“The Equine Injury Database recently completed the collection of a third year of data from participating racetracks, representing approximately 93 percent of the racing days in North America and more than 30,000 records,” said Gagliano. “Keeneland, Woodbine and the California racetracks have made a practice of publishing their injury and/or fatality data. This new website is designed to encourage other racetracks to follow their lead and make public their data in a standard, summary fashion.”

The website (jockeyclub.com/initiatives.asp?section=2) will be maintained by The Jockey Club. Summaries of fatality statistics for a particular track will include the month, 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.

More than a dozen racetracks have committed to publishing their respective statistics. They are Aqueduct, Belmont Park, Del Mar, Golden Gate Fields, Gulfstream Park, Keeneland, Laurel Park, Lone Star Park, Pimlico, Portland Meadows, Remington Park, Santa Anita, Saratoga, Turfway Park and Woodbine.

“We are committed to making our racetracks as safe as possible for our human and equine athletes,” said Greg Avioli, chief executive officer of the Stronach Entertainment Group, which owns and operates Santa Anita, Golden Gate, Gulfstream Park, Laurel, Pimlico and Portland Meadows. “Sharing information through the Equine Injury Database is an important step in the industry’s ongoing effort to better understand the causes of on-track injuries and take necessary steps to reduce these injuries in the future.”

“NYRA devotes considerable resources to the proper maintenance of our racing surfaces, and we believe they are among the safest in the country,” said Charles Hayward, president and chief executive officer of The New York Racing Association Inc. “We are happy to provide our data for The Jockey Club Equine Injury Database.”

The Equine Injury Database, conceived at the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation’s first Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, was launched by The Jockey Club as the Thoroughbred industry’s first national database of racing injuries in July 2008.

It was created to identify the frequency, types and outcome of racing injuries through a system of standardized reporting by regulatory and association veterinarians, and it assists veterinarians and track management in identifying markers for horses at increased risk of injury and serves as a data source for research directed at improving safety and preventing injuries.

A complete list of tracks participating in the Equine Injury Database can be found in the “Safety Initiatives” section of The Jockey Club website.

The Equine Injury Database was created and is maintained by The Jockey Club, through its commercial subsidiaries InCompass Solutions Inc. and The Jockey Club Technology Services Inc., as a service to the industry.