The Department of Homeland Security has authorized the issuance of 30,000 additional H-2B visas, a source of labor for many trainers on U.S. backstretches, the department announced on Friday.
On Thursday, the California Horse Racing Board voted to suspend the authorized thresholds for 11 medications, a variety of painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs that are commonly administered to horses. So what exactly does that mean for trainers, veterinarians, and horses?
The Jockey Club has released a report outlining its support for changes in racing regulations and medication practices, saying that the changes will help the industry avoid spates of deaths like those at Santa Anita this year that have drawn widespread negative attention to the sport.
A committee of The Jockey Club has released a list of four recommendations for the racing industry to adopt in order to address mounting concerns over racetrack injuries that includes the “avoidance” of the use of bisphosphonates.
A comprehensive collection of Thoroughbred racing organizations in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic has endorsed a plan to put in place best practices at racetracks and better monitor racehorse injuries as part of an effort to reduce breakdowns.
Horses based in the United States that shipped over to Dubai for Saturday's World Cup and the event's undercard races will receive no special treatments – no new-age therapies, no special feed, no anything – to compensate for the inability to administer the horses a raceday injection of Lasix, according to trainers and veterinarians.
Horses were allowed to resume entering and leaving the Golden Gate Fields backstretch on Tuesday evening after a short lockdown due to the death of a horse over the weekend that tested positive for the highly contagious equine herpesvirus.
Thoroughbred constituencies and racing regulators in the mid-Atlantic region are united behind an effort to ban the use of bisphosphonates in horses younger than 4 years old and will push national organizations to adopt rules prohibiting off-label use of the drugs over the next few months, the groups said.
Calling it “a dream job,” David O’Rourke said he’s excited to tackle the challenges that lay ahead as the new president and CEO of the New York Racing Association.
Lexie Lou, the 2014 Canadian Horse of the Year, is among the 30 horses and people that have been selected to appear on the voting ballot for induction into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame this year.
