The overall Thoroughbred fatality rate at North American racetracks ticked upwards slightly in 2023 compared to 2022, according to an analysis of data in the Equine Injury Database.
The fatality rate for all surfaces in 2023 was 1.32 per 1,000 starts, according to the administrators of the EID, which includes data from nearly every racetrack in North America. Last year, the fatality rate fell to its lowest rate since the EID was launched in 2009, at 1.25. The 1.32 rate is the second-lowest rate in the database’s history, and it is 34 percent lower than the 2.00 rate in 2009.
Fatalities at North American racetracks have become a pressing concern for the racing industry over the past decade, and progress in lowering the rate has been cited as evidence that efforts by the industry to increase oversight of veterinary examinations and place greater restrictions on the use of medication have borne fruit.
Still, during 2023, clusters of deaths at two high-profile tracks, Churchill Downs in Kentucky and Saratoga Race Course in New York, drew widespread media attention amid renewed calls from animal-rights groups to shut the sport down.
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With eight racing fatalities (and another four training fatalities), Saratoga’s rate in 2023 was 2.55 horses per 1,000 starts, up significantly from its historical average. Churchill, which had 13 deaths at its spring meet – a combination of racing and training deaths, plus several sudden deaths and accidents – does not allow the EID to publish its individual statistics.
Professor Tim Parkin, an epidemiologist at the University of Bristol who has analyzed the annual data in the EID since its inception, noted the slight increase in the rate but also said that the uptick was “not statistically significant,” a term denoting that the increase fell within a range that could be explained by random factors.
“We are encouraged by the low numbers in 2023 that the industry is still headed in the right direction with regard to keeping its horses safe,” Parkin said, in a release.
The EID records any death within 72 hours of a horse being injured in a race. According to The Jockey Club, approximately 99 percent of all Thoroughbred starts in North America were recorded in the database.
According to the data, synthetic surfaces continued to post a lower rate than either dirt or turf surfaces in 2023, at 0.97 fatalities per 1,000 starts. The rate for turf was 1.13, while the rate for dirt was 1.43.
A number of racing organizations, including the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and New York Racing Association, have launched inquiries into whether artificial surfaces should be more widely used at North American racetracks, in part because of the persistent gap between the rates for artificial and dirt surfaces. Through 2023, the overall fatality rate on synthetic surfaces is 1.10, while the dirt rate is 1.84.
The fatality rate by distance continued to narrow in 2023. The rate for races shorter than six furlongs was 1.22; the rate for races between six furlongs and a mile was 1.37; and the rate for races longer than a mile was 1.32. Historically, the rate has been greater for races under six furlongs.
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By age, the fatality rate in 2023 for 2-year-olds was 0.79. The rate for 3-year-old horses was 1.37, and the rate for horses older than 3 was 1.38. Although animal-rights groups continue to maintain that racing horses at 2 is a pernicious practice, ample data has shown that horses that race at 2 suffer less fatal injuries when they are older than horses that do not race at 2.
Both The Jockey Club and HISA, in a separate release, noted that the fatality rate for horses at tracks under HISA’s jurisdiction in 2023 was 1.23 per 1,000 starts, compared to 1.60 for horses that raced at tracks that are not under HISA’s jurisdiction. Two states, West Virginia and Louisiana, are not under HISA’s jurisdiction due to a temporary injunction in a case that is currently under appeal, while racetracks in two other states, Texas and Nebraska, have averted its jurisdiction by declining to send their signals out-of-state.
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