Continued . . .
Since this Memorial’s inception in 2005 the level of on-track fatalities hasn’t seemed to vary much, if at all.
If anything, stewards’ reports often omit training fatalities at the track. And some tracks don’t report fatalities at all or they report them inconsistently or they shield them from the public (e.g., France); tracks that dare to be transparent take the heat for appearing to have more injuries and deaths than other (less-transparent) tracks.
Statistics are only as accurate and complete as the available sources. Therefore, this or any other site and all sites combined only scratch the surface of the true death toll.
If every track consistently and accurately published all of its fatalities, the numbers might shock us. And we’d see that each track gets its turn in the spotlight for a mysterious flurry of incidents that defies explanation or remedy; then suddenly that track or a trainer becomes a scapegoat for the ills of the entire horseracing industry.
All tracks experience fatalities, reported or not, because all racehorses are vulnerable, engaged in the same work with the same risk of injury and death. This inherent risk cannot be avoided.
No one has the full picture. Nor can we pretend at scientific data. We simply remember some of the horses for their valiant effort and ultimate sacrifice within the extreme “sport of kings.”
~The Editor
.
