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Friday, June 12, 2015Contact: Alexa Ravit (212) 521-5329
Racing Surfaces, Jockey Safety, Horsemanship among Topics for Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse

Presentations on racetrack surfaces, jockey safety, horsemanship courses, and the Equine Injury Database will be spotlighted when the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and The Jockey Club hold the sixth Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit on Wednesday, July 8.

The summit, organized and underwritten by those two organizations and hosted once again by Keeneland Association, brings together a wide range of professionals and stakeholders in the industry to discuss relevant equine safety issues.

It will once again be open to the public and streamed live on  jockeyclub.com and grayson-jockeyclub.org from the Keeneland sales pavilion. Those interested in attending the summit can register for free at grayson-jockeyclub.org/WelfareSafety.

Among the other topics to be featured at the summit are bone remodeling in the Thoroughbred and post-mortem programs.

This year’s edition of the summit will feature talks from industry leaders including Dr. Tim Parkin, senior lecturer and associate academic, University of Glasgow; Dr. Mick Peterson, executive director, Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory, and professor, University of Maine; Dr. Carl Mattacola, associate professor and division director of Athletic Training, University of Kentucky; Edward L. Bowen, president, Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation; Dr. Scott Palmer, equine medical director, New York State Gaming Commission; Dr. Larry Bramlage, MS, Dipl. ACVS.; and Dr. Mary Scollay, equine medical director, Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

The event will be emceed by Donna Barton Brothers, former jockey and current NBC racing analyst. Brothers is on the advisory board for the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and the author of Inside Track, an informative guide to horse racing.

The first Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit was held in October 2006; subsequent summits were held in March 2008, June 2010, October 2012, and July 2014.

In August 2014, The Jockey Club announced that the summit would become an annual event starting in 2015.

“Keeneland is always honored to host the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit,” said Keeneland President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Thomason. “This event has made important strides toward improvements in horse health and safety in less than 10 years, and we are proud to be a part of it.”

“The Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit has been the impetus for significant and positive changes for the racing industry since its inception in 2006,” said Edward L. Bowen, president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. “The past five summits have resulted in the development of such important programs as the Equine Injury Database, Jockey Injury Database, and the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory.”

Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation is traditionally the nation’s leading source of private funding for equine medical research that benefits all breeds of horses. Since 1983, the foundation has provided more than $22 million to fund 322 projects at 41 universities in North America and overseas. Additional information about the foundation and the summit is available at grayson-jockeyclub.org.

The Jockey Club, founded in 1894 and dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing, is the breed registry for North American Thoroughbreds. In fulfillment of its mission, The Jockey Club, directly or through subsidiaries, provides support and leadership on a wide range of important industry initiatives, and it serves the information and technology needs of owners, breeders, media, fans and farms. It is a founding member of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities and the architect and sole funding source for America’s Best Racing, the broad-based fan development initiative for Thoroughbred racing. You can follow America’s Best Racing at americasbestracing.net as well as on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Instagram.