Page 20 - Canada Spring 2022

NEWS BRIEFS
2020 Ajax Downs
Quarter Horse of the Year Fiesty Icon Fiesty Icon (Sugarman Perry-Fiesty Spirit, Special Effort) was named the 2020 Ajax Downs Quarter Horse of the Year by the Quarter Racing Owners of Ontario. The 2012 sorrel gelding was bred by Picov Cattle Co. and is owned and trained by Richard W. Kennedy. Fiesty Icon, who was also named Quarter Racing Owners of Ontario 2020 High Point Aged Horse and 2020 High Point Aged Gelding/Stal- lion, won three races in 2020 including the Alex Picov Memorial Championship. In all, the multiple stakes winning gelding has won 20 of 50 starts with $280,034 in earnings.
Washington Bill Could Provide
Funds To State Tracks
House Bill 1928, which is going through the Committee on Appropriations in the Washington State House of Representatives, could provide funds to revive horse racing to smaller tracks in the state, including Sun Downs, Dayton, Waitsburg and Walla Walla. The bill would allocate $6 million in sales tax on equine related products and on other taxable sales directly related to equine ownership, riding or boarding to the Washington State Horse Racing Commission (WSHRC). The bill does not add a new tax, but rather allocates sales tax already collected. WSHRC executive director Doug Moore estimates $600,000 could be set aside for non-profit tracks and $55,000 per day could be available to
the state’s Class C tracks, funding such expenses as insurance, purses and other costs.
Industry Leaders
Support Barrel Racing
The American Quarter Horse Association in conjunction with a group of influencers within the Barrel Racing industry, which has seen significant growth in the last 10 years, formed the Barrel Rac- ing Industry Alliance (BRIA). Its mission is to form a unified presence for the sport at a national level, along with creating a series of initiatives to bet-
ter serve the industry. The BRIA Charter Members include Barrel Futurities of America, Better Barrel Races, Breeder’s Challenge, Future Fortunes, Na- tional Barrel Horse Association, West Coast Barrel Racing Association, Old Fort Days, Pink Buckle/ Ruby Buckle, and Women’s Pro Rodeo Association. The BRIA includes industry leaders with years of experience looking forward to helping barrel
racing grow.
AAEP Publishes Equine
Piroplasmosis Guidelines
The American Association of Equine
Practitioners (AAEP) has published comprehensive guidelines to help veterinarians identify, control, and prevent Equine Piroplasmosis (RP), a blood- borne infection with a mortality rate of up to
50% in equines, on their website at aaep.org.
EP is considered a foreign animal disease in the U.S. and any detection must be reported to the state veterinarian and/or to USDA APHIS Vet- erinary Services. It is recommended that current Quarter Horse racehorses be routinely tested for EP and EIA during their racing career. Although natural tick-borne transmission of EP is rare, “Re-use of needles, syringes, and IV sets, blood- contamination of multi-dose drug vials, use of illegal blood products from other countries, and direct blood doping between horses have been identified as common methods of blood-borne disease transmission in this population,” said Dr. Pelzel-McCluskey, national epidemiologist
for equine diseases at USDA APHIS
Veterinary Services.
18 SPEEDHORSE CANADA Spring 2022
©Clive Cohen