Horse Racing Injury Prevention

Photo: California’s Racing Safety ProgramCalifornia’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

3D Model of a Horse Muscle

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"

Photo: California’s Racing Safety Program
Photo Courtesy of Mary Beth Whitcomb