When Boss Life was severely injured during a race at Pimlico in April he was taken back to the barn for evaluation and sent to New Bolton Center for surgery to repair a fractured right leg.
Had he suffered this kind of serious injury 18 months ago the five-year-old thoroughbred likely would have been euthanized.
But now his owners had a choice. When they decided they didn’t want to cover the cost of the stallion’s surgery, The Stronach Group, which owns Pimlico, stepped in.
The new injury assessment program – the first of its kind in North America and first reported by The Paulick Report - is designed to give horses who suffer racing or race training injuries the opportunity to get the treatment they need and find new homes.
Under the program, Stronach assumes ownership of the horse, covers the cost of diagnostics, surgery and rehabilitation and places the horse with its designated aftercare facility.
The goal isn’t specifically to save more injured horses, it’s to prevent injuries that lead to permanent disability or death, said Dr. Dionne Benson, chief veterinary officer for 1/ST Racing, The Stronach Group's racing brand.
To that end, Stronach placed veterinarians at all of its tracks to observe not only horses during races but daily training gallops as well.
“The biggest myth in racing is that the horse took a ‘bad step,’” said Benson, explaining it’s the repetitive injuries that lead to catastrophic breakdown. “In cases where horses are flagged and sent for a bone scan, we find he had a stress fracture and would have fractured and died. Having vets out there makes the difference for horses.”
“We want them to have a 50 percent or better chance at being pasture sound,” Benson said.
But too often Benson and others say, horses who could not only survive, but go on to other careers, were being euthanized without even diagnostics, because of the high cost of orthopedic surgery and the likelihood that the horse would not return to racing.
Certainly, there are times when a horse suffers multiple fractures or has an open fracture, where there may be no choice but to euthanize the horse, Benson said. “But we want those to be strictly medical decisions,” she said.
The Canadian-based company is the largest private racetrack operator in North America with five tracks, including Maryland’s other thoroughbred track, Laurel Park, and two training facilities in the U.S.
Among the Stronach properties is the trouble-plagued Santa Anita Park, where a stunning 37 horses were euthanized during the 2018-19 racing season because of injuries, threatening the future not only of racing at California’s most storied track, but the horse racing industry nationwide.
Since then, 17 horses at Santa Anita and three at Pimlico received surgeries funded by Stronach for various orthopedic and trauma injuries. Of those, 13 at Santa Anita and two at Pimlico survived.
Benson said given the upheaval in racing schedules because of the pandemic, it was too early to assess the program’s impact on preventing life-threatening injuries. But, she said: “We’ve seen a marked reduction in fatalities.”
Dr. Kathryn Papp, who treats horses at Parx and Penn National Racetrack and runs a thoroughbred rescue, said no similar program exists in Pennsylvania and she has heard no one in the racing community yet voice support for such a program.
Papp’s rescue group, PA Racehorse Rehoming, often picks up the bill for common track injuries that she knows have a high rate of success with treatment. She agrees with Benson that too often horses are euthanized with repairable injuries, like condylar fractures, that need relatively affordable surgeries in the $1,500 to $2,000 range.
“A lot of people are running $4,000 horses - junior claimers – who are injured and the surgery is cheap and very effective, yet they still choose to euthanize a horse,” said Papp. “That’s where I feel this program is warranted. I’ve seen too many put down or given to us. It’s a complete lack of horsemanship and the horse is not first priority. Yet those are the horses the rehabs want. They have zero limits.”
Some horsemen told The Paulick Report they were concerned that a program like Stronach’s would pressure them into giving up their horses or that they might face retribution if they declined to participate.
Benson acknowledged there was pushback at first. “But once you show them the life a horse could have, it changed their perspective,” she said.
In the end the decision to euthanize remains with the owner, she said. But, Benson added, too many owners and veterinarians had been making decisions without all the information. “It’s smarter to make it slower,” she said.
Benson said it was easy to make changes at Santa Anita because people saw it helped. “We want to use that experience to encourage other jurisdictions to do the same.”
In August 2020, The Stronach Group signed an agreement with the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association that provides a total of $1 million for the Beyond the Wire program through 2023 and thereafter will match the $11-per-start owner contribution for the aftercare group. Beyond the Wire is an industry-wide initiative between the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, the Maryland Jockey Club, the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and Maryland jockeys to facilitate safe and enriching placements for retired Maryland based racehorses.
The funding will provide program continuity and allow Beyond the Wire to assist its accredited partner farms with infrastructure improvements as needed, the group said in a press release.
“This will give Maryland thoroughbreds even more security in regard to a safe and enriching retirement from racing,” said Jessica Hammond who administers the program.
As far as Boss Life’s future is concerned, in September he was scheduled for castration and awaiting clearance to go to aftercare. Benson said after that, he will be ready to make someone a wonderful pasture pet or companion horse.