New Data Base To Help Avoid Equine Injuries

Here's some promising news from the Jockey Club regarding horse safety. Yesterday, they announced plans to develop a statistics based data base of horses that are at risk for injury. This data base would notify track officials and vets when an at-risk horse was entered in a race. The project is expected to be completed this August.

“This project provides us with an exciting opportunity to identify the top risk profiles and focus our interventions on the horses that fit those profiles,” said Dr. Parkin.

The Dr. Parkin in question is an epidemiologist from the University of Glasgow who has done research on thoroughbreds in the UK. The data will be able to identify, for example, a horse that had made numerous starts in a set time period as one indicator of how injury-prone the horse might be.

“This development has the potential to be among the most significant advances in the safety of our equine and human athletes,” said James L. Gagliano, president and chief operating officer of The Jockey Club, in a statement. “It is only possible because of the excellent participation by racetracks in the Equine Injury Database, which now contains approximately 37,000 injury reports from 86 tracks, representing more than 92 percent of North American racing days.”

Let's hope it is up and running by the end of the summer and let's hope it works!