racehorse health.
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Eric Mitchell, editorial director and editor-in-chief of The Blood-Horse, shares his thoughts about how points raised at last week's Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit can help benefit racehorse welfare.


The annual Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit (held July 8-9 in Lexington, Kentucky) continues to be a shining example of what cooperation, thorough data collection, and thoughtful analysis can accomplish in a sport as complex as Thoroughbred racing.

Particularly valuable is a continuing refinement of the risk factors that can lead to catastrophic breakdowns. The more the industry learns, the more the myths surrounding breakdowns are exposed, such as the notion that a “bad step” causes many breakdowns or we simply need to live with the percentage of breakdowns seen today.

“We need to dispel the myth of inevitability,” said Mary Scollay-Ward, DVM, equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, about catastrophic breakdowns on the summit’s first day. “When we have acceptance without objective analysis, we have complacency

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Eric Mitchell is a Editorial Director and Editor-in-Chief The Blood-Horse magazine.

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