Safety and Integrity: New Concepts for Horse Racing

NYSPI's last post discussed the context of Eight Belles' death in the 2008 Kentucky Derby. Ray Paulick offers similar thoughts in his article of April 13.

In related news, Churchill Downs and Kenneland have received full certification from the recently created NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance. The Safety and Integrity Alliance aims to set a (long overdue) code of national standards to improve the sport.

A credible, legitimate effort to hold others accountable is just what the horse racing world needs and represents the first time the U.S. is making a collective effort to raise awareness about two issues that have historically been low priorities.

In the past year, we've seen our first Breeder's Cup on polytrack and a nationwide clampdown on steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. That's good progress.

All in all, people are valuing equine safety more than ever before.

Churchill Downs' racing surfaces meet the highest national standards.

To me though, the biggest sign of the times is that Keeneland, which uses artificial polytrack, has received the same accreditation from the Safety & Integrity Alliance as Churchill Downs.

That's proof that the all-weather surfaces are a legitimate player in the horse racing world.

But the double-top-secret, super duper proof that artificial racing surfaces are here to stay is the creation of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory. The lab has received start-up funding from the Churchill Downs Inc., NTRA Charities, the Jockey Club and others, most notably in this forum, NYRA.

In recent and unfortunate news, we've seen a sad man named Ernie Paragallo finally get industry-doors like NYRA's shut in his face after being charged with 22 accounts of animal cruelty for neglecting an entire horse farm in Climax, NY.

And then there's the controversy surrounding the trainer of Kentucky Derby favorite I Want Revenge, Jeff Mullins, who has been suspended by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board for an illegally injecting another horse, Gato Go Win, before a race.

So as much as I'd like to streak across my neighborhood in celebration of the unprecedented strides that American horse racing has seen in the past year, it's real integrity guys like Paragallo and Mullins that keep a dark cloud cast over horse racing and as a result, quell my hopes of really making the sport safer.

What all this means to me is that polytrack, Tapeta and all artifical racing surfaces are looking more and more like solutions than anything else.