Jockey Club safety committee releases guidance on bisphosphonates

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 and the hiring of equine medical directors in all racing jurisdictions.

The recommendations, which were approved by The Jockey Club’s Thoroughbred Safety Committee at a meeting on March 19, The Jockey Club said, fall in line with calls by other organizations over the past two weeks to adopt policies and protocols that would address breakdowns at racetracks. The racing industry as a whole has been prodded into the review by an outcry over a recent spate of deaths at Santa Anita Park in Southern California.

The Thoroughbred Safety Committee annually releases its recommendations at The Jockey Club’s Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing, held in August, but in a signal that underscores the urgency of the concerns weighing on the industry, the committee instead released the recommendations earlier than usual.

The recommendation on bisphosphonates dovetails with an announcement earlier this week that North America’s three largest auction companies will put in place programs later this year allowing buyers to order post-sale tests to detect the drugs. Under the programs, if a horse tests positive for bisphosphonates, buyers will be able to return the horse to the consignor. (Regulatory officials say that current tests can detect the drugs up to 100 days after administration.)

The safety committee recommendations calls for “avoidance of bisphosphonates use in a manner inconsistent with indications of use on the label and, further, discontinuance of bisphosphonates use in any horses in training regardless of age.”

Bisphosphonates are a class of drugs developed to treat osteoporosis in humans that have also been approved by the FDA for use in horses 4 years old or older to treat navicular disease, a malady affecting inflammation of a bone in the hoof. The FDA has said that use in younger horses has not been studied, but that off-label use in young horses could “affect bone growth.”

Reports of bisphosphonate use over the past five years in horse racing has centered primarily on the breeding and sales communities. Those reports have said that the drugs have been administered to young horses in order to build up bone strength prior to auction sales. Regulatory officials have said that there is no clear consensus on how widespread use of the drugs has been.

On Tuesday, a consortium of racing organizations in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic said that they supported a ban on all off-label use of bisphosphonates and would push for rules codifying that prohibition at a meeting of racing commissioners in early April.

The safety committee also said that it would recommend that all racing jurisdictions hire an equine medical director, which are typically positions at racing commissions that oversee all aspects of medication use and veterinary protocols at racetracks and training centers. Racing commissions in California, New York, Kentucky, and Maryland employ equine medical directors, and some other racing commissions have shifted responsibilities common to the position to the chief state veterinarian.

In addition, the safety committee called for all racetracks and racing jurisdictions to record and share additional data about injuries, including post-race and out-of-competition test results, veterinary records of horses, pertinent details arising from necropsy results of fatally injured horses, and track maintenance practices. The recommendation would enhance the Equine Injury Database, an effort started in 2009 to record data about racehorse injuries in order to identify factors that may put horses at risk of an injury.

The safety committee also called on the industry to develop “crisis best practices” to aid in the response to situations such as the outcry accompanying the deaths at Santa Anita this winter.