JC / Railbird

Safety Summit

“A Fairly Simple Thing”

Reports DRF:

Another recommendation arising from the summit’s committees included the modification of the Jockey Club’s existing InCompass racing-office software to automatically identify horses who have been placed on vet’s lists or starter’s lists in other states. According to Peterson, some trainers ship horses out of the state in order to avoid complying with the conditions that are required to remove the horses from the lists, in the hopes that the state is not aware that the horse has been temporarily barred from racing.

“We frequently see horsemen who shop their horses around to other states,” Peterson said. “It’s a fairly simple thing to address.”

Wonderful. And why not take the change a step further? Make the resulting “Disabled List” accessible through the Equibase site so that those interested — fans curious about why a horse hasn’t started in a while, for instance — can more easily get basic information about a horse’s status.