CHRB to Ponder Penalties for Trainers With Fatalities

Speaking during the monthly meeting of the California Horse Racing Board Aug. 18, CHRB executive director Scott Chaney reported that "next month (its) Medication, Safety and Welfare Committee will begin the process of contemplating a regulation that would seek to penalize trainers for fatalities of horses in their care.

"The regulation will seek to both recognize that there are some fatalities that are outside the control of trainers and would occur in any live animal population such as those due to some accidents and sickness, but also acknowledge that trainers are in the best position to prevent catastrophic musculoskeletal failures," he continued in a meeting summary issued by the CHRB. "We will begin this process at the committee level because, as far as I know, this would be the first rule of its kind (anywhere in North America) and because we expect and anticipate a fair amount of discussion and input from all horse racing constituencies." 

Additionally, the CHRB also approved a request by the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Center for California to provide 15,000 blood samples from horses for one year to help understand the messenger RNA (mRNA) response to exercise and injury in horses. The goal is to determine whether mRNA can identify horses at risk for catastrophic injury. The samples will be collected in conjunction with blood already being drawn for other testing, posing no additional discomfort for the horse.