Page 22 - December 2007 The Game
P. 22

22 The Game, December 2007 HBPA Ontario Update Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper HBPA Administrative Offices: 135 Queen’s Plate Drive, Suite 370, Toronto, Ontario M9W 6V1
Phone: 416-747-5252
A Conversation with the HBPA of Ontario President Sue Leslie
Q - You have a new Board of Directors for this year. What new incentives have been implemented this year?
I hear of concerns
I make sure that
the information gets passed on to Irwin.
Why?
I believe you may even see
different statistics for the spring versus the fall. Which may or may not have to do with track surface or horses coming off lay-offs or vice versa. Or maybe our injuries peak in the middle of summer when we are at the peak of racing.
A - First thing we have done
is implemented the HBPA bullets which are distributed by email and on the backstretch about things that are happening. Instead of waiting for the end of the month we get the information out just when it happens.
Do we think
the Polytrack has solved the soundness issues of horses? No. We don’t think it has lived up to the hype that came with it.
I’m hoping that Equine Guelph and the University of Guelph, who are doing studies on this as we speak, are going to have some answers for us. However there are no short term answers.
When will we have something in terms of analysis that we could give people?
It has been very helpful with our communications.
We were extremely disap- pointed over the fall and the spring and
Its probably going to be next summer.
We’ve had regular liaison meet-
ings with Woodbine Entertainment to discuss horseman’s issues. They are done either on a monthly or a bimonth- ly basis. They are very constructive and lead to joint decisions which result in an increase in the quality of racing.
we feel somewhat better about it now but it is still a work in progress and more work needs to be done.
We’ve also asked vets off of
the grounds to supply us with any information they can give us. Vets that do surgery, and MRIs. What has been their experience with Polytrack versus the year before.
We have implemented the medical card and now have increased cover- age on some of the medical programs. With the new card we no longer have to go through the nuisances and the complaints of the medical forms being  lled out because the card.
Q - Is Woodbine Race Track
on board with this in terms of the company doing everything it can with the Polytrack?
We are going to accumulate all the information but that won’t be come until the end of next year.
This Board has assisted in re-invigorating OHRIA, the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association. We are now back up and running with OHRIA and dealing with the government on the big issues within the industry.
Ongoing consultation between the horsemen and Woodbine resulted in Woodbine adding material to the track, the jelly cable, a different type of wax, and a different type of sand in the early summer. Since then the performance of the racetrack has improved and we believe the rate of injuries have gone down.
They could have put another
dirt track in for considerably less money however they chose to invest signi cantly more money into Poly- track because everyone thought it was going to be a kinder, safer track which would keep horses sounder.
The purpose of that is as the weather and temperature changes the track appears to tighten up. The decision of when to power harrow and when not to has to be made on a daily basis.
We’ve instituted a
system with the on-track veterinarians that when-ever a horse receives an injury which requires 30 days or more of rest, they  ll out a form which tells us what track it happened on and was the horse galloping or breezing etc. Its a fairly detailed form which we are hoping that over the next year or two we can start to determine if there are any patterns.
With the Polytrack, we were exhilarated at  rst.
This Board has cut budgets and we are a leaner HBPA by far,  nancially, which I think is a credit to the Board.
I’m sure that the racetrack of cials want the track to be at the highest safety level, the same as the horsemen do. That’s why they made the change to Polytrack in the  rst place.
Another thing that has been implemented by WEG and the HBPA is that the track conditions and harrowing schedule are now on-line.
Do we think the Polytrack has solved the soundeness issues of horses?
No.
A - I think that trying to lay blame for where we are at is not helpful at this point. We have to  nd solutions. I believe that both the horsemen and the race track want to  nd solutions.
We will try to sort out the information and capture anything that we feel we can derive from it and pass it on to our membership to try to help them in the decisions they are making.
We are very happy with the market- ing efforts that have been performed by the Board, especially in Fort Erie. We have had a high success rate with the Economic Development Tourist Corporation and had a wonderful year by having huge crowds in Fort Erie and bringing a lot of people to the facility. We consider our marketing efforts to be very well done.
I can’t speak for them but my view is that they are disappointed as we are however it is a work in progress in a dif cult climate and I believe they are committed to getting it right.
The worse thing for horses is to have them train on a hard track for three days and then put them on a deep track then next morning.
The health and safety educational seminars that the HBPA has hosted, we see them as a major accomplishment in educating the backstretch in the requirements for health and safety.
very best he can to maintain the track on behalf of the horsemen. There is no attitude on his part on giving up
or ‘like it or lump it’. He’s educating himself, he’s been to other Polytracks, he’s shown us samples of it. I’ve ridden around in the gallop master with him to see how they do it. It is a work in progress and I believe that eventu- ally we will get the track tweaked.
Q - With the implementation of the injury reporting by the veterinarians. Are they responding and when will the results of the analysis be known?
Q - Fort Erie Race Dates for next year?
Q - What has the HBPA been doing regarding the Horseman’s concerns with the Polytrack?
A - I personally speak with Woodbine a minimum of three times a week about the Polytrack. It is a very big concern with our board and we’ve had numerous spur of the moment meetings with the track manager, Irwin Dreidger, so that he understands the concerns of the horseman. I am on
the backstretch every day so whenever
From the feedback that we have received from the horsemen and the veterinarians is that the nature of our injuries have changed. Historically we had lower limb injuries. The feedback we’re getting now is that we’re getting tibias, hips, shoulders, very sore glute muscles, very sore back muscles.
I can’t tell you that it was 100% cooperation initially with the vets but I am con dent that it will be by the end of the day.
At this time, based on the current circumstances and conditions, the HBPA has negotiated an 80 day live race meet and will support Nordic Gaming’s application to the ORC
But is it where we need to be? No, not yet.
I believe that Irwin is doing the
So hopefully with the track condition information now being available to trainers, they can look the night before and use the information as a training tool to anticipate the track conditions.
A - We started the veterinarian reporting system approximately a month ago. We had meetings and spent time designing the forms and coming up with the criteria.
A - The HBPA is involved on a daily basis regarding Fort Erie.
So what we need to  gure out now is what needs to be done. Obviously the impact now is going from lower limbs to upper limbs.
The initial response was ‘what is the point of doing this we have nothing to compare it to’. And my response was ‘if we don’t start it now we will never have anything to compare it to’.
The HBPA and the vets are learning what the signi cance of the forms are going to mean.
The HBPA is involved
on a daily basis regarding Fort Erie
The Game December 2007.indd 22
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