Voss: Eight Takeaways From The 2016 Welfare And Safety Of The Racehorse Summit

[Palm_Beach]

http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/voss-eight-takeaways-2016-welfare-safety-racehorse-summit/

Well I am encouraged. It’s great to identify contributing factors towards catastrophic breakdowns. But WHAT ARE THEY? Gender/ Which one? etc. Can anyone shed some light?

“The seven most influential of these factors were: Gender, age at first start, amount of time with the same trainer, days in between races, race length, and the presence of a race on an “off” dirt track. Those seven factors only accounted for 35 percent of the reduction in fatalities from 2014 to 2015, however. That other 65 percent could include changes that weren’t measured, or even factors we haven’t considered yet.”

[Shammy_Davis]

Often you have to take a look back in history to see if these welfare conferences are actually covering new ground.

Nice article by Voss. Age and gender seems to be a constant as a factor. I am waiting for them to come up with the reason.

Here is a 2010 article but solely based on data. I think that (the majority of) fillies and mares are not as likely to incur injury because they don’t have the same measure of courageous drive and heart as that of a colt and are less likely to push themselves beyond their physical limits. I know I will get blasted for this comment, but (exceptional) fillies like Go for Wand, Ruffian, Eight Belles, to name few were highly competitive. Often compared to the best colts of their time. It was said that Ruffian never liked to be headed in a race and that was a fear Frank Whiteley had before each race.

http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/gender-age-bigger-factor-race-fatalities-track-surface

[Gumby80]

Here, this is the presentation from the summit:

https://www.grayson-jockeyclub.org/WelfareSafety/pdfs/parkin.pdf

This older presentation also has some (less updated) information:

https://www.grayson-jockeyclub.org/resources/parkin.pdf

[Where_sMyWhite]

One question I have that I didn’t see addressed in either linked article is if the stats for things like age or gender, is that a per start stat or overall count stat?

ie, how were the statistics derived…

Ruffian, I thought there was conjecture that she’d hit her ankle at the start which precipitated the fatal injury? Kinda like Barbaro…

[Gumby80]

@Where'sMyWhite;8733542

One question I have that I didn’t see addressed in either linked article is if the stats for things like age or gender, is that a per start stat or overall count stat?

ie, how were the statistics derived…

I’m interested in that too, mostly from a nerdy perspective, as multivariate predictive models is what I do. Hopefully they will publish it soon. The lead author (Dr. Parkin) has a pretty solid publication record from what I can see, so hopefully it comes out soon!

[Palm_Beach]

Agree Shammy. The girls have more sense.

[Lynnwood]

[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8739697]
Agree Shammy. The girls have more sense.[/QUOTE]

True. I would think however that it might be simple deep seated instincts for colts or males of every gender to be more aggressive , competitive and fool hearty. Frankly genetically speaking the world requires less of them to carry on. So those that rush head long into oblivion are simply doing Darwins work.

I may be alone but I am all for survival of the fittest , If you break you don’t deserve to breed.