Topics Set for Welfare and Safety Summit
Description:
Presentations on racetrack surfaces, jockey safety, horsemanship courses, and the Equine Injury Database will be spotlighted when the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and The Jockey Club hold the sixth Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit July 8.
The summit, organized and underwritten by those two organizations and hosted again by Keeneland in Lexington, will bring together a wide range of professionals and stakeholders in the industry to discuss relevant equine safety issues.
The summit will be open to the public and streamed live at jockeyclub.com and grayson-jockeyclub.org from the Keeneland sale pavilion. Those interested in attending the summit can register for free at grayson-jockeyclub.org/WelfareSafety.
Among the other topics to be featured at the summit are bone remodeling in the Thoroughbred and post-mortem programs.
This year's edition of the summit will feature talks from Dr. Tim Parkin, senior lecturer and associate academic, University of Glasgow; Dr. Mick Peterson, executive director of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory and a professor at the University of Maine; Dr. Carl Mattacola, associate professor and division director of athletic training at the University of Kentucky; Edward Bowen, president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation; Dr. Scott Palmer, equine medical director for the New York State Gaming Commission; Dr. Larry Bramlage; and Dr. Mary Scollay, equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.
The event will be emceed by Donna Barton Brothers, former jockey and current NBC racing analyst. Brothers is on the advisory board for the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and the author of Inside Track, an informative guide to horse racing.
The first Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit was held in October 2006; subsequent summits were held in March 2008, June 2010, October 2012, and July 2014. In August 2014 The Jockey Club announced that the summit would become an annual event starting in 2015.
"Keeneland is always honored to host the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit," Keeneland president Bill Thomason said. "This event has made important strides toward improvements in horse health and safety in less than 10 years, and we are proud to be a part of it."
"The Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit has been the impetus for significant and positive changes for the racing industry since its inception in 2006," Bowen said. "The past five summits have resulted in the development of such important programs as the Equine Injury Database, Jockey Injury Database, and the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory."