Charles Town issues statement on accident warning system

Charles Town officials issued a statement Monday evening regarding the

track's accident warning system, in the wake of a tragic incident in Saturday's

4TH race. The statement reads as follows:

On Saturday, December 13, the fourth race at Hollywood Casino at Charles

Town Races was tragically interrupted by a riderless horse, Winningaswespeak,

running back into the field, which collided with another horse. While both

jockeys involved were not seriously harmed, regrettably one of the horses

(Frisky Dixie) had to be euthanized. Since then, the accident emergency warning

system at Charles Town has been called into question.

First, all of Penn National Gaming Inc.'s Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing

facilities are equipped with alert systems that can be activated upon horses

getting loose from their handler or rider/driver and may cause a potential

accident or harm racing participants. The tracks at Charles Town, Mahoning

Valley Race Course, Penn National Race Course, Sam Houston Race Park and Zia

Park all maintain an audible alarm while Charles Town and Mahoning also have

systems that include not only a siren but also multiple flashing red lights

located around the perimeter of the track.

"We take the matter very seriously and the accident warning systems in place at

all of our facilities meet or exceed the industry standards," Penn National

Gaming's Vice President of Racing Chris McErlean said.

Approximately two years ago, Charles Town voluntarily upgraded its alert system

by making a significant expenditure to put in a series of flashing lights around

the track. The trigger for the enhanced visual alert was placed next to

where the audible alarm has been stationed for nearly two decades -- where the

clocker and timer are positioned, approximately 20 feet from the stewards'

location.

"At no time during the incident in question were any of our personnel directed

by the state racing stewards to deploy our warning system or to announce to the

riders to pull their horses up, as has been the standard operating procedure

during live racing," McErlean said. "The safety of the jockeys and horses are of

paramount concern to Charles Town Races and in conjunction with the state racing

stewards, we will be reviewing our policies again in light of what could have

been an avoidable accident to ensure we can adequately address a similar

situation going forward."

"The overwhelming majority of loose horses occur during morning training hours

when only the clocker is up there to activate the alarm," said Erich Zimny,

Charles Town's Vice President of Racing Operations.

"And during live racing, the area where the stewards, judges, announcer and

clocker sit is very small and easily accessible. Information such as announcing

the riders need to pull up or instructing an alarm be activated can be relayed

almost instantly up there as it has been for years. On Saturday night there was

in excess of half a minute between the rider going down and the collision in

order for someone to be alerted. We aren't aware of anybody asking for the

activation point to be moved and we've gotten the riders in many races pulled up

without incident, including one occurrence just two weeks ago."