CTT Proposes Accident Prevention Task Force to CHRB

A teleconferenced committee meeting Oct. 19 of the California Horse Racing Board provided little specific action related to a discussion on whether to penalize horse trainers for injuries and fatalities but did yield well-received safety proposals from California Thoroughbred Trainers executive director Alan Balch.

Among the more popular suggestions Balch made before the Medication, Safety, and Welfare Committee was creating an accident prevention task force involving "each of the interdependent constituencies" engaged in racing. He made available the CTT to lead the initiative or participate in it.

Balch's proposals and comments, presented after two full meetings with the CTT board and a state-wide teleconference attended by more than 100 licensed trainers in the state, reflected a "distillation of a very broad spectrum of thought."

"Since our tracks and regulator now conduct reviews of the most serious accidents with those professionals and connections involved, what may be missing is a way to systemize these findings," Balch said in a prepared statement. "To evaluate them all together, and take definitive action where indicated, including not only the possibility of referrals or penalties for any licensees who might be found to be responsible, but more important, recommendations for improved conditions, safety, or regulation that may arise."

He also recommended having the task force directly or indirectly consider improving the scope, accuracy, and detail of the national equine injury database; determine true safety statistics of synthetic vs. dirt and turf racing and reconsider whether to incorporate synthetic tracks for training or racing; create a best-practices manual for participants; and consider having all veterinarians involved in the regulatory process be state employees, answerable only to the CHRB.

Though the discussion of trainer penalties was a hot topic in advance of Tuesday's meeting, it was civil among the call's participants, with only anti-racing forces, a regular presence at CHRB meetings, expressing their usual displeasure.

Both Balch and commissioners emphasized the interdependence of track operators, horsemen, veterinarians, and the CHRB and gains made in horse safety in the state since a spike of breakdowns in Southern California during the first part of 2019.

"We managed to cut the catastrophic injury rate down in half, and unfortunately that's not good enough," CHRB chair Dr. Greg Ferraro stated at the start of the meeting. "We have to do better than that if we're going to continue surviving in a healthy racing environment."

He acknowledged that breakdowns could happen anywhere, to anyone. He said "by far" the vast majority of trainers have one or no breakdowns in a given year.

"But there's a handful, just a handful, of trainers who have multiple breakdowns, year after year after year," he remarked. "And that handful of individuals is endangering the welfare and health of the industry. So our question, the question that we're putting forth this morning is, what do we do about that? We're looking for solutions."

In the 2020-21 fiscal year that ended this summer, there were 72 fatalities at California regulated facilities, CHRB executive director Scott Chaney said in his opening statement. Of that group, all but 14 were "one-off events," leaving 12 trainers with two fatalities, one with three, and another with four.

In context relative to 31,000 starts and 73,000 workouts, Chaney called a musculoskeletal racing or training death "exceedingly rare," though the aim is to reduce those numbers further.

He acknowledged that "writing a regulation that penalizes trainers for preventable or predictable catastrophic injuries has due process, logistical, and fairness challenges, all of which may be difficult to overcome."

Given the unlikelihood of such penalties, commissioners and CHRB appeared keen to back Balch's task force and praised his other suggestions.

Dr. Jeff Blea, CHRB equine medical director, proposed having the task force evaluate the causes of breakdowns and examine how to create preventative measures. He endorsed an academic-based compliment to such studies, mentioning a computerized predictive model developed by University of California, Davis, researchers aimed at reducing breakdowns.

Chaney reiterated the importance of an educational component to injury review.

"If the board doesn't see fit to do this kind of more stick approach, then perhaps the carrot approach would make sense," he said.

"I know I may have given several trainers angina by talking about penalizing trainers for breakdowns," Ferraro said in closing. "But this kind of discussion and the response we've gotten from the CTT is exactly what I was looking for. You realize we have a problem. We need to address it. And I agree that we need to address it as a group of everybody involved.

"I'm hoping that out of this meeting we can work with Alan and some of the other individuals involved and get this task force off the ground and really try to make a difference."

The regular monthly meeting of the full CHRB board is Oct. 20. A report from Tuesday's Medication, Safety, and Welfare Committee is one of nine topics up for discussion.