by Jeff Lowe

The fatality rate for racing on synthetic surfaces has been nearly identical to the rate for conventional dirt tracks in the early statistics gleaned from an on-track equine-injury-reporting program that began last June.

Regulatory veterinarians representing 42 racetracks have participated in the project, and program developer Mary Scollay, D.V.M., outlined the initial composite statistics on Monday morning at the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit at Keeneland Race Course.

Injured horses are not identified in the reports, and Scollay did not give results for specific racetracks.

The fatal-injury rate for dirt racing has been 1.96 deaths per 1,000 starts since the study began, compared with 1.95 deaths per 1,000 starts on synthetic surfaces.

The first few months of the study had produced more favorable results for synthetic surfaces. Through early fall of 2007, the fatality rate was 1.19 per 1,000 starts on synthetic surfaces compared with 1.79 per 1,000 starts on dirt.

“I think … it says that we can do very well with the synthetics, we can do significantly better than the dirt tracks, but we’ve hit some glitches,” said Scollay, the association veterinarian at Calder Race Course and Gulfstream Park. “I don’t think this is necessarily bad news, but it says that we’ve got a lot of learning to do.”

Non-fatal injury rates favored synthetic surfaces, with ratios of one injury per 215 starts on synthetic tracks and one every 136 starts on dirt.

Jeff Blea, D.V.M., president of the Southern California Equine Foundation, said reports of arthroscopic surgeries and condylar fracture repairs decreased by 15.8% and 19.6%, respectively, in Southern California in 2007, which was the first full year with the Cushion Track surface in place at Hollywood Park and the first Del Mar and Oak Tree at Santa Anita meets with synthetic surfaces.

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer