Reducing Horse Racing Fatalities: Where Do We Go From Here?

Fatal injuries in North American flat racing horses has decreased by 23%, but there’s still work to be done.
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Reducing Horse Racing Fatalities: Where Do We Go From Here?
The occurrence of fatal injuries to horses in flat racing in North America has decreased by 23% since the inception of standardized injury reporting into the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database. | Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt/The Horse

The occurrence of fatal injuries to horses in flat racing in North America has decreased by 23% since the inception of standardized injury reporting into the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database.

The declining trend in fatalities began in 2013, and achieved statistical significance by 2015. This reduction, we believe, can be attributed to meaningful change within the culture of horse racing as expressed in multiple safety initiatives.

In Kentucky, this change has manifested not only as a decrease in racing fatalities, but also decreases in regulatory veterinarian-initiated scratches for unsoundness and the number of horses observed to be unsound post-race

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