Racing: Condition of courses is vital in injury prevention

Veterinary knowledge has advanced considerably since the days when one recommendation for dressing a horse's sore leg was a compound of beeswax, rosin, copper sulphate, soap, cinnabar, mustard oil and the water in which an onion has been cooked. But although cures now owe more to the lab than a crone's crucible, a vet of any century would agree that the best of all is prevention.

The fact that horses are injured and do die in the pursuit of the pleasure and business that keeps the sport afloat is one of the less palatable facts about the industry but – and again this may sound brutal – it is the price the individual pays for the existence of the breed, for the thoroughbred en masse has no other purpose but racing.

There is a world of difference, though, between being realistic and callous, and racing's professionals take their responsibilities to the animals in their care most seriously. Five days ago Cheltenham hosted the second annual Veterinary Conference for the Racing Industry, a high-powered gathering attended by 250 delegates, including trainers, owners, breeders, vets and representatives from equine organisations and charities. It was chaired by the Jockey Club's veterinary science and welfare director Dr Peter Webbon.

The horse world is increasingly following the human lead to evidence-based medicine and audit of procedures, providing accurate information that can be assessed objectively and lead to beneficial reaction.

Those at Cheltenham last week were presented with detailed studies into fractures, tendon injuries and falls, with some results that could be taken as confirming anecdotal evidence and some that were surprising.

It is probably not rocket science to say that a horse having its first run over hurdles is more likely to fall than one with previous hurdling experience. But five times more likely? That fact came out of a two-year investigation by Dr Gina Pinchbeck and a team at Liverpool University into 124 falls (32 over hurdles and 92 over fences) from 2,879 starts at six racecourses. It was also found that 90 per cent of the falls were caused by the horse hitting the obstacle (well, yes) but in more than a quarter of the hurdle cases the horse made no attempt to jump. Bad weather seems safer for horses; decreased risk was found to be associated with soft ground, and increased risk with sunshine.

Also, the horse who jig-jogs round the parade ring, implying an up-for-it frame of mind, is, apparently, 10 times more likely to capsize than his laid-back cousins who walk calmly during the preliminaries.

Another Liverpool research team, headed by Tim Parkin, had a look at 109 fatalities in Flat races over two years and revealed that a horse is nearly twice as likely to fracture a leg on all-weather tracks than on turf tracks (0.72 for 1,000 starts compared to 0.38), and more likely to incur the injury on a bend than in a straight. But the greatest incidence of fatal fractures comes in bumpers, with 2.17 cases for every 1,000 starts.

Another thought-provoking statistic is that the instance of fractures decreases the longer tracks have to recover between racedays. So trainers are quite right in their gut feeling to kick up a fuss or refuse to let horses run on ground they consider inefficiently tended. Clerks of courses take note.

But whatever takes place before the public pales into insignificance beside what happens behind the scenes. There is a massive wastage rate among the thoroughbred population from birth to the racecourse and for those horses who make it as far as a training yard the further weeding-out process, particularly early in the season as the intensity of exercise steps up, is implacable, as any regular of a morning on Newmarket Heath will testify.

It was confirmed by work overseen by Kristien Verheyen at the Animal Health Trust. A two-year study of horses in 13 Flat-race yards showed that nearly 80 per cent of fractures occur in training, and a stable of 100 horses-plus can expect one a month, although the fatality rate, 7.4 per cent, is the same at home and on the track.

The AHT project involved nearly 1,200 horses and, staggeringly, information from more than 300,000 training-days. One of the features of all the studies was the help given by those in racing; one questionnaire produced a 96 per cent response rate.

Tendon injuries, according to Dr Roger Smith's team at the Royal Veterinary College, are an occupational hazard for jumpers, likely to occur in nearly half of cases, but controlled stressing of tendons in the immature athlete can help prevent future problems. Similar evidence, contrary to received wisdom, concerning bone and muscle was presented at last year's conference and led directly to this season's initiative of the introduction of mile-and-a-half bumpers for three-and-four-year olds.