An initial analysis of equine injury data released earlier this year shows no statistically significant difference in the risk of fatalities in Thoroughbreds on different racing surfaces, officials said June 28 during the third Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit.

The analysis of information contained in the Equine Injury Database looked at factors that could be associated with fatal breakdowns. The results are strictly preliminary; in fact, officials said it could take a few more years of data to even consider a more detailed study.

“This will take time,” said Dr. Tim Parkin of the University of Glasgow in Scotland. “There are no quick answers. We need to consider (multi-factor models), but we probably need at least three years of full data.”

The EID was launched in November 2008 with 73 participating racetracks, a number that has grown to 86 that account for about 86% of total flat racing starts in North America. The initial analysis was based on one year’s worth of data from November 2008 to November 2009.

Data was collected based on pre-race, racing, training, and non-exercise occurrences.

The analysis only looked at fatal injuries. Non-fatal injuries probably will be addressed in the future as more data is collected, officials said.

The analysis of racing surfaces didn’t show a large enough swing in the number of injuries, though officials said it could be because data is limited. The number of catastrophic injuries per 1,000 starts was 2.04; by surface the figures were 1.78 for turf, 1.78 for synthetic, and 2.14 for dirt, which had a much higher number of starts.

“We still can’t say one surface is safer than another even if there was a statistically significant difference,” said Dr. Mary Scollay-Ward, equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission who oversees the EID for The Jockey Club.

The analysis also showed female horses had a lower fatality rate than intact male horses; that females weren’t at increased risk when they compete against males; that 2-year-olds were less likely to break down than older horses; that there was no statistically significant difference in fatal injuries with various surface conditions, such as fast or muddy; and that distance and weight had little variance as well.

In general, 2-year-olds were 30%-35% less likely to suffer a fatal injury than older horses. Females were 50% as likely as intact males to suffer a fatal injury, according to the analysis.

Parkin noted there are many more factors that could be considered—season, track maintenance, quality of horses, and experience of jockeys, to name only a few—when future data is analyzed. That type of multi-factor analysis could lead to more definitive results; then again, it’s possible the initial numbers won’t change that much.

“It’s all about more data providing more certainty,” Parkin said.

Scollay, during a meeting with the press after the presentation held at Keeneland in Lexington, noted racetracks participate in the EID on the premise individual track data won’t be made public. It’s up to each track to decide if it wants to release numbers.

“Clearly, it would be interesting information but by the same token you would have a winner and a loser,” Scollay said. “Each track has the ability to look at its data and analyze it. We could, in the future, get more latitude with the information if we show we’re using the data responsibly. We need to demonstrate we’re being ethically responsible.”

Officials said that similar to studies in Great Britain and Hong Kong, a primary goal is to identify risk factors that lead to break downs in an attempt to improve the durability of racehorses.

For more information: Equine Injury Database Data

A day after the Oak Tree Racing Association received a one-year reprieve from its landlord at Santa Anita Park, the organization’s executive vice president said he wants to work out a long-term lease arrangement for the autumn race meet with Del Mar, beginning in 2011.

Such a move, if it were to occur, would have Breeders’ Cup implications, noted Sherwood Chillingworth, who heads operations for Oak Tree, which has a strong relationship with the event.

“Oh, yes, I think we’re hopeful of doing something with Breeders’ Cup (at Del Mar) for sometime after 2011,” Chillingworth said.

He said that the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has shown a strong interest in holding the five-week fall meet beginning in 2011. Del Mar is part of the state fairgrounds system under the auspices of the 22nd Agricultural District.

Craig Fravel, president and general manager of the DMTC, could not be reached for comment.

Chillingworth said Del Mar would be a preferable location for the not-for-profit racing association over Hollywood Park because of the threat of redevelopment at the Inglewood, Calif., facility.

“They might not be there in a year,” Chillingworth said of Hollywood Park June 23. “Hollywood would have made sense for this season because of the problem of getting everyone back down there (to San Diego County). But we would like to have something permanent. We don’t want to be nomads.”

Oak Tree has operated at Santa Anita since its founding in 1969, but the lease it had with the Arcadia, Calif., track through 2016 was terminated by MI Developments in mid-May, shortly after the company took control of many Magna Entertainment Corporation assets in a bankruptcy court-approved reorganization.

During a lengthy California Horse Racing Board meeting at Hollywood Park June 22, racing mogul Frank Stronach, chairman of MID, made it clear he no longer wanted Oak Tree as a tenant at Santa Anita, which Stronach’s Magna Entertainment bought in 1998. He said the lease arrangement “did not make economic sense.”

But at the urging of his friend and fellow horse owner Mace Siegel, Stronach suddenly changed his mind and verbally agreed to allow Oak Tree to remain for the 2010 season, though he emphasized that would be the end of the relationship.

Chillingworth was close to executing a deal for 2010 with Jack Liebau at Hollywood Park before the surprise change of heart by Stronach. While appreciative of Liebau’s efforts on Oak Tree’s behalf, he admitted he was relieved.

“We’ve been here 41 years; that’s a lot of moving to do,” Chillingworth said. “Making two moves in two years would have been kind of hard.”

Oak Tree’s meet begins Sept. 29 this year and runs to Oct. 31.

Oak Tree’s race dates coincide with the Breeders’ Cup, and it has hosted the rich racing event on five occasions at Santa Anita, most recently in 2008 and 2009. Del Mar has expressed interest in holding the Breeders’ Cup as well, but needs to widen its turf course in order to be seriously considered, Chillingworth said.

“Between our revenues and theirs, we would have enough to complete the widening of the turf course, which is something the Breeders’ Cup wants to see done, as well as a few other things that would be needed,” he said.

The Oak Tree meet follows a three-week stand at Fairplex Park in Pomona on the Southern California racing schedule, which would create a logistical problem at Del Mar.

Chillingworth noted that most trainers and staff have housing arrangements for the summer months in the seaside area 20 miles north of downtown San Diego, but not for autumn.

“We will probably have to work something out with transportation in order to get the horses and people down there,” he said.

An additional five weeks at Del Mar would give the track 13 weeks of racing annually.

Convicted Thoroughbred owner Ernest Paragallo is free on bail, pending an appeal of 33 counts of animal cruelty, but he still faces the possibility of a lifetime racing ban and civil fines of up to $165,000.

Paragallo, 52, who was released on June 16, had been in Greene County, New York, jail since being sentenced on May 18 to two years in jail and $33,000 in fines, for animal cruelty at his Center Brook Farm in Climax, New York, about an hour south of Saratoga Race Course.

When Paragallo was sentenced, the New York State Racing and Wagering Board directed him to show cause why he should not banned permanently from New York racetracks and fined up to $5,000 worth of civil fines for each charge, a possible $165,000.

Paragallo was convicted in March, following the shocking April 2009 raid of his farm, where authorities discovered more than 170 diseased, starving Thoroughbreds, several of which had to be euthanized.

The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division has allowed Paragallo to be released on $10,000 bail, after receiving a notice of appeal.

This week’s Racing and Wagering Board hearing has been postponed because of a scheduling conflict. However, the board does not have to wait for Paragallo’s court appeal to consider his case.

In addition to animal cruelty, it is now also alleged that Paragallo knowingly raced horses listed to unlicensed or sham owners. He was served legal papers while in jail.

Under New York law, equine cruelty is only a misdemeanor. Mistreatment of cats and dogs under Buster’s Law is a felony. During the non-jury trial, Paragallo’s attorney, Michael Howard, said his client was guilty of no wrongdoing, but Judge George Pulver disagreed.

In addition to the maximum two years in jail, Pulver fined Paragallo to $33,000 – $1,000 for each count.

He also might have to pay restitution, pending the outcome of his appeal. Feed and medical bills for horses’ care cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.

The Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission will begin testing Thoroughbred race horses for total carbon dioxide, or TCO2, after approving a policy to conduct the testing at its June 17 meeting. 

Apprentice jockey Johnny Gihua of Peru earned his first victory in North America, guiding El Scorpio to a front-running 12-1 upset in an optional claiming allowance on the Hollywood Park turf June 16.

Peru’s top apprentice in 2009, Gihua, 24, had failed to win with his first 35 mounts at Hollywood Park before El Scorpio defeated Derive by a half-length as the longest shot in a field of four in the $43,688 event.

Saddled by leading trainer Doug O’Neill, El Scorpio ran six furlongs in 1:08.25 and returned $27 to win.

It was the second victory in six starts for the 4-year-old gelded son of Vindication. El Scorpio, who has earned $50,200, is owned by West Side Rentals and W.C. Racing.

Citing a lack of entries, Hollywood Park has cancelled live racing for Thursday, June 17, the second time during the current meet that racing was called off because of a lack of horses.

The California track is going ahead with live racing on Wednesday, June 16, for which drew 52 horses, or an average 6.5 per race, for the eight-race card.

Hollywood Park also cancelled live racing May 26 because of insufficient entries. The current meet ends July 18.

Last year, Hollywood Park cancelled the last nine Wednesday programs of the meet and cancelled one Thursday card early in the meet, all due to the shortage of horses.

A tentative deal among state senators has ended talk of a shutdown of the New York state government, keeping racetracks from having to suspend their operations.

Enough Republican senators will end their weeks of boycotts of weekly emergency appropriation bills to permit the state to remain open, despite a threatened June 25 shutdown.

The shutdown threat began last week when two Bronx Democratic senators said they would not vote for what is now the 11th weekly emergency bill needed to pay for basic state services since the state began its fiscal year April 1 without an annual budget in place.

Gov. David Paterson warned agencies last week to prepare for the shutdown of operations at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, June 15.

State Racing and Wagering Board officials told the Blood-Horse over the weekend that a shutdown of the state would close racetracks because state workers who serve in such posts as racing stewards and equine drug testers would be furloughed.

It was not certain whether racetrack casinos would be hit by any shutdown, officials said at the time, because the state Lottery regulates the facilities and could have been also been told to close. Racino operators later said they were told they would not have to close.

One lone Democrat–Sen. Ruben Diaz from the Bronx—on the morning of June 14 was still insisting he would be voting against the emergency bill. The Democrats have 32 members and the Republicans have 30. It takes 32 votes to pass a bill in the Senate.

But several Republican senators signaled hesitation about being involved in any effort that would force a shutdown. Much of the pressure on the Republicans was aimed at two Republicans from the Albany area, which is home to tens of thousands of state workers. One of those Republicans, Sen. Hugh Farley of the Schenectady area, said June 14 he will vote for the emergency bill. Democratic leaders insisted there will be enough votes this afternoon to pass the bill.

Churchill Downs has boosted its overnight purses 10% for the remainder of its meeting, effective Saturday and running through July 4.

The increase will bump purses for overnight stakes, allowance, maiden special weight, claiming, and maiden claiming races up by about $3,000 each. The purse hike is the first of its kind for the track since June 2003.

Purses will average about $279,000 daily following the purse hike, a slight increase from last year’s daily average of $271,000.

“This 10% increase in our overnight purses is good news for owners and trainers who have continued to race their horses at Churchill Downs despite intensifying competitive pressures from racing states with purses boosted by additional gaming revenues,” said Kevin Flanery, Churchill Downs president. “This purse hike underscores the enormous value and importance of the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Kentucky Oaks (G1) to our track, our horsemen, and the entire racing industry.

“While we are pleased that our horsemen will be competing for larger-than-anticipated purses over the final three weeks of the spring meet, our long-term concern for Churchill Downs racing and Kentucky’s horse industry has not changed. Despite this increase, our purses remain well shy of their highest levels of recent years, and struggle to compete with purses fueled by slot machine and casino revenues offered at tracks in racing states on Kentucky’s boarders and beyond.”

A new wrinkle was added to the intractable Oak Tree Racing Association lease mess with Santa Anita Park June 9.

The chief executive officer of the company that now owns Santa Anita said it would be impossible to allow Oak Tree to operate its annual autumn meet at the Arcadia, Calif., track if California horsemen want to see a new racing surface installed there in time for the 2010-11 winter/spring meet.

At this point, it appears extremely likely that Oak Tree, which has operated at Santa Anita since 1969, will be moving its five-week stand to Hollywood Park for the 2010 season, acknowledged Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of the not-for-profit racing association. No final decision has been made, however.

Dennis Mills, vice president and CEO for MI Developments, said company chairman Frank Stronach would address the situation with the California Horse Racing Board when the commission meets June 22 at Hollywood Park. MID voided the contract allowing Oak Tree to lease Santa Anita through 2016 on May 15 after it took control of the track through a reorganization plan of its subsidiary, Magna Entertainment Corp., approved by a bankruptcy court in Delaware in March.

Mills said Stronach plans to amplify on his plans to reinvigorate racing in California when he speaks to the CHRB. In the meantime, a June 4 meeting scheduled between MID officials and Oak Tree to discuss terms for a new lease was canceled.

Mills said he hoped Stronach and Chillingworth would meet during his visit to California. But he also said he understood Oak Tree needs to make plans for its meet, which runs Sept. 29-Oct. 31, and encouraged Oak Tree’s pursuit of a new venue, either Hollywood or Del Mar.

“The biggest challenge that exists in California is the racing surface (at Santa Anita). That is something that we are pre-occupying our minds with more than anything right now,” Mills said by phone from Toronto. “Assuming Mr. Stronach has a successful meeting with the (CHRB), we are going to need unfettered access to that facility from now until the time Santa Anita opens in December.”

At the root of the track surface issue is a proposal for making Santa Anita the permanent host of the Breeders’ Cup, Mills said. He cited a letter from Greg Avioli, Breeders’ Cup president and CEO, to Oak Tree, which held successful events in 2008 and 2009 for the two-day racing festival.

“One of the key factors cited in the letter…was that Breeders’ Cup wanted a tested surface (for 2011) and not the one that exists there right now,” Mills said. “In order to accomplish that, to have a tested surface — we would have to clean it out (the current Pro-Ride surface), implement it, and test it. We would need September, October, November, and right into December, when our meet begins.”

Mills said he was prevented by confidentiality from discussing the letter when he and other MID representatives appeared before the CHRB May 20, but its details have since been made public, freeing him to talk about it.

Chillingworth said the installation of a new track was never brought up in his discussions of the Oak Tree lease with MID.

“If they were saying that we need that time to put in a new track and we need you take a one-year hiatus, that would be something, but they didn’t,” Chillingworth said. While keeping the door open, he said he held little hope for any type of a breakthrough when Stronach is in California.

“If they made it attractive for us, say they want us back under the conditions of our pre-existing lease that was to expire in 2016,” Oak Tree would be interested, he said. “But they always want more.”

He said company representatives have made it clear they would also want to take any future Breeders’ Cup dates. ”We would run the (Oak Tree) meet and they would run the Breeders’ Cup,” Chillingworth said. “It makes no sense at all.”

Jack Liebau, president at Hollywood Park, said Oak Tree has a standing offer to operate at the Inglewood track rent-free. A similar deal has been extended by Del Mar, Chillingworth said, but because of its proximity for horsemen, it would make more sense to use the Hollywood facility in 2010.

He said Oak Tree would prefer to remain at Santa Anita.

“We’ve been at Santa Anita for 41 years,” Chillingworth said. “We have a long tradition there. But it seems like all the old traditions in racing are dying.”

If Oak Tree leaves for 2010, might it return at some future date? “You never say never,” Mills said. “Santa Anita is always open to receiving proposals for special events that benefit the Thoroughbred industry.”

Mills said MID has been actively working with California Thoroughbred Trainers on selecting a new main track surface for Santa Anita. With trainer Darrell Vienna of the track safety committee of the CTT, Santa Anita officials have looked at eight different types of surfaces that employ a special underground system allowing the track superintendent to add or subtract water, depending on need. He said the surfaces have various compositions, but Stronach would ultimately make the decision.

Santa Anita originally installed Cushion Track in 2007 following the CHRB’s synthetic track mandate but had to pull most of that out due to drainage and hardness issues. Its current Pro-Ride track includes remnants of the prior synthetic track and also has had drainage problems.

This year’s Belmont Stakes (G1) was the least watched Triple Crown race since networks began tracking viewers of horse racing in 1960.

ABC Sports’ one-hour, 46-minute broadcast of the final leg of this year’s Triple Crown registered a 3.00 rating, a 31.7% decline from last year’s 4.39 rating.

“The ratings decline can be attributed in part to the fact that neither [Kentucky] Derby [Presented by Yum! Brands (G1)] winner Super Saver nor Preakness [Stakes (G1)] winner Lookin At Lucky ran at Belmont,” ABC Sports spokesman Mark Mandel said. “This left the final leg of the Triple Crown without either classic winner for the second time in four years and just the third time since 1970.”

Mandel also noted that last year’s “Triple Crown ratings were unusually high.” This year’s drop in the Belmont ratings follows a 27% decline in overnight ratings for the Preakness, although ratings for the Derby were up 9.6%.

This year’s Triple Crown season marked the final year of the five-year contracts the individual networks had with the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont. NBC has broadcast the first two races while ABC has broadcast the Belmont since 2006. NBC broadcast all three races from 2001-’05.

This year’s Belmont broadcast fared best with males at least 55 years of age, scoring a 4.46 rating among that demographic. All viewers aged 18-34 registered just a .49 rating.

The leading market for the broadcast was Louisville with a 7.45 rating, followed by nearby Cincinnati (5.77).