by Frank Angst

A steering committee is busy developing an agenda and recruiting presenters for the second Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit on March 17-18 at Keeneland Sales Pavilion in Lexington.

Coordinated and underwritten by the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the Jockey Club, the summit will include progress reports from the working committees established at the first summit in October 2006. This year’s summit will feature wide-ranging discussions of equine health and safety related issues.

The goal of the summit is to identify significant issues that affect horse health and safety, and develop and implement action plans to address each issue.

“The original Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit was a landmark step toward identifying and addressing the multitude of reasons behind the apparent decline in racehorse soundness and durability,” said Ed Bowen, president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. “We look forward to gathering a cross-section of industry representatives together again to share the progress achieved since the original summit, examine our next steps, and explore whether there are other areas and factors we need to be looking at as well.”

Thanks in part to efforts from the first summit, the Association of Racing Commissioners in April approved a model rule banning front horseshoes with toe grabs of a length of more than four millimeters.

This year’s steering committee includes Nick Nicholson, president of Keeneland Association; Rick Arthur, equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board; Mary Scollay, association veterinarian for Calder Race Course and Gulfstream Park; Dan Fick, executive director of the Jockey Club; Kristin Hix, legal associate for the Jockey Club; Ed Bowen, president of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation; Hiram Polk, emeritus editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Surgery; Bill Casner, co-owner of WinStar Farm; and Wayne McIlwraith, director of Equine Orthopaedic Research Center at Colorado State University.

The summit will welcome approximately 60 participants, including jockeys, trainers, breeders, veterinarians, racing secretaries, track superintendents, farriers, racetrack management, and sales company personnel. The Monday morning session, which is free and open to the public, will include a panel discussion on racing surfaces as well as updates from the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, the Equine Drug Research Institute, and the Sales Integrity Task Force. The session will begin at 8 a.m.

At the original summit, working committees were established in a number of areas, including on-track injury reporting, education and licensing, shoeing and hoof care, racing surfaces, horse durability, and race conditions. Progress reports from each of these committees will be delivered at the Monday morning session.

Among the presenters at this year’s summit will be Dr. Ernie Bailey of the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center, who will address the equine genome and durability; Jeff Blea, president of the Southern California Equine Foundation, who, with Dr. Wayne McIlwraith, will discuss synthetic surface injuries; and Dr. Preston Hickman, a private practitioner with the Wichita Equine and Sports Medicine Clinic, who will examine the potential causes of on-track injuries.

“The insights of Drs. Bailey, Blea, McIlwraith, and Preston will shed light on important new areas of consideration, namely the relationship between genetics and equine durability and disease as well as a look at on-track injuries, including the possible shift in the types of injuries being seen since the introduction of synthetic racing surfaces,” Fick said.