The Jockey Club Welfare and Safety Summit

June was the warmest month on record-the twelfth consecutive month of record global temperatures. Climate change is hitting all walks of life. Horse racing, too. Last year, unusually hot temperatures coupled with unusually little rain fueled huge wildfires in Canada, impacting air quality and causing the cancellation of racing and training in both Canada and New York. Just last month, New Mexico's Ruidoso Downs narrowly avoided a wildfire that tore through the area. The track hasn't been so lucky in the aftermath, thanks to frequent flash flooding leading to the...

Tim Grande, the California Horse Racing Board's (CHRB) chief official veterinarian, remembers sitting among the first panel of experts charged with screening horses for elevated risk of injury even before they could be entered to race. "If an entry came across the racing office's desk, we had to give it approval before it could be accepted," said Grande, of the then new addition to the regulatory furniture mandated by the California Governor's office in the wake of the 2019 Santa Anita welfare crisis. "It wasn't particularly practical with just the...