Update: Churchill Downs announced Friday it is moving the remainder of the spring meet races to Ellis Park.
Original: Major changes are coming to Churchill Downs following the deaths of 12 horses over the last five weeks.
The famed horse racetrack immediately enacted three new regulations to help preserve the health and safety of the horses following a May 30 veterinary summit with leaders at Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.
According to a press release on Thursday, Churchill Downs has instituted:
- A pause of track-based incentives such as trainer start bonuses and purse pay-out allocations to every race finisher through last place. Purse pay-outs will now be limited to the top five finishers. Churchill Downs is engaged in ongoing discussions with horsemen to determine ways to reallocate these funds to best serve industry needs;
- Restricting the number of starts per horse to four starts during a rolling eight-week period;
- Ineligibility standards for poor performance. Horses that are beaten by more than 12 lengths in five consecutive starts will be ineligible to race at Churchill Downs until approved by the Equine Medical Director to return.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority said it welcomed these steps from Churchill Downs. While early indications have found “no obvious or specific pattern” among the deaths at the track, the Associated Press confirmed HISA could still recommend pausing competition at the track if needed.
HISA also announced its own set of safety measures and inquiries which include:
- Additional layer of post-entry screening. HISA’s rule 2142 (Assessment of Racing Soundness) requires post-entry screenings of previous pre-Race inspection findings of entered Horses to identify Horses that may be at increased risk for injury. The review includes past performances, lay-ups (more than 60 days without a timed Workout or Race), last 30 days medical history, previous injury and lameness diagnostics, intraarticular corticosteroid injections, previous surgery and other individual Horse risk factors.
- [Collecting] blood and hair samples for all fatalities involving Covered Horses. The results from such collections will be used to facilitate investigations into the cause of such fatalities. The data collected by HIWU in connection with Covered Horse fatalities will also be used to track relevant statistics and trends in connection with fatalities.
- [Conducting] an additional thorough review of all necropsies performed on Covered Horses.
Equine forensics specialist Dr. Alina Vale has been appointed to oversee the review of all necropsies. She previously supervised postmortem reviews for the California Horse Racing Board following a similar concerns over multiple horse deaths at Santa Anita in 2019.
Additionally, a HISA review of the racing and training surfaces at Churchill Downs is underway and the the results will be made public.
“The attending veterinarians and trainers at Churchill Downs are incredibly capable and knowledgeable,” Dr. Will Farmer, Equine Medical Director for Churchill Downs Incorporated said in a statement. Here’s more:
“We feel a duty to provide the latest information on surgical interventions from an expert who experienced the challenges in California a few years ago that we currently face today. Any decision must be made first and foremost with the long-term well-being of the horse in mind. It is imperative that all available, educated and informed options can be efficiently, confidently and thoroughly relayed to the owners.”
The recent deaths at Churchill Downs cast a long shadow over the 2023 Kentucky Derby with four horses euthanized and trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. suspended indefinitely in the days leading up to the Run for the Roses. The death toll has only continued to climb since then as the sport’s executives search for answers.
The 2023 spring meet at Churchill Downs concludes on July 3.
