The next generation of dirt surfaces

By Ken Snyder

Ask any Thoroughbred horseman or horsewoman what the safest racetrack surface in North America is, and the response will probably be immediate: synthetic. And they would be correct. Ask California horsemen or horsewomen the same question, and there’s a good chance the majority will have a different opinion. It’s “good old-fashioned dirt” as Dennis Moore (the noted racetrack surface consultant) calls it with understandable pride—specifically the dirt at Del Mar Racetrack where he is also track superintendent.

Overall, Jockey Club statistics show synthetics are safer than dirt with a 1.02 fatality rate per 1,000 starts and 1.49 for dirt in 2020. Del Mar’s rate of fatalities on dirt was 0.29 in 2020 with only one fatality. What’s more, the Del Mar fatality rate has been lower than those recorded for both the synthetic surfaces at Golden Gate Fields and Woodbine over the last four years.

Across North America, Del Mar was the lowest in fatalities among the major racetracks reporting statistics to The Jockey’s Club’s Equine Injury Database (EID) for last year. (Pleasanton achieved zero fatalities in 874 starts.)

Del Mar, certainly, is the “star” among U.S. dirt tracks, but it is also leading a trend for racing on “next-generation” dirt surfaces. While synthetic and turf fatality rates have moved higher and lower over the last five years, dirt tracks have experienced a steady decline in fatality rates to 2020’s all-time low.

Gone is the hue and cry for synthetics that once blanketed Del Mar, Santa Anita and the dearly departed Hollywood Park, particularly in the wake of the disastrous 2019 at Santa Anita when 19 horses died on the dirt surface. It’s not just that dirt is “back,” as evidenced by the Southern California tracks and Keeneland returning to it after synthetic surfaces, but it is evidently better than ever.

Mick Peterson

Can improved safety stats on dirt continue? The answer is a promising one for not only California but all of Thoroughbred racing in America. The 1.41 equine fatality rate in 2020 on all surfaces—dirt, turf and synthetic—was the lowest since the creation of the EID in 2009. Mick Peterson, another noted racetrack consultant and executive director of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory, has been at the forefront of research and improvements in surfaces since 2006 along with Moore. He likes to use the word “multi-factorial” when looking at improving safety stats over the past decades. In other words, it is not quantifiable but undeniable.

Why are dirt tracks improved and safer? The answer is in a key ingredient most in the horse industry would agree has been missing from a sport not governed by a central authority: common sense. At least regarding track surfaces, it may have had its first application, not surprisingly, at Del Mar.  

Historically a lot of injuries occurred in the first week or two of race meets “where the surf meets the turf” with horses coming down from Santa Anita. When Moore took over as track superintendent at Del Mar, he immediately observed something: “This doesn’t make any sense. It’s the same horses. Why would you have a different surface [from Santa Anita]?” With a subsequent rebuild, he created consistency between the two racetracks. The base at Del Mar was overhauled to match Santa Anita’s, and banking in the turns was changed to exactly match the geometry at the Arcadia, Calif. track—roughly two hours north from Del Mar.

“When you have several tracks in the same jurisdiction—if you can keep the tracks, the maintenance program and the material and structure of the material as close as you can to one another—it’s going to benefit everybody,” said Moore.

Today that kind of collaboration continues with the ongoing rebuild at Laurel Park in Maryland, which has involved both Moore and Peterson. Laurel Track Superintendent Chris Bosley has also turned to Glen Kozak, who oversees the New York Racing Association’s (NYRA) facility and track operations, for input into the Laurel project. NYRA and Maryland tracks experience similar weather and more importantly, perhaps, Kozak oversaw track surfaces in Maryland before moving to New York.

California and Maryland are not the only states where racing is benefitting from collaboration. Peterson recalled a recent Kentucky Derby where an equine vet, looking at the track surface, casually remarked, “You know it seems to me like every time I come to Churchill, it looks a little bit more like Keeneland; and every time I go to Keeneland, it looks a little bit more like Churchill.” It is no accident, according to Peterson, but the product of much hard work.  

California efforts at uniform consistency with racetrack surfaces preceded a Safety-from-Start-to-Finish Initiative launched by Churchill Downs Inc. in 2008 to replicate on their racetracks what had been done on the West Coast.

“The Start-to-Finish Initiative provided the funding for me to go from Calder to Arlington to Churchill Downs to the Fair Grounds to make them match,” said Peterson.   

Pedro Zavala

Fair Grounds Track Superintendent Pedro Zavala talks regularly with his Churchill Downs counterpart, Jamie Richardson, as horses head north from the Fair Grounds winter meet to Churchill Downs in the spring. “Now those are very different climates that aren’t like NYRA or like Del Mar and Santa Anita, but to the extent that they can make things match, Jamie and Pedro will,” Peterson said

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European Research on Injuries in Flat Racing: Nature versus Nurture

By Kristien Verheyen and Sarah Rosanowski

Note: This research for this article, reprinted from European Trainer, was performed over a 14-year period in Great Britain and therefore only takes into account racing over turf and all-weather surfaces, but we feel that despite not including dirt statistics, the information is thought-provoking and of interest to our North American readers, especially with the increase in turf racing particularly in the U.S.

Musculoskeletal injuries are an inherent risk of horseracing, and they are the primary cause of Thoroughbreds failing to train and race, or even retiring altogether. In addition to the evident equine welfare concerns, racehorse injuries also have economic consequences and impact on jockey safety. The industry remains committed to investigating causes of injury and associated risk factors, which can inform strategies aimed at minimizing their occurrence. Advancements in methods of identification, management, and prevention of musculoskeletal disease and injury in Thoroughbreds and improved training and racing environments to enhance the safety, health, and wellbeing of racehorses have long been strategic priorities of the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB)’s veterinary research funding program in Great Britain.

In 2014, the HBLB funded a research team at the Royal Veterinary College in London to undertake a detailed study of injuries and other veterinary events occurring in flat racehorses on race day. The purpose of the project was to establish causes of fatal and non-fatal injuries occurring in British flat racing and to examine associated risk factors. The research also set out to measure heritability of common injury types and conditions, and to investigate genetic and environmental correlations between injury and race performance.

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The study team had access to detailed race and performance data from all Thoroughbreds racing on the flat in Great Britain over a 14-year study period from 2000 – 2013. These were then linked to veterinary reports of injury or conditions attended to by a veterinary surgeon on race day over the same time period, provided by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). Finally, extensive pedigree data were added to enable investigation of heritability of race day injury and genetic correlations between injury types, and between injury and performance.

Descriptive findings

The final 14-year dataset included nearly 68,000 horses making over 800,000 starts in around 77,000 flat races. The majority of races -- 67% of them -- were run on the turf, with 33% of races taking place on all-weather tracks.

Just under 8,000 veterinary events were recorded over the study period, from which an incidence of nine events per 1000 starts was calculated. The most common incidents requiring veterinary attention on the racecourse were soft tissue injuries other than tendon and ligament injuries, e.g. wounds, lacerations, or muscle strains. Unspecified lameness and respiratory conditions were also common, accounting for around a fifth of veterinary reports each. Less than 10% of veterinary events had a fatal outcome, and the overall incidence of fatality was 0.8 per 1000 starts. Although bone injury was cited in only 14% of the veterinary reports overall, they accounted for the vast majority (77%) of the fatalities.

All-weather racing...

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The ongoing effort to minimize the rate and impact of fractures

By Professor Celia Marr

In Thoroughbred racing, musculoskeletal injury is a major safety concern and is the leading reason for days lost to training.  Musculoskeletal injury is the greatest reason for horse turnover in racing stables, with financial implications for the owner and the racing industry. Injuries, particularly on race day, have an impact on public perception of racing.  

Upper limb and pelvis fractures are less common than lower limb fractures, but they can lead to fatalities. Reducing the overall prevalence of fractures is critical and, at the very least, improving the rate of detection of fractures in their early stages so the horse can be withdrawn from racing with a recoverable injury will be a big step forwards in racehorse welfare. Currently, we lack information on the outcomes following fracture, and an article recently published in the Equine Veterinary Journal (EVJ) from the veterinary team at the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) addressed this important knowledge gap.

Hong Kong Fracture Outcome Study

The HKJC veterinary team is in a unique position to carry out this work because their centralized and computerized database of clinical records, together with racing and retirement records, allows them to document follow-up, which is all but impossible elsewhere in the world. Dr. Leah McGlinchey, working with vets in Hong Kong and researchers from the Royal Veterinary College in London, reviewed clinical records from 2003 to 2014 to identify racehorses that suffered a fracture or fractures to the bones of the upper limb or the pelvis during training or racing, confirmed by nuclear scintigraphy, radiography, ultrasonography, or autopsy.

During these 11 racing seasons there were an average of 1468 horses in training each year, amounting to 102,785 starts over 8147 races, with 11% on dirt tracks and the rest on turf. McGlinchey found records of 108 racehorses that sustained 129 upper limb or pelvic fractures during 119 injury events. The most commonly fractured bone was the humerus at 50%, followed by the tibia at 30%. Nine horses sustained fractures that led to their immediate demise, five involving the scapula and four involving the humerus.

The majority (65%) of fractures occurred in training.  The overall incidence of upper limb and pelvic fractures in Hong Kong was three per 10,000 starts, and there were very similar incidences comparing both turf and dirt surfaces. The fatality rate due to upper limb and pelvic fracture was 0.8 per 10,000 starts. Over comparable time periods, race day upper limb and pelvic fracture rates were four per 10,000 starts in the UK, while race day fatalities were 1.8 per 10,000 starts in the UK and 1.9 per 10,000 in California; thus, rates of upper limb and pelvic fracture and fatality were lower in Hong Kong than in other racing jurisdictions.  Differences in training and racing regimens, racehorse surveillance, and veterinary care will vary across these racing centers, leading to different risk profiles for horses racing in these different locations.

This CT image taken during an autopsy, shows a comminuted fracture with multiple bone fragments.

All horses presented with lameness but importantly, the lameness grade was not necessarily very high. Indeed, 6.7% of the horses were Grade 1 of 5 lame, and 30.3% were Grade 2 of 5 lame, highlighting how important it is to rest and investigate mild new lameness. Typically, stress fractures cause acute lameness following fast work that soon eases in severity, and incipient fracture of the upper limb and pelvis can present as mild lameness with a subtle onset, which is all too easy to overlook. The degree of lameness associated with stress fracture is typically greatest when the scapula is involved and progressively less severe with the tibia, humerus, or radius. The diagnosis is all too obvious once severe, complete fracture has occurred.  In many cases, however, a diagnosis cannot be immediately made. Nuclear scintigraphy (also known as bone scanning) is the most sensitive method to detect stress fractures of the long bones and pelvis, although radiography and ultrasonography may also be useful.

Following fracture, all of the Hong Kong horses had a period of box rest followed by handwalking only. Three-quarters of these horses returned to racing a median of 169 days after sustaining the fracture; these made numerous starts, and 45 won.  In total, 59 horses had retired from training, 23 of which retired without returning to racing and, in 13 of these cases, with retirement directly attributable to the upper limb fracture.

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