Los Alamitos Submits Required Safety Plan to CHRB

Under pressure from the California Horse Racing Board to curb a spike in equine fatalities in recent months, Los Alamitos Race Course has submitted a required safety plan to the CHRB before a follow-up meeting with the board July 20.

The Los Alamitos plan calls for enhancement of practices at the track in six areas: training, pre-race procedures, entry-review panel, post-incident assessments, equine illness and recovery, and rules and conditions.

According to CHRB statistics, 21 horses have died from racing or training at Los Alamitos in 2020, including 10 since May 26—a rash that caused the CHRB to call an emergency meeting to discuss the circumstances July 10. Two of those fatalities, a Quarter Horse and a Thoroughbred, happened since the meeting. 

The Orange County track conducts a regular nighttime mixed-breed meet of Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds in addition to periodic afternoon meets exclusive to Thoroughbreds. It also serves as a major training facility.

The track's most recent fiscal-year fatalities from racing or training are essentially flat—32 from July 2019 through June 2020, one fewer than during the same time period the year before.

In its plan, distributed to BloodHorse from the CHRB, Los Alamitos officials wrote that the track shares the board's "commitment to improving the health and safety of each and every horse and rider." While stating that since 2008, Los Alamitos had "consistently and significantly reduced the frequency of equine fatalities," the track acknowledged that "our management team has never been entirely satisfied with the progress made."

Proposals by Los Alamitos include:

• Adding one qualified veterinarian each morning the track is open as a dedicated observer of horses entering and exiting the track for training purposes.
• Requiring examinations by attending veterinarians during the specified days immediately preceding a work or race entry for the express purpose of evaluating the horse's soundness to work or race.
• Requiring qualifications for horses eligible to start, including examinations for long-layoff entries.
• Prohibiting the entry of any horse in any race if the horse has received an intra-articular injection during the 14 days immediately preceding a start.
• Not permitting any horse to participate in a workout or race if the horse receives nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs during the 48-hour period immediately preceding the workout or race or has been treated with a second NSAID that could appear in a post-work or post-race blood or urine test.  
• Have a review panel analyze race entries, and based on information deemed of concern, deny entry or request the scratch of any horse the panel determines unsuitable for reasons of horse and/or rider safety.
• Place each fatality occurring on the grounds—regardless of causation—under a "fatality review" conducted by a panel consisting of a qualified representative of track management, the track veterinarian, and the racing secretary.

During a CHRB meeting last week, issues were not raised about the track surface at Los Alamitos or the regulatory oversight of Los Alamitos track veterinarian Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald.

Dr. Rick Arthur, the equine medical director for the CHRB, criticized the pervasive use of intra-articular injections in horses, one of the areas the Los Alamitos plan addresses.