Message from National HBPA President Doug Daniels DVM to the Membership

From Doug Daniels, DVM, and President of the National HBPA:

In the wake of the tragedies at Churchill Downs, along with the drastic move to relocate an active race meet, I feel compelled to make a statement that clarifies and reiterates the position of the National HBPA.

HBPA affiliates and our horsemen are advocates for positive change. We vigorously support and promote the highest standards in horsemanship, safety and uniformity. We believe the multitude of factors involved with the occurrences at Churchill must be investigated, yet still understand at some point there may not be any definable evidence linking the tragedies. We do know all horses at Churchill Downs, including the fatalities, received the same veterinary scrutiny and all were in accordance with current HISA and KHRC regulatory inspections.

However, until the decision to relocate the remaining meet to Ellis Park, the previously announced measures were not relevant to the vast majority of the incidences involved and penalized horsemen without cause. In fact, once the announced initiatives were dissected, only one of the 12 fatalities could be linked to those new policies set forth by Churchill Downs.

To be clear, we stand in support of appropriate veterinary care and medication regulations that provide the optimal safety environment for our athletes. There are no magic wands to fix failing regulations. Regulations that lack scientific basis and are only intended for optics/public perception are doomed to fail. We stand ready to collaborate with all sincere parties in creating a safer and healthier racing environment and believe every regulation must be scrutinized while allowing everyone involved to be in the discussion that provides solutions.