KRISTIN WERNER: Thank you, Stuart. Good morning, everyone. Today I’ll be giving a brief update on a few of the aftercare and racehorse safety initiatives of The Jockey Club.

Though much progress has been made in the area of Thoroughbred aftercare, we continue to see Thoroughbreds at low-end auctions, in kill pens, and in cruelty and neglect situations.

This population includes horses that do not enter the breeding or racing population, horses retired from racing, horses retired from breeding, and horses exiting the sport horse and recreational riding population.

The Jockey Club is today announcing two projects. One is an update to the Transferred as Retired from Racing process, and the other addresses traceability of Thoroughbreds.

I will also share with you an update from The Jockey Club’s Thoroughbred Safety Committee. First, I’m pleased to announce that the Transferred as Retired from Racing process has gone digital. The permanent removal of a horse’s eligibility to race is beneficial to the retiring racehorse, but the process requires thoughtfulness and transparency on the part of both the seller and the buyer to avoid contractual disputes or other disagreements.

To that end, the previous process required a notarized signature and a hardcopy form to retire a Thoroughbred from racing. With the assistance of digital signature verification, we are now able to confidently collect the required signature through Interactive Registration’s website, which will make the process easier for everyone involved.

Second, the replacement of hardcopy certificates with digital certificates, beginning with the foal crop of 2018, will allow The Jockey Club to follow up with the certificate manager to try to trace a Thoroughbred that has exited the racing or breeding population with an unknown outcome.

When this system is in place in 2024, an automated prompt will be triggered when a horse has no racing activity, no breeding activity, and no Thoroughbred Incentive Program number for a specified period of time.

The communication will explain why the prompt was triggered and will ask the manager to indicate the horse’s current status. When they have submitted the response, the certificate manager will be sent a message related to their selection, including how to transfer the digital certificate or complete the Transferred as Retired from Racing process, or aftercare resources, for those horses consigned to a non-racing auction or sale.

In addition to collecting the data, the database will include a reporting function to monitor failures to reply and analyze the responses to assist with aftercare efforts.

To complement the rollout of the digital certificate prompts, The Jockey Club will also reach out to the last racing connection of horses foaled in 2017 and prior that started in the past 10 years but have a current unknown status.

The survey would not include current racing or breeding stock, horses with T.I.P. numbers, or horses with a known status in their first exit from racing, such as those who are exported or transferred.

We would also try to identify and exclude those horses that went through a facility accredited by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. Owners are reminded that they can, at any time and free of charge, update ownership information with The Jockey Club and through Interactive Registration, and should report deaths to the registry on a timely basis.

Now for the Thoroughbred Safety Committee. This committee was created in May of 2008 to review every facet of equine health and to recommend actions the industry can take to improve the health and safety of Thoroughbreds.

We have been guided by the Equine Injury Database in identifying factors for horses at increased risk of fatal injury. Racetracks and regulatory veterinarians have implemented data-driven measures based on these risk factors to support horse-centric health and safety checks before and after a horse starts in a race.

For many years The Jockey Club’s InCompass Solutions has supported these measures though databases, reports, and electronic flags at entry, and continues to support similar efforts through HISA’s Racetrack Safety Program.

In 2022 data analysis from the 14th year of reporting to the Equine Injury Database showed a decrease in the rate of fatal injury in 2022, to 1.25 fatalities per 1,000 starts. This is the lowest cumulative fatality rate since the EID was launched in 2009, and the fourth consecutive year that the rate has decreased.

While 99.88% of Thoroughbred races were completed without a fatality last year, clusters like those that occurred in April and May of 2023 unfortunately cast a shadow over the good news and bring equine fatalities back into the headlines of the national media, reminding is that we cannot rest on our laurels when it comes to equine health and safety.

Based on research using data contained in the Equine Injury Database, we have been able to identify about 35% of risk factors for horses at increased risk of injury during the running of a race. These include vet list history, race distance, and time with the trainer, among others.

Much of the remaining risk is unknown, in part because data is just not available to analyze aspects of a horse’s life outside of a race. The committee and the stewards have been studying this area extensively this summer, and with the horse at the forefront of our sport, we’ll continue to identify opportunities for thoughtful intervention and effective continuing education.

Today the committee is publishing a recommendation relating to racing surfaces and the dissemination of information regarding consistency and maintenance of the racing surface.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act includes requirements for monitoring racetracks. The Thoroughbred Safety Committee today calls for that information to be frequently measured at periodic distances and made available to the public.

Working with other key industry stakeholders, especially the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory, The Jockey Club recommends exploring the best methods for providing the racing surface data to the horsemen and to the public, including through an app, a website, or another electronic feed. As with all of its recommendations, The Jockey Club will help provide resources to ensure that this recommendation is met.

As always, you can find information on all The Jockey Club’s initiatives on our website. Thank you very much for your time today and I hope you enjoy the rest of the morning program.