Spotlight on Safety

The Kentucky Derby is less than two months away and while we still have remnants of snow from our March 1 blizzard, there are also little shoots beginning to peep through the ground in the patches where the snow has melted. All of which means, that Spring will, indeed, make an appearance in the not too distant future.

The powers that be at Churchill Downs are way ahead of us in terms of gearing up for their annual rite of Spring. Last week, they announced a major overhaul of safety requirements for all of their races, in hopes of averting a another major disaster, a la Eight Belles.

These safety requirements will be in place for the Derby this year and include a laundry list of precautions like the following:

--Using a robotic hoof to test the dirt track for safety
--Testing all winning horses for approximately fifty more illegal drugs than are currently being tested for
--Banning the use of high-impact riding crops, along with limited whipping procedures
--Ensuring that starting gates have a minimum of 3.8 inch of foam padding
--Limiting the length of front toe grabs

In addition the track has pledged to conduct full autopsies of any horse that dies as a result of training or racing injures and standardize the reporting of these injuries to the Equine Database System.

Let's face it, racing cannot withstand another disaster, especially one on national television, so here's hoping these precautions are enforced. Of course, limiting the number of horses who are entered in the race seems to me to be the most obvious way to limit the disaster that I always envision when that cavalry charge occurs at the start, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.

In the meantime, here's to safer racing everywhere, not just at Churchill Downs.