The Jockey Club releases three years' worth of EID data

The Jockey Club on Thursday released an updated North American fatality rate for

Thoroughbreds that includes three years' worth of data collected in the Equine

Injury Database (EID), the North American database for racing injuries.

Based on an analysis of 1,160,045 starts collected during the three-year

period January 1, 2009, through December 31, 2011, the prevalence of

race-related fatal injury was 1.91 per 1,000 starts. For individual years, the

prevalence of fatal injury per 1,000 starts was 1.98 for 2009, 1.88 for 2010 and

1.88 for 2011.

Matt Iuliano, executive vice president and executive director of The Jockey

Club, noted two changes in the reporting of these and future national benchmark

statistics.

"Originally, Equine Injury Database reports were generated from November 1

through October 31 of the following year to coincide with the first full year of

data from a significant number of participating tracks," Iuliano said. "The

Equine Injury Database has grown large enough that, with 93 percent of race days

represented in the statistics, reporting was changed to a calendar-year basis to

match other statistical reporting by The Jockey Club."

In an effort to provide more uniformity in the national benchmarks, only

race-related injuries that result in fatality within 72 hours or less from the

date of race are included in the national figures. Previous statistical

summaries included race-related injuries that resulted in fatality regardless of

when the fatality occurred after the date of the race.

Under reporting parameters used in previous years, which included injuries

that resulted in fatality more than 72 hours from the date of race, the

prevalence of fatality per 1,000 starts would have been 2.05 in 2011.

"Continued growth of the database has shown variations among jurisdictions in

follow-up reporting during the days and weeks after an injury was sustained,

creating variation in the results," Iuliano said. "We realize there are

situations in which the outcome is not determined until much later than 72 hours

after an incident, but our confidence level in reporting an accurate benchmark

statistic is greatest when we utilize information available within 72 hours."

Table 1 contains a three-year summary of statistics from the EID

stratified by categories of age, sex, surface type and distance and

Table 2 contains a summary of the fatal injuries stratified by fatality

date, from the date of the race until later than four weeks after the race.

The statistical analysis was once again performed by Dr. Tim Parkin, a

veterinarian and epidemiologist from the University of Glasgow, who serves as a

consultant on the Equine Injury Database.

"The addition of more than 379,000 starts to the database in year three

enabled us to statistically validate certain trends seen in the data," Parkin

said. "The prevalence of fatality is not the result of a single variable in

isolation but rather the simultaneous interaction of myriad variables

contributing in concert to injury."

"The Equine Injury Database continues to be a work in progress," explained

James L. Gagliano, president and chief operating officer of The Jockey Club. "To

fully recognize the enormous potential of the EID, we urge full participation of

all racetracks in reporting injuries during racing and training hours.

Currently, 93 percent of race days are represented in the race-related fatality

statistics. Approximately half of the participating racetracks are also

reporting injuries sustained during training hours."

The Equine Injury Database contains a suite of reports for racetracks to

analyze data collected at their respective facilities. In early March, The

Jockey Club unveiled a new website that enables racetracks to make public their

data in a standard, summary fashion. The

website will be maintained by The Jockey

Club.

Summaries of fatality statistics for a participating track include the year,

number of race days, number of starts, age and sex of the horse, distance of the

race and the surface on which the incident occurred.

A list of racetracks that have signed up to participate in the Equine Injury

Database, including those who are now reporting their statistics publicly, can

be found by clicking

here.

The Jockey Club, through two of its for-profit subsidiary companies -- InCompass Solutions Inc. and The Jockey Club Technology Services Inc.

-- has

underwritten the cost to develop and operate the Equine Injury Database as a

service to the industry.