Three separate Oklahoma County District Court judges made rulings that affirmed the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission’s (OHRC) right to place 171 Quarter Horses on the stewards’ list over “welfare” concerns, materially denying the three affected trainers’ requests for temporary restraining orders.
The OHRC announced April 22 that the board of stewards had issued an Emergency Protective Order affecting 62 horses trained by Jed Vane, 52 trained by Josue Jacob Garcia, and 57 trained by Leonardo Alcala. According to the OHRC, several of the horses on the list showed an “abnormal and materially elevated pattern of severe post-race distress…including repeated incidents in which horses were unable to safely leave the track under their own power and required transport from the racing surface.”
At the time of the order, Equibase statistics showed that Alcala and Garcia were leading the Remington Park Quarter Horse racing trainers’ standings with 25 and 20 wins, respectively; Vane was ranked fifth with 12 wins.
In the Alcala and Garcia matters, Judges Don Andrews and Amy Palumbo issued orders modifying the OHRC’s Emergency Protective Order. They allowed trainers to enter their horses, but made clear that no horse would be allowed to start until the OHRC veterinarians and board of stewards were satisfied that permitting the horse to run would not endanger equine welfare or compromise the integrity of racing.
In the Vane case, to which owner Matt Dunn is also a party, Judge Jeff Virgin overturned an initial temporary restraining order, and those horses remain subject to the OHRC’s review process.
All three trainers entered horses to run at Remington Park over the weekend, but all horses were ultimately listed as stewards’ scratches.
District Judge Andrews wrote in his decision in the Alcala lawsuit that the OHRC rules “expressly recognize threats to horse welfare and racing integrity arising from harmful substances or practices, including substances detrimental to horse health and welfare for which no recognized analytical method has yet been developed.”
The process for removing the 171 horses from the stewards’ list requires a separate application for each horse, full disclosure of relevant records, independent veterinary review, any necessary diagnostic testing, required sampling, and an observed work with post-work veterinary assessment.
For any horse that was previously documented as having suffered the type of severe post-race distress described in the Emergency Protective Order, including any horse that was vanned from the track because it could not safely leave under its own power, there will be additional requirements for removal from the stewards’ list.
“No horse is returned to eligibility based on assurances alone,” the OHRC wrote in a statement. “OHRC will continue to evaluate each horse individually and will permit no horse to compete unless and until the Commission is satisfied, in writing, that the horse may safely and humanely race.”
“The protection of the horse comes first,” added Amanda English, Interim Executive Director of the OHRC. “When the facts show a serious threat to equine welfare, the Commission will act. No horse will race until the safety review is complete and the horse is cleared through our process.”
This story was originally published by the Paulick Report, and has been reprinted here with permission.
