Parx suspends turf racing indefinitely

Parx Racing, a racetrack outside of Philadelphia, has suspended turf racing indefinitely until the course can be inspected and evaluated for suitability for racing, according to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.

In a statement issued in response to a request for comment, HISA said that Parx management told HISA officials that they had arranged for the Racing Services Testing Laboratory to “test and evaluate” the surface. In addition, members of HISA’s Track Surface Advisory Group are en route to conduct additional inspections, HISA said.

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The Racing Services Testing Laboratory is a non-profit company based in Lexington that conducts racing-surface measurements.

Parx initially suspended turf racing on Monday after local horsemen protested that the course contained holes and was in generally poor condition. During racing on Saturday, a horse suffered a fatal injury while racing on the turf course, and a Parx trainer afterward posted a video on social media showing apparent holes in the course.

Parx races on Saturdays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.

Joe Wilson, the chief operating officer of Parx, did not immediately respond to an email message.

However, the track issued a statement on Thursday afternoon saying that it was cooperating with the HISA evaluation and noting that the track's courses had been inspected and approved by the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory in June. The statement also said that the turf course had not been used since July 10 prior to the Aug. 24 card in which the fatal injury happened and that the course was deemed “well-suited for racing” that morning.

“We at Parx will not hesitate to cancel racing if we feel that conditions for racing are unsafe, and we can categorically say that we would not have run races on the turf course on August 24 if we felt that it was not ready for racing,” the statement said.

Bob Hutt, the president of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, said on Thursday that he welcomed the involvement of HISA. Hutt reached out to HISA’s chief executive officer, Lisa Lazarus, on Sunday afternoon after he failed to receive any responses from Wilson earlier in the day about horsemen’s unwillingness to race on the turf until the problems were fixed.

“There’s no quick fix,” said Hutt, who runs a Pennsylvania-based racing partnership and is a breeder in the state. “But it should not be used until HISA can fully examine it, determine what needs to be done, and can re-certify it as safe.”

Hutt said that the turf course at Parx has been a “problem” for ten years, and he was highly critical of Parx’s management and owners for failing to invest in new maintenance equipment or adopt procedures and protocols that would prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

The Parx statement disputed that the turf course had been problematic in recent years, and it said that prior to the Aug. 24 fatality, there had been only one fatality on the turf course in the previous five years. The fatality number could not be immediately verified. Though Parx provides fatality numbers to the Equine Injury Database, an industry project, it has elected not to make its individual figures public.

Asked if all horsemen were on board with a decision to suspend turf racing until the course can be restored – which could take months – Hutt said that support on the backstretch seems to be unwavering.

“I am not an expert, and I can’t speak for every single one of my members,” Hutt said. “But let’s put it this way: of the hundreds and hundreds of emails and texts and phone calls I have received since we first spoke out on this, the next one I get that is not in full support will be the first.”

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