Thistledown Furor Raises Compliance Questions with Key HISA Track Safety Requirement

[Wandering Eyes]

Thistledown Racino's firing this week of track superintendent Sean Wright followed reports of alleged safety issues with the track's one-mile dirt surface that led to lost days of training and racing. There have also been multiple racing and training equine fatalities since the meet began Apr. 21.

The ongoing autopsy on these events has raised compliance question marks (both at Thistledown and nationally) over a key component of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) racetrack safety program.

Under this program, tracks are required when operating a meet to submit a set of measurements daily made at all quarter-mile markers at distances of five feet and 15 feet from the inside rail. This includes moisture content and, for dirt and synthetic tracks specifically, cushion depth.

Officials say these timely measurements are necessary to help identify on a day-to-day basis any potential equine safety concerns with the track surface.

“If we see any problems at a track—catastrophic injuries, problems with soreness on the horses—we should be able to provide to the regulatory vets and HISA real-time data either to identify problems with the tracks or rule out any issues with the tracks,” said Mick Peterson, director of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory (RSTL) in Kentucky, to which these measurements are to be submitted.

According to HISA, there have been windows since Apr. 21 when Thistledown failed to file these daily reports.

While this track surface data was being collected, it was “not consistently manually uploaded to the system,” wrote HISA's senior communications manager Mackenzie Kirker-Head, in an email answer to a series of questions. She declined, however, to provide specific dates as to when the measurements weren't submitted daily.

“Thistledown did go back and upload the collected track surface data to the system after we reached out to them concerning the matter,” Kirker-Head added.

“To the extent that you want information on specific days missed, once the data is rectified, we no longer track information on which days were missed,” wrote Kirker-Head.

When asked Friday about this recording lapse, Wright—who had been in the track superintendent's position for about four months before his firing—said that for the first few weeks of the meet, he was unable to submit these records as he was without a computer, though he was recording the measurements in a notebook.

When Wright got a computer, he then uploaded the measurements as required, he said.

“I even had to go back and catch a lot of things up because it took a while from the time I got here working on the track to the time I actually got a computer. There was a gap in time there, and I had to go back and catch it up,” said Wright, adding that he wouldn't submit track moisture data on days of heavy rainfall, as it wasn't necessary.

Earlier in the week, Wright told TDN that a period of heavy rainfall in the spring—during which time the surface appeared safer, he said—was followed by much drier conditions this summer. This is when Wright's maintenance crew repeatedly failed to follow his orders on adding enough additional water to the track, he said.

“I don't mean to throw my guys under the bus, but a spade's a spade here,” Wright said, who told the TDN he has text messages which proves the alleged insubordination.

Reached Friday, Wright reiterated that he believes he did everything he could to safely maintain the track's surface conditions, and that he had consistently submitted to HISA a separate set of track maintenance data.

“I'm not going to defend myself any more because I did my job and I did my job well,” he said. “Because of this, I won't have a job like this any more—there's no way I'm going to be a track superintendent again. There's no way they're going to touch me with a 10-foot pole.

“Find somebody who cares for a racetrack more than I do,” Wright added. “I've spent 45 years in this business. My family's been in this business 100 years. I've spent blood, sweat and tears on these racehorses, and you've all done a hatchet job on me.”

National Reporting Standards

Racetracks are required to submit these daily surface condition measurements (during a race-meet) as part of HISA's accreditation program.

“Reporting compliance is one of many factors that are considered when evaluating racetrack accreditation, and we take compliance with those reporting requirements very seriously,” wrote Kirker-Head.

It appears, however, that Thistledown hasn't been the only track failing to submit these daily reports since HISA went into effect.

Kaleb Dempsey, RSTL laboratory manager, told TDN last November that these requirements were not being uniformly met across all U.S. racetracks.

“We have a high number of tracks that are finally starting to provide their daily measurements thorough the maintenance quality system. That's a good thing—it's how we really pull this data together,” said Dempsey last November, about the connection between surface conditions and equine injury. “But the hardest step is to actually get people to take the daily measurements so we can have those links.”

When asked if all tracks currently operating a meet are now in compliance with the daily surface report mandate, Kirker-Head wrote that they're in “substantial compliance” with this requirement.

“If a track misses a day or two, we address it with them. HISA keeps the details of those reports between us and the track,” Kirker-Head wrote.

According to Peterson, while some tracks—particularly the larger facilities—are in strict compliance with this requirement, others (especially the smaller, more cash-strapped tracks) are still found wanting.

“What I would like to see is us having this information so we can avert problems, and that really takes having this data put in every day,” said Peterson. “We're not there yet, and I would like to get there.”

When asked if some tracks miss than a day or two's worth of data, Peterson said that “some of them are perfect. I can't emphasize that enough.”

However, “some of the smaller tracks just struggle to keep up,” he added, declining to give specific timeframes.

The question, therefore, is this: how best to bring all facilities up to speed?

In light of recent events, Thistledown has reportedly ordered a device called an Integrated Racetrack Surface Tester, to help streamline the data recording requirements.

“This machine will be able to take the required track surface data measurements, which are uploaded via GPS directly to the Maintenance Quality System, streamlining and automating the collection of track surface measurements for track superintendents,” wrote Kirker-Head.

Peterson also raised another endemic issue plaguing the sport—of the loss of institutional knowledge as an ageing workforce exits the sport, leaving behind a vacuum of experience and expertise.

“What I would really like to see is the industry continue to support those tracks, and part of this gets back to the struggle with these workforce issues,” he said. “This is as true of some of the vet issues as it is the track issues.”

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