Continuing equine safety initiative, Churchill Downs Inc. announces plans for medical center on track grounds

Churchill Downs Inc. said Thursday it will build an equine medical center on the backstretch of its flagship track in Louisville and hire an equine medical director to oversee all of its live-racing properties as part of a handful of measures that the company said would “improve safety protocols and procedures” at its tracks.

The announcement came the same day that Churchill Downs Inc. said that it had signed on to a multi-track effort to push for a partial ban on the raceday administration of furosemide at its tracks beginning in 2020. Taken together, the two announcements underline the dire circumstances facing the racing industry as its most prominent race, Churchill’s Kentucky Derby, approaches.

“All of us in the industry care deeply about the safety and well-being of race horses, and we know how much they mean to the people who love and care for them,” said Bill Carstanjen, the chief executive of CDI, in the announcement. “As the host of the Kentucky Derby and a key leader in the racing industry, Churchill Downs has a heightened responsibility to implement the world’s best practices for caring for racehorses at our facilities.”

The measures were announced in the wake of intense scrutiny and criticism of the racing industry due to a recent spate of fatalities at Santa Anita Park in Southern California. The plan announced earlier Thursday by a coalition of tracks and other racing organizations to push for limited raceday furosemide bans was initiated by Churchill, according to officials involved in the negotiations, due to its desire to have concrete initiatives to announce when the national media descends on the track in the next two weeks.

In addition to the backstretch equine medical center, Churchill also said that it would install 24-hour security cameras over the next three years in “every barn, stall, and common area to better ensure the physical safety and security of horses, personnel and visitors” to the track’s backstretch. For the Derby, the track already employs round-the-clock security and surveillance of horses entered in the race.

The equine medical center will be completed in 2020, Churchill said, and will be used for “every-day equine therapeutic purposes as well as immediate and advanced onsite care in the event of injury.” The track will provide a temporary facility for use at this year’s Derby, the track said.

In addition to those plans, Churchill said that it would work with other racing constituents to form an “Office of Racing Integrity” that would develop and share best practices in racing, a concept that has been explored over the past several years by racing groups in the Mid-Atlantic. However, while the concept was still in its formative stages several months ago, Churchill said that it would announce an “executive leader” for the organization and members “in the coming weeks.”

Also, the track said that it would advocate for longer withdrawal times for anti-inflammatory medications such as corticosteroids and painkillers such as phenylbutazone. Those withdrawal times are currently developed by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, an industry group funded by representatives of a wide range of racing constituencies. Several weeks ago, the California Horse Racing Board adopted new regulations that had the effect of establishing longer withdrawal times for the classes of medications referenced by Churchill in its announcement.

In concluding its release, Churchill said that the measures announced on Thursday would “build upon Churchill Downs’ robust ‘Safety From Start to Finish’ program.” That program was launched the year after the filly Eight Belles broke both legs shortly after finishing second in the 2008 Derby.