Racehorse injuries

[1][2] A 2005 study by the United States Department of Agriculture found that injuries are the second leading cause of death in horses, second only to old age.

[3] Two years after Secretariat's record-breaking US Triple Crown took the sport in the United States to a new level of popularity, the breakdown and death of Ruffian brought on a new era of safety concerns.

[6][8] 1885 Kentucky Derby winner Joe Cotton was euthanized after breaking his leg while tripping over two other horses who had fallen in front of him in an 1888 race.

[10] National television coverage of the Breeders' Cup by NBC helped generate millions in revenue and publicity for Thoroughbred racing in the mid- to late 1980s.

[citation needed] In the 1992 Breeders' Cup Sprint, the five-year-old European horse Mr Brooks fractured his cannon bone and fell on top of his jockey, Lester Piggott.

[12] The resulting media pressure from the deaths of Go for Wand and Mr Brooks prompted racing industries around the world to make a concerted effort at determining the extent of the problem and the causes.

[14] Barbaro's team of doctors, led by Dr. Dean Richardson, were able to repair his broken leg, but not the excruciatingly painful laminitis that followed.

[18] After the death of Barbaro in 2006, the North American Thoroughbred industry realized that individual studies were not adequate tools for evaluating ongoing efforts in injury prevention.

Injuries, whether unintentional or intentional, can be considered any physical damage or harm caused to the body resulting in impairment or destruction of health.

This brand of racing requires Thoroughbred horses to leap over a succession of fences and are generally run over longer distances.

When a horse hits the ground, the repetitive impact produces microscopic cracks and crevices inside bone so tiny they are undetectable by standard X-rays.

[44] In a 2009 white paper, the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) recommended a period of rest of at least 10 days between races for all horses to provide an opportunity to refresh and diminish the volume of persistent cyclic loading.

[48] In the young horse the interosseous ligament which attaches the splint bones to the cannon can become damaged or torn from the concussive and rotational forces of exercise.

In an attempt to stabilise this damaged attachment, new bone will be laid down around the ligament resulting in the formation of a bony lump known as a splint.

Due to the construction of the fetlock joint, luxation will result in either a complete rupture of the flexor tendons and suspensory ligament or a lateral disarticulation.

[56] A totally ruptured superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) will cause a visible drop in the angle of the fetlock.

Tendinitis occurs when the tendon is overstretched or overloaded, which causes straining (tearing) of individual or multiple fibers and the formation of a lesion.

[74][75] The equine respiratory system consists of the nostrils, pharynx (throat), larynx (voice box), trachea (windpipe), diaphragm, and lungs.

The most widely accepted theory is that the high blood pressure from heavy exercise coupled with vacuum-like effects that occur during a deep inhalation causes the capillaries to rupture.

[47] The international community has identified important risk factors for injury or fatality in horse racing, with over 200 having been scientifically investigated.

[85] In South America, the overall odds ratio of fatalities for male versus female horses is 1.48, although it varies from 1.30 to 1.99, depending on the racecourse.

[28] Although there is mixed data, entire males are at an overall higher risk of catastrophic injury than geldings, with an overall odds ratio of 1.36, although that value is not statistically significant.

Ligaments, tendons and joint capsules are relatively poorly supplied with blood and strengthening them can take two to four times as long.

Hartman stated that a phased approach would give horsemen and owners sufficient time to adjust to the change, and that regulators were the only voice in North American racing for the horse.

[28] Michael Peterson of the University of Maine states there are three components that affect a racetrack's performance as it relates to injuries: the surface of the track, weather and maintenance.

[107] The TOBA statistics on racing related career ending injuries show that moisture has the opposite effect on dirt and turf tracks.

At Philadelphia Park Racetrack in Bensalem, a rash of breakdowns in the first two months of 2004 was blamed on the winter weather and track problems caused by thawing frost; during this short stretch of time, 12 horses were euthanized following races, and another one was destroyed after sustaining a training injury.

[94] The graph is a plot of injury rates for different tracks based on when their racing seasons begin and end during the calendar year.

Golden Gate Fields has a relatively high career-ending injury rate for a synthetic track and their racing season takes place during winter months, but the coldest temperatures average about 50 °F (10 °C) in that part of California during that time of year.

[109] Freezing temperatures could be the reason because winter racing on the flat only takes place on synthetic tracks in Great Britain.