California’s Racing Safety Program
The California Horse Racing Board initiated the Racing Safety Program in July, 2010 to address the requirements of the Business and Professions Code and to reduce the incidence of debilitating and fatal injuries at California race tracks and training facilities. The Program has 3 parts.
- The Track Safety engineers are developing parameter ranges for safe track operations. The goal is to maintain race surface consistency. Field and laboratory measurements of surface parameters are compared to surface composition. These comparisons guide surface management so that surface parameters are kept within a range of safety
- The Racing Injury Prevention Program was conducted in collaboration with the JD Wheat Veterinary Orthopedic Research Laboratory, University of California, Davis. The program was conducted from July, 2011 through June, 2013 because of the high fatality rates from musculoskeletal injuries and attrition due to mild injuries that adversely affect equine welfare and the industry.
A seminal finding is that pre-existing injuries predispose to catastrophic bone fractures; therefore, injuries are preventable. Further, factors such as training and racing schedules and race surface are associated with development of injuries. Consequently, factors can be managed to reduce injury rates.
Racing Injury Prevention Program
UCDavis CHRB Racing Injury Prevention Program 2011-2013 Report (pdf)
Continuing Education
Using the research and findings from these programs a comprehensive education program designed to educate licensees is being developed for injury prevention in equine athletes. Training materials contain an overview, interactive information, how to movies, and self-assessment sections.
Education Modules
Educational Modules for Continuing Education (CE) Credit through the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the North American Racing Academy (https://courses.grayson-jockeyclub.org/) – Register for courses before taking the modules to receive credit.
(The 5 modules below should be viewed in a current version of Firefox on a Mac, or Internet Explorer on a PC)
Racing Safety Program Overview Module
Jockey Safety Module – CE credit
Jockey Safety Module – no CE credit
Humeral Fractures Module - CE credit
Scapular Fractures Module - CE credit
Humeral Fractures Module - no CE credit
Scapular Fractures Module - no CE credit
Post Mortem Injury Examination
The video contained in the link below contains graphic material, viewer discretion is advised.
Postmortem Examination of a Racehorse Forelimb Fetlock Breakdown
Equine Fracture Pamphlets & Diagrams
Humeral Fractures Technical Notes (pdf)
Scapular Fractures Technical Notes (pdf)
Guidelines for Musculoskeletal Necropsy of Racehorses
Bone Fracture Diagrams link contains a zip file containing multiple Word Documents, each of individual bones.
Equine anatomy forelimb and hindlimb bone posters
Related Links
VIDEO
Racehorse Track Maintenance Procedures (for Dirt & Synthetic)
Development of the UC Davis Track-in-a-Box for Racehorse Track Surface Evaluation
VIDEO of drassage horse on different surfaces
Dressage horse extended trot on a dirt surface
Dressage horse extended trot on a synthetic surface
VIDEO of racehorses on different surfaces, courtesy of Mitch Taylor
Racehorse front hoof interaction with deep surface
Racehorse front hoof interaction with dirt surface- zoomed on hoof
Racehorse front hoof interaction with hard surface
Racehorse front hoof interaction with mud
Racehorse front hoof interaction with synthetic surface
Racehorse hind hoof interaction with dirt surface
Racehorse hind hoof interaction with dirt surface- zoomed on hoof
Racehorse hind hoof interaction with synthetic surface
ARTICLES
PRESS RELEASE
BloodHorse: "UC Davis Studying Humerus, Scapula Fractures"
UC DAVIS News and Information:"Preventing injuries to horse racing jockeys"
Paulick Report: "Half of falls result in substantive jockey injury"
Futurity: "To protect jockeys, protect horses first"
AUDIO
Capital Public Radio: "Quarter Horse Racing More Dangerous Than Thoroughbred Racing"