New coalition will promote enhanced safety protocols in horse racing

Horse racing, in the midst of an equine fatality crisis, will announce Tuesday the formation of the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition, in the hopes of promoting enhanced protocols in the sport.

The group includes the three main racing organizations — the Stronach Group, Churchill Downs Inc. and the New York Racing Assn. — plus the Breeders’ Cup Limited, Del Mar and Keeneland. The announcement will come late Tuesday morning at Keeneland, in Lexington, Ky. The Stronach Group, which owns Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields in California, didn’t join the group until Monday.

A message left for Craig Fravel, chief executive of TSG, was not returned.

While no specifics were revealed before the announcement, Drew Fleming, chief executive of the Breeders’ Cup, explained some of the areas that will be addressed.

“[We’ll have] increased withdrawal times [for the administration of medications],” Fleming said. “Also, the mandatory reporting of some data and the sharing of databases.”

Currently horse racing is run by more than 30 individual state regulatory agencies. While these protocols won’t supplant these agencies, it is the hope that the standards will be adopted.

“This is just the start that will allow the major organizations to come together and share ideas,” Fleming said.

The coalition represents groups that conduct 85% of the stakes races in the country.

Southern California tracks have instituted significant safety reforms, but horses keep dying. In the recent Santa Anita meeting there were seven fatalities both racing and training, including Mongolian Groom in the $6-million Breeders’ Cup Classic. Last year, before the protocols, there were four fatalities. Del Mar, after no racing fatalities in its seven-week summer season, has had three racing and one training, in the first two weeks of its fall meeting.

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