The Jockey Club commits funding for industry study implementation

The Jockey Club commits funding for industry study

implementation

At Sunday morning's Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing in

Saratoga Springs, New York, The Jockey Club's President and Chief Operating

Officer James L. Gagliano announced that the organization's board of stewards

has committed funding over the next five years to implement many of the

wide-ranging recommendations contained in the major industry study entitled

"Driving Sustainable Growth for Thoroughbred Racing and Breeding."

The study, commissioned by The Jockey Club and conducted in association with

the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, analyzed the current state

and prospective future of Thoroughbred racing and breeding in North America. The

findings and recommendations of the study were announced at the Round Table

Conference by Dan Singer and Michael Lamb, director and principal, respectively,

in McKinsey & Company's Media and Entertainment Practice.

The nine recommendations outlined in the study focus on:

Gagliano pledged the financial, technological and human resources of The

Jockey Club to implement many of these recommendations. He also announced that

the organization has continued its relationship with McKinsey & Company, with

Singer and Lamb still leading the effort, and will leverage McKinsey's

considerable network of contacts and resources.

"We now have in our possession a comprehensive and clearly defined strategy

for growth," Gagliano said. "When the initiatives you heard about today have

progressed from 'recommendation' to 'reality,' you will see sustainable growth

for Thoroughbred racing and breeding.

"We have already begun discussions with television networks and production

companies concerning a televised racing series and creation of a free-to-play

website and social game. In addition, through our InCompass subsidiary, we've

begun building a predictive tool that will help racetracks identify more

lucrative dates and times for their races."

While the second half of the two-hour conference focused on the industry

study, the first half featured segments devoted to the Thoroughbred Safety

Committee and the Equine Injury Database.

Stuart S. Janney III, chairman of the Thoroughbred Safety Committee,

announced that The Jockey Club -- with input from several other industry

organizations -- has produced a comprehensive set of reformed racing medication

rules designed to establish a new paradigm in U.S. pari-mutuel racing to protect

the health and safety of equine athletes and enhance the integrity of the sport.

The 2011 Reformed Racing Medication Rules integrate rules drawn from numerous

sources, including individual racing jurisdictions, the Association of Racing

Commissioners International, the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC)

and the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

The Reformed Racing Medication Rules were produced in collaboration with RMTC

board members Dr. Rick Arthur, Alan Foreman, Ed Martin and Andrew Schweigardt as

well as Dr. Rick Sams, Dr. Scott Stanley, Dr. Tom David and Dr. Mary Scollay.

The reformed medication rules include:

Janney also announced two new recommendations from the Thoroughbred Safety

Committee pertaining to medication rules and veterinarian compensation.

In regard to medication rules, the committee calls for the immediate adoption

by the Association of Racing Commissioners International and United States

racing authorities of the proposed Reformed Racing Medication Rules and new

penalty structure.

In regard to veterinarian compensation, the committee calls for veterinary

fee structures that properly recognize the value of examinations, diagnostics

and professional services independent of the dispensing and administration of

medications while maintaining fee neutrality. It further encourages close

collaboration and consultation among the trainer, veterinarian and owner in the

diagnosis and treatment of the Thoroughbred racehorse.

"Veterinarians have shared their concern that the majority of their revenue

is derived from the administration and dispensing of medication while receiving

little or no compensation for examinations, diagnostics or other professional

serves," Janney said. "Is it any wonder that our industry is criticized for

being overmedicated?

"We agree with the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), which

addressed this very subject in a white paper, that such a revenue model is

fundamentally flawed. Veterinary fee structures should place emphasis upon the

value of professional services rather than the administration and dispensing of

medication, and further illustrates the importance and need for good

communication between the owner, trainer and veterinarian."

A copy of the entire text of the new recommendations, along with the first 11

recommendations issued by the Thoroughbred Safety Committee, is available by

clicking here.

During a segment on the Equine Injury Database, Dr. Tim Parkin, an

epidemiologist at the University of Glasgow and a consultant to the Equine

Injury Database, identified risk factors associated with catastrophic lower limb

fracture, based on analyses of more than 1.5 million starts in the database.

Thoroughbreds at the highest risk of catastrophic lower limb fracture were

those that:

Parkin added that an extra year of race data will be available for analysis

in November, which will enable identification of more subtle injury

relationships.

During his closing remarks, The Jockey Club Chairman Ogden Mills Phipps

announced that the organization's stewards have approved certain revisions to

the Principal Rules and Requirements of The American Stud Book, including the

addition of provisions to deny privileges to individuals determined to have

significant medication violations in Thoroughbred racing.

"Consistent with application of rules concerning those found to have

mistreated Thoroughbreds, under Rule 19 The Jockey Club may now deny privileges

to The American Stud Book to individuals determined to have been either the

subject of medication violations involving certain classes of drugs with no

legitimate use in racing, or have been determined to have violated medication

rules three or more times in a 365-day period," Phipps explained.

The online rule book is available by clicking

here.

A replay of the Round Table Conference video stream, as well as a PowerPoint

presentation and other selected materials from the economic study, is expected

to be available at

jockeyclub.com by late Sunday afternoon. An official transcript of the

proceedings will be available at the website on Wednesday.

The Jockey Club Round Table Conference was first held on July 1, 1953, in The

Jockey Club office in New York City. The following year, it was moved to

Saratoga Springs, where it has been held every August since.