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Researcher touts importance of Grayson-Jockey Club donors

Posted: Friday, August 20, 2010 11:14 AM

by Teresa Genaro

The Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation hosted its highest donors at a dinner on Thursday in Saratoga Springs, and the benefactors—known as the foundation’s Rokeby Circle—learned how their charity aids horse welfare.

“I’m here,” said Lisa Fortier, D.V.M., “to tell you why it takes so long to find out what your money is doing.”

Though Fortier did address the lengthy research process, she also spoke in detail about the nature of her work. An associate professor of large animal surgery at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Fortier studies regenerative therapies. Since 2006, the Foundation has funded her research on the efficacy of using platelet rich plasma (PRP) and stem cells to heal equine injury.

Regenerative therapy, Fortier explained, replaces, restores, or regenerates damaged or diseased cells, tissues, or organs. She explores how this therapy can be used on a variety of equine injuries.

Fortier uses a horse’s own blood plasma or stem cells to effect healing. Initial research indicates that both PRP and stem cell treatment are effective therapies in healing tendon injuries and that horses can return to performing with a reduced risk of re-injury. Additional research, she added, is necessary.

Which is when funding from the Grayson-Jockey Club can make a big difference. As Fortier explained, the research that she presented has been five years in the making. She submitted the funding application in 2005, and received her grant in April ‘06. She developed the technologies for the study in 2006-‘07 and began the research on the animals at the end of ’07. She collected data in 2008 and spent ’09 writing the manuscript, which was published this year.

Researchers struggle, she said, with what is affordable versus what is ideal, and she explained after the presentation that funding from Grayson-Jockey Club allows her to research whether and how these therapies can be used to treat injured horses.

Fortier indicated that these treatments are widely available to and used by veterinarians.  The problem, she said, is that little is done to follow up and see how well they work.

She suggested that anecdotal evidence is too frequently used to support a particular line of thinking with regard to equine safety but that her work brings science to the forefront, setting controls on studies, keeping records of follow-up, and producing peer-reviewed articles in respected scientific journals.

Fortier plans to submit an application for additional funding next year and with a rueful laugh predicted that the results of her next study would be available “sometime in 2015.”

The Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation advocates and supports equine health and safety through a variety of initiatives, including its bi-annual summit on the Safety and Welfare of the Racehorse.  According to its website, the foundation has averaged more than $1-million annually in funded grants the last four years and has provided more than $17.1-million to fund projects at 37 universities since 1983.

Teresa Genaro is a Brooklyn-based correspondent of Thoroughbred Times