A review of a cluster of equine fatalities that occurred at Laurel Park in Maryland last winter and spring did not turn up a “single cause” for the spate, according to a report issued by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority on Tuesday, though the report noted that many of the horses that died had significant risk factors for injuries.
The report, which examined the circumstances surrounding 13 deaths at Laurel from Jan. 14 to April 20, was based on an analysis of necropsy reports, veterinary treatments, and track maintenance procedures and surface data.
Ten of the 13 horses suffered fatal musculoskeletal injuries while racing or training on Laurel main track, resulting in racing being suspended multiple times as horsemen and racing officials attempted to find a cause for the fatalities. Another died of a traumatic injury in the barn area, another of a leg infection, and another of a sudden death.
While the report did not find gross violations, negligence, or drug abuse as causes for the fatalities, the review said that eight of the 10 horses that suffered musculoskeletal fractures did not race as 2-year-olds, which is a known risk factor for injuries for horses at older ages. The report also said that five had “recently” changed trainers, and that one of the horses was on the vets’ list at the time of suffering an injury while training. Those are also known risk factors.
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The report also noted that an analysis of the horses that suffered fatal injuries revealed that many of the horses had more races per year in their careers and more days between their injuries and their last high-speed “event” – a race or workout – when compared to control groups of similar horses that did not break down.
“The factors observed are consistent with our knowledge of repetitive, overuse (fatigue) injuries in racehorses,” the report said. “Frequent high-intensity exercise (as observed in injured horses) that does not allow for recovery of exercise-induced microdamage contributes to the development of stress fractures and subchondral stress remodeling which predispose horses to catastrophic injuries.”
The analysis of the high-speed exercise history was conducted by Dr. Susan Stover, the chair of HISA’s Racetrack Safety Standing Committee. During her career, Stover has conducted voluminous research into the effects of microdamage on bone remodeling and injuries in Thoroughbreds.
The Laurel report is the second that HISA has issued this year after reviewing spates of fatalities at U.S. tracks in 2023. A report on a cluster of fatalities at Churchill Downs this spring similarly did not find any smoking guns for the fatalities, but it led to the release of a report detailing priorities for HISA that included the establishment of a Track Surface Advisory Group and a study group to determine the feasibility of using more artificial surfaces in racing. That report also said that HISA would double down on its use of data analysis to identify more risk factors for injuries in horses.
A third report examining a spate of fatalities at Saratoga last summer has yet to be released. At Saratoga, 10 horses died of exercise-related musculoskeletal injuries, many clustered around a three-week period in which two horses suffered fatal breakdowns while leading in the deep stretch of Grade 1 races on the dirt.
The Laurel report noted that track officials and horsemen agreed to let outside consultants examine the track in April, resulting in some slight surface repairs and changes to the track’s maintenance procedures. Following those repairs and changes, which occurred late in the meet, there were no additional fatalities.
“Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that those changes contributed to a safer surface going forward,” the report said.
The risk factors highlighted in the Laurel report have been identified through continuing analyses of injury reports in the Equine Injury Database, which was launched by the racing industry in 2009. Under HISA’s regulations, the collection of data has expanded to veterinary treatment records and other information sources.
In the Laurel report, HISA said that there were some “significant gaps in reporting” equine treatment records by veterinarians for the affected horses, and “in some cases, a failure to report altogether."
The report said that HISA has put in place policies to better enforce those requirements. The Churchill action report also said that there were reporting gaps that needed to be addressed not just in Kentucky, but nationally.
“The purpose of this reporting is to discover high-risk practices so that injuries and illnesses can be prevented in the future,” the Laurel report said. “Knowledge of medication, treatments, examinations, and surgical procedures is necessary to correlate certain practices with risk for injury and illness, so that high-risk practices can be discovered, and injuries and illnesses can be prevented in the future.”
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